Penn Engineering Events

CT3N Seminar: "Design of Targeted Antimicrobials" (Christopher A. Alabi)
2022-06-22 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Smilow 10th Floor, Room 146AB
This hybrid seminar is hosted by the Center for Targeted Therapeutics and Translational Nanomedicine (CT3N)

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https://pennmedicine.zoom.us/j/93635057985?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 936 3505 7985
Passcode: [REDACTED]

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PSOC@Penn Talk “Small fat droplets are sufficiently rigid to indent a nucleus, dilute the lamina, and cause rupture" (Irena Ivanoska)
2022-06-21 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Contact manu@seas.upenn.edu for the Zoom link.
Title: “Small fat droplets are sufficiently rigid to indent a nucleus, dilute the lamina, and cause rupture”

MEAM Seminar: "Mobile Wireless Infrastructure on Demand in Robot Teams"
2022-06-21 10:00 - 11:30 | Towne 313, 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The promise of multi-robot systems is that they can complete tasks quicker and more efficiently than a single robot. However, such performance gains are only realized if robots can communicate with each other and coordinate their actions. As on-board autonomy advances, robots are increasingly being deployed in environments without existing wireless infrastructure and must rely instead on peer-to-peer or ad-hoc networks in order to exchange information. In these scenarios, control actions taken to complete the task objective often move robots out of direct communication range of one another, introducing a tension between task fulfillment and communication network maintenance. In this seminar, I will present my work towards eliminating this tension and enabling multi-robot teams to operate in challenging environments by using robots as mobile wireless infrastructure.

Department of Bioengineering 2022 Juneteenth Address: "Perspectives on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Through a Rehabilitation, Medicine and Robotics Research Lens" (Dr. Michelle Johnson)
2022-06-17 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Join the Department of Bioengineering for a Juneteenth Address delivered by Dr. Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in Bioengineering and Director of the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab. The address will be followed by a Q&A. This hybrid event will be held live on campus and on Zoom and is open to the entire Penn Bioengineering community.
Room: Towne 337
For Zoom link & passcode, check email or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu.

CEMB Future Leaders: "Sensing the force from within: the nucleus as regulator of migration plasticity"
2022-06-15 11:00 - 12:00 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
Launched in May 2021, the Future Leaders in Mechanobiology is a monthly seminar series featuring up-and-coming leaders in mechanobiology–PhD students and postdocs from a wide range of fields, backgrounds, and institutions. By providing an international stage to share one’s work and opportunities to interact with researchers at all career stages, we aim to create an inclusive and valuable series for early-stage researchers and the mechanobiology community as a whole.
Register HERE for access to the Zoom link and visit the CEMB website for more information.

MSE Ph.D. Defense: "Understanding the Fracture Behavior of Polymer-infiltrated Nanoparticle Films" (Yiwei Qiang)
2022-06-14 15:00 - 17:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
Polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films (PINFs) are a new class of polymer nanocomposites that overcome many of the challenges in manufacturing highly loaded nanocomposite films (PNCFs). PINFs have a wide range of applications as functional coatings and membranes and have excellent mechanical properties, including high stiffness, hardness, scratch and wear resistance. Fracture toughness is another critical mechanical property that plays an important role in the durability and reliability of PINFs. Establishing a fundamental understanding of the fracture behavior of PINFs is crucial to the design of damage tolerant PINFs.
In this work, the effect of particle shape, confinement, and polymer-nanoparticle (NP) interactions on the fracture behavior of PINFs is investigated. The results show that well-aligned, high aspect ratio (AR) nanoplatelet films have significantly higher fracture toughness and larger enhancement in modulus, hardness and scratch resistance upon polymer infiltration than low AR NP films. Using a thin-film fracture testing method based on the double cantilever beam specimen, the role of confinement on fracture toughness is investigated by tuning the polymer molecular weight (MW) and NP size. The effect of polymer-NP interaction strength is also investigated by varying the type of polymer and changing the surface chemistry of NPs. The results show that the polymers can significantly toughen NP films through a confinement-induced molecular bridging mechanism when they are under extreme confinement and completely lose interchain entanglement. This mechanism is controlled by polymer MW, pore size and polymer-NP interaction strength and ultimately limited by the strength of polymer backbone. As the degree of confinement decreases, the bridging mechanism becomes less pronounced. In this case, entanglement-based mechanism becomes dominant and the fracture toughness of PINFs is dependent on the fracture properties of polymers. Finally, it is shown that the fracture toughness of PINFs can be further enhanced using mesoporous NPs due to the increase of polymer-NP interaction area and the interlocking between the polymer and NPs via mesopores. Thus, this work provides important guidelines for the design of mechanically robust PINFs as well as other highly loaded PNCFs.
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Daeyeon Lee (Co-advisor), Dr. Kevin T. Turner (Co-advisor), Dr. Karen I. Winey and Dr. Robert A. Riggleman
Location: Attendees are welcome in person in Towne 337 and via Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/99675230377.

