Penn Engineering Events

ESE Seminar: "Skin Interfaced Wearable Sweat Biosensors"
2020-09-08 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom – Email ESE for Link jbatter@seas.upenn.edu
Abstract: The rising research interest in personalized medicine promises to revolutionize traditional medical practices. This presents a tremendous opportunity for developing wearable devices toward predictive analytics and treatment. In this talk, I will introduce our recent advances in developing fully-integrated skin-interfaced flexible biosensors for non-invasive molecular analysis. Such wearable biosensors can continuously, selectively, and accurately measure a wide spectrum of sweat analytes including metabolites, electrolytes, hormones, drugs, and other small molecules. These devices also allow us to gain real-time insight into the sweat secretion and gland physiology. The clinical value of our wearable sensing platforms is evaluated through multiple human studies involving both healthy and patient populations toward physiological monitoring, disease diagnosis, and drug monitoring. This talk will also feature our very recent works on laser-engraved lab on the skin and biofuel powered battery-free electronic skin toward metabolic/nutritional management as well as dynamic stress monitoring. These wearable and flexible devices could open the door to a wide range of personalized monitoring, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications.

MEAM Seminar: "U.S. Army Additive Manufacturing Materials and Technologies"
2020-09-08 10:30 - 12:00 | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
With the constantly changing threat environment, the Army needs to be able to quickly adapt their tactics and equipment. But burdensome and lengthy acquisition cycles make this challenging. Additive manufacturing can potentially be utilized to overcome many of the challenges and enables on-demand manufacturing of repair parts, as well as rapid prototyping.
Through topology optimization, parts can be designed lighter and/or stronger and more cost-effective. In addition to new technologies being explored such as hybrid manufacturing in which entire metal and plastic devices can be fabricated within the same piece of equipment, a host of novel feedstocks are being developed such as multi-material thermoplastics and filled resins that further increase the range of properties and applications of the 3D printed parts. In addition to the research performed in Army laboratories, one of the thrusts of Army additive manufacturing research is the ability to manufacture at the point of need in remote environments. Research at the US Army Research Laboratory Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC-ARL) has shown that agile, expeditionary manufacturing could be accomplished through the use of materials at or near to the location of our operating bases. These materials could include not only commercial feedstocks, but also the organic and inorganic materials naturally occurring in the area and recycled materials from the operating bases such as polymers, metals, and paper materials. Recently, most of the ARL AM focus is in materials for energetics including high solids filled composites, custom alloys and hybrid materials. This seminar will present a brief overview of the organization, goals and AM programs, and then discuss in more detail the polymer-related AM efforts.

MSE Lab Safety Seminar
2020-09-03 10:45 - 11:45
Join us for a seminar lead by Kimi Brown, Sr. Lab Safety Specialist and Chemical Hygiene Officer for Penn Environmental Health and Radiation Safety, on laboratory safety and best COVID-19 practices. This seminar is mandatory for all MSE Master’s and PhD students.
Please register in advance here to obtain the Zoom link for this seminar.

Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Sohaib Hashmi
2020-09-02 12:00 - 13:00
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Robert O. Heuckeroth are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Sohaib Hashmi. The Defense will take place via Zoom. Details are below…

Title: Role of ACTG2 Mutations in Visceral Myopathy
Date: September 2nd, 2020
Time: 12:00pm

Sohaib Hashmi is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Sohaib Hashmi Thesis Defense
Date and Time: Sep 2, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92088207098?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 920 8820 7098
Passcode: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,92088207098# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,92088207098# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 920 8820 7098
Find your local number: https://upenn.zoom.us/u/abEnZwvygg

PICS Student Seminar: Anna Neuman and Chris Price
2020-07-15 12:00 - 13:00
On Wednesday, July 15 at 12:00 PICS will host a virtual student seminar. This is the first seminar in a series giving students