CEMB Distinguished Lecture: Bioengineered Synthetic Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine
2022-06-14 15:00 - 16:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB) welcomes Dr. García for a Distinguished Lecture on June 14th at 3pm. A reception will follow the seminar in the Levine Lobby.

PSOC@Penn Talk (TBA)
2022-06-13 12:00 - 13:00 | PA
Contact manu@seas.upenn.edu for the Zoom link.

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Machine Learning and Quantitative Neuroimaging in Epilepsy and Low-field MRI" (T. Campbell Arnold)
2022-06-13 10:30 - 12:30 | Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology, 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The Department of Bioengineering and Dr. Brian Litt are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of T. Campbell Arnold.
Monday, June 13, 2022
10:30 AM
The public is welcome to attend.

Room: Glandt Forum, Singh Center
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91843511143?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 918 4351 1143
Passcode: [REDACTED]

CBE PhD Dissertation Defense | "The effects of platelet signaling inhibitors on clot development under flow"
2022-06-10 15:00 - 16:30 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
“Syk and Src family kinases (SFK) inhibitors interfere with signaling from GPVI, α2β1, αIIbβ3, and GPIb-IX-V to reduce thrombotic risk or induce bleeding episodes. Collagen-mediated clustering of platelet GPVI results in phosphorylation of SFKs such as Lyn and Fyn, and active Lyn is constitutively bound to GPVI to allow rapid signaling. During clotting under flow, the generation of fibrin can have diverse influences on platelet signaling by sequestering thrombin and potentially activating GPVI signaling within the clot interior. These inhibitors tackle the thrombus formation at earlier stages since the platelets reach the activation surface. Direct inhibition of GPVI was used to compare the difference between inhibition of subsequent pathways. Using microfluidics, the effects of these inhibitors can be explored under defined hemodynamic flows and procoagulant surface triggers. Additionally, the drug may be present in the blood at desired time of clotting by perfusion switching to drug-treated blood. This experimental design allows exploration of platelet response at different stages of clotting through the measurement of drug potency to modulate clotting on different procoagulant surface conditions.“

BE Doctoral Dissertation: "Characterizing medial temporal lobe neurodegeneration due to tau pathology in Alzheimer's Disease using postmortem imaging” (Sadhana Ravikumar)
2022-06-10 14:00 - 16:00 | BRB 0252
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Paul Yushkevich are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Sadhana Ravikumar.

Title: “Characterizing medial temporal lobe neurodegeneration due to tau pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease using postmortem imaging”

Date: Friday, June 10th, 2022
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Biomedical Research Building (BRB), Classroom 0252 and Zoom.

The public is invited to attend in-person or virtually at the link below:

Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95448705068?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 954 4870 5068
Passcode: [REDACTED]

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Machine learning as tool and theory for computational neuroscience" (Ari Benjamin)
2022-06-07 15:00 - 17:00 | Goddrd 101
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Konrad Kording are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Ari Benjamin.

Title “Machine learning as tool and theory for computational neuroscience”,
Date: Tuesday, June 7th
Time: 3:00pm
Location: Goddard 101 and in the Zoom room:
https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92613907755?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 926 1390 7755
Passcode: [REDACTED]

The public is welcome to attend.

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Experimental and computational analyses of locomotor rhythm generation and modulation in Caenorhabditis elegans" (Hongfei Ji)
2022-06-06 13:00 - 15:00 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Chris Fang-Yen are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Hongfei Ji.
Title: Experimental and computational analyses of locomotor rhythm generation and modulation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Date: June 6, 2022
Time: 1:00 pm
Zoom link

PSOC@Penn Talk: “Lectin-glycan affinity in nanobio theragnostics: The specific capture of pancreatic cancer exosomes and the targeted therapy of tumor cells” (Jonghoon Choi)
2022-06-06 12:00 - 13:00 | Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Application of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Examine the Neurophysiology of the Injured Adolescent Brain" (Divya Jain)
2022-06-01 15:30 - 17:30 | Room 1120B, Roberts Center for Pediatric Research, 2716 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, United States
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kristy Arbogast and Dr. Catherine McDonald are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Divya Jain

Title: Application of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Examine the Neurophysiology of the Injured Adolescent Brain
Date: Wednesday, June 1st, 2022
Time: 3:30 PM
Location: Roberts Center for Pediatric Research (2716 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19146), Room 1120B

The public is invited to attend in-person or virtually at the link below:
Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91632121762?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 916 3212 1762
Password: [REDACTED]

PSOC Seminar: “Developing integrated single-cell epigenome and transcriptome sequencing technologies to study early mammalian development" (Siddharth Dey)
2022-05-31 12:00 - 13:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
PSOC seminar (Hybrid) : 12.00-1.00pm (EST)
Send requests for the Zoom link to manu@seas.upenn.edu
Wu Chen Auditorium

MEAM Seminar: "Aluminum Scandium Nitride Films for Microelectromechanical Systems Resonator’s Next-Generation Cellular Technology"
2022-05-24 10:00 - 11:30 | Towne 313, 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Advancements in wireless and sensor technology have resulted in increasing demand for piezoelectric MEMS devices in wireless handsets and base stations, automobile technology, health monitoring sensors, and environmental sensors. Due to its high-quality factor (Q), Young’s modulus, sound velocity, and low mechanical and dielectric losses, AlN is an advantageous resonator material with applications in radio frequency filtering. AlN’s low piezoelectric coefficients, however, limit its application, especially when large electromechanical coupling is required such as wide bandwidth acoustic filters and energy harvesters. In 2009 it was discovered that alloying AlN with Scandium (Sc) increases its d33 piezoelectric coefficient by over 500% and maintains compatibility with post-CMOS integration when deposited below 〖400〗^∘{1}*. As process parameters and Sc levels are modified to enhance performance, this also impacts the built-in stress in the film. Undesired stress can degrade device performance in thin films. Undesired phases and anomalously oriented grains (AOGs) reduce piezoelectric coefficients, film orientation, and modify stress. AOGs also render etching of device structures problematic as the AOG regions etch at a much lower rate.
This presentation will discuss the origins of stress and anomalous grain formation in AlScN physical vapor deposition processes, establish methods to control the stress, and inhibit anomalous grain growth at a range of scandium alloying levels to yield high quality AlScN films with large piezoelectric coefficients. Methods for mitigation and understanding of the physical mechanism behind stress gradients in AlScN thin films to reduce out-of-plane deformations in released MEMS structures will also be discussed. I demonstrate a technique where the total process gas flow is varied during the deposition to compensate for the native through-thickness stress gradient in sputtered AlScN thin films. Finally, I will provide methods extract the AlScN stiffness, piezoelectric, and permittivity tenors from MEMS structures carefully designed to isolate various electromechanical parameters.
{1}*M. Akiyama, T. Kamohara, K. Kano, A. Teshigahara, Y. Takeuchi, and N. Kawahara. (2009). Enhancement of piezoelectric response in scandium aluminum nitride alloy thin films prepared by dual reactive cosputtering. Advanced Materials, 21(5), 593-596.

PSOC Seminar: "Nanotechnologies for the Research, Detection, and Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases" (Daniel Heller)
2022-05-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
PSOC seminar (Hybrid) : 12.00-1.00pm (EST)
Send requests for the Zoom link to manu@seas.upenn.edu
Raisler Lounge (Towne 225)

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Integrated Diamond-based Devices for Quantum Sensing and Communication"
2022-05-18 10:00 - 12:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has been integral to the advancement of quantum technologies. It has enabled key demonstrations in quantum networks and distributed quantum computing, as well as impressive proof-of-concept devices in nanoscale, sub-cellular imaging and sensing. The NV center – a point defect in diamond with an optically addressable electron spin – boasts several advantages such as long coherence times and quantum control in ambient conditions. At the same time, the NV center still faces significant engineering challenges in the realization of scalable quantum devices. The high-refractive index of diamond in the visible spectrum results in inefficient photon collection, and the NV center’s sensitivity to charge and spin fluctuations at surfaces and interfaces necessitates deeply embedded NV centers for coherence-limited applications, which further worsens readout efficiency. The challenging optical interface has necessitated the use of high numerical-aperture objectives and free space optics, which are non-ideal components for scalable devices. On the other hand, benchtop frequency synthesizers and sequence generators typically used in laboratory experiments inhibit the packaging of NV centers for deployment outside of laboratory environments. This thesis focuses on the realization of integrated quantum devices using the NV center and targets miniaturization of the host crystal, the optical interface, and quantum control sequence generators. First, it discusses efforts and progress in realizing chemically active quantum sensors based on NV centers embedded in nanodiamonds. Following, it presents the miniaturization of collection optics through the coupling of an immersion metalens fabricated on bulk diamond to a single NV center in the crystal. Finally, it lays out performance considerations for integrated sequence generators to preserve the NV center’s coherence properties, and demonstrates quantum control at room temperature of a NV center using a CMOS control signal generator. To conclude, this thesis discusses future potential for further integrating and miniaturizing diamond-based quantum devices.

Penn Engineering Commencement: Undergraduate Ceremony
2022-05-14 14:00 - 16:30 | Palestra, 223 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Celebrate the Penn Engineering Undergraduate Class of 2022. Additional information, including speakers and live-stream access is available here.

Penn Engineering Commencement: Master's Ceremony
2022-05-13 14:00 - 16:30 | Palestra, 223 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Celebrate the Penn Engineering 2022 Master’s Graduates. Additional information, including speakers and live-stream access is available here.

Penn Engineering Commencement: Doctoral Ceremony
2022-05-12 15:30 - 17:00 | Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Celebrate Penn Engineering’s 2022 Doctoral Graduates. Additional information, including speakers, live-stream access, and the reception following the ceremony, is available here.

Technology, Business & Government Distinguished Lecture: "NSF Engineering: Transforming our World for a Better Tomorrow"
2022-05-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Please join us for this distinguished lecture given by Dr. Susan Margulies, Assistant Director of NSF, Engineering Directorate.
This event will be held in a hybrid format in the Wu and Chen Auditorium in Levine Hall (3330 Walnut Street).
Virtual attendees can use this link to join us via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 968 3913 1227
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Dr. Margulies’s talk will be recorded and posted here for viewing on 5/13.
ABSTRACT
Dr. Susan Margulies, Assistant Director for Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF), will discuss priorities and opportunities for engineering research and education. NSF funds frontier research and education across all fields of engineering to create fundamental knowledge. NSF support also builds capacity for engineering research and broadens and prepares a diverse future engineering workforce. In partnership with industry and communities across the nation, NSF’s investments lead to innovative technologies and equitable systems for health, sustainability, agriculture, clean energy and water, resilient infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and communication, which will enhance prosperity and quality of life for all Americans. With a fiscal year 2022 budget of $8.8 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions.

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Cellular and Mechano-Active Material Approaches to Improve Disc Repair After Herniation" (Ana P. Peredo)
2022-05-11 13:00 - 15:00 | JMB Reunion Auditorium, 3620 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Robert Mauck are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Ana P. Peredo.
Title: Cellular and Mechano-Active Material Approaches to Improve Disc Repair After Herniation
Date: Wednesday, May 11th
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: JMB Reunion Auditorium
John Morgan Building
3620 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
The public is welcome to attend.

BE Doctoral Dissertation: "Injectable Hydrogels to Deliver Extracellular Vesicles After Myocardial Infarction" (Selen Uman)
2022-05-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology, 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Jason Burdick are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Selen Uman.
Date: May 10, 2022
Time: 2:00PM
Location: Glandt Forum
Title: Injectable Hydrogels to Deliver Extracellular Vesicles After Myocardial Infarction
The public is welcome to attend.

Layer by Atomic Layer – MOCVD Growth for a Carbon Neutral Society: A Symposium to honor Dr. Russell Dupuis and Dr. Daniel Dapkus, recipients of the 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering
2022-05-04 09:00 - 13:00 | Drexel University – Bossone Research Center, Mitchell Auditorium, 3140 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The School of Engineering and Applied Science is honored to co-sponsor, with Drexel University and the Franklin Institute, a symposium to honor the recipients of the 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Russell Dupuis and Dr. Daniel Dapkus join a list of many distinguished laureates of the Franklin Institute – of these over 90 laureates have later received the Nobel Prize.
Zoom webinar registration is required: https://tinyurl.com/BenFranklinMedalEESymposium

Bioengineering/Biology Seminar: "New tools for multi-modal precision measurement of single cells" (Aaron Streets)
2022-05-02 12:00 - 13:00 | Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
This hybrid seminar is co-hosted by the Departments of Bioengineering and Biology. Check email for the zoom link or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu.
The study of biology at the single-cell level has relied on the development of precision measurement tools. Our research is focused on developing new technology for multimodal, precision measurement of single cells to move beyond cataloging cell types and push towards gaining a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between the molecules that define and maintain cell state. We build both hardware and software tools for measuring epigenetic regulation, gene expression, protein composition, and morphological phenotype at the single-cell level. This talk will focus on recent work applying single-cell genomic analysis to study T cell development and adipocyte development in model systems. Additionally, I will present a new method for measuring protein-DNA interactions and DNA methylation with long-read sequencing.

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Social Robot Augmented Telepresence for Remote Assessment and Rehabilitation of Patients with Upper Extremity Impairment"
2022-04-29 07:30 - 08:30 | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
With the shortage of rehabilitation clinicians in rural areas and elsewhere, remote rehabilitation (telerehab) fills an important gap in access to rehabilitation. We have developed a first of its kind social robot augmented telepresence (SRAT) system — Flo — which consists of a humanoid robot mounted onto a mobile telepresence base, with the goal of improving the quality of telerehab. The humanoid has arms, a torso, and a face to play games with and guide patients under the supervision of a remote clinician.
To understand the usability of this system, we conducted a survey of hundreds of rehab clinicians. We found that therapists in the United States believe Flo would improve communication, patient motivation, and patient compliance, compared to traditional telepresence for rehab. Therapists highlighted the importance of high-quality video to enable telerehab with their patients and were positive about the usefulness of features which make up the Flo system for enabling telerehab.
To compare telepresence interactions with vs without the social robot, we conducted controlled studies, the first to rigorously compare SRAT to classical telepresence (CT). We found that for many SRAT is more enjoyable than and preferred over CT. The results varied by age, motor function, and cognitive function, a novel result.
To understand how therapists and patients respond to and use SRAT in the wild over long-term use, we deployed Flo at an elder care facility. Therapists used Flo with their own patients however they deemed best. They developed new ways to use the system and highlighted challenges they faced.
To ease the load of performing assessments via telepresence, I constructed a pipeline to predict the motor function of patients using RGBD video of them doing activities via telepresence. The pipeline extracts poses from the video, calculates kinematic features and reachable workspace, and predicts level of impairment using a random forest of decision trees.
Finally, I have aggregated our findings over all these studies and provide a path forward to continue the evolution of SRAT.

Spring 2022 GRASP SFI: Youngwoon Lee, University of Southern California, “Scaling Robot Learning with Skills: Towards Furniture Assembly and Beyond”
2022-04-27 15:00 - 16:00 | Levine 512
Despite the recent progress in robot learning, robotics research and benchmarks today are typically confined to simple short-horizon tasks. However, tasks in our daily lives are much more complicated — consisting of multiple sub-tasks and requiring high dexterity skills — and the typical “learning from scratch” scheme is hardly scale to such complex long-horizon tasks.
In this talk, I propose to extend the range of tasks that robots can learn by acquiring a useful skillset and efficiently harnessing these skills. As a first step, I will introduce a novel benchmark for complex long-horizon manipulation tasks, IKEA furniture assembly environment. Then, I will present skill chaining approaches that enable sequential skill composition to perform long-horizon tasks. Finally, I will talk about how to learn a long-horizon task efficiently using skills and skill priors extracted from diverse data.

MEAM Seminar: "Towards Personalized Predictive Human Models"
2022-04-26 10:00 - 23:30 | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
Numerical simulation of physical phenomena is a powerful tool embraced by scientists and engineers for decades. Using simulation tools to predict human movements is particularly critical for training AI-enabled robots interacting with humans, providing testbeds for wearable device design, and generating a wealth of labeled, high-fidelity human motion data. However, existing physics simulators and motor control algorithms for modeling human movements were developed with a fictitious “average human” in mind, while in reality we are often more interested in predicting the motion of a particular real person. Pursuing the quest towards building personalized predictive human models, we develop a learnable and differentiable physics simulator to harness the power of data, and a data acquisition pipeline to provide large-scale biomechanical motion data for the learnable simulator to consume. These computational tools can potentially simulate a wide range of scenarios, but also provide the option to be personalized to specific individuals using only a moderate amount of data. While we focus on the application domains related to human movements, these tools are general and applicable to other robotic research problems on optimal control and parameter estimation. In this talk, I will describe our overall vision on perusing personalized predictive human models, as well as a collection of projects that advanced the state of the art toward this vision.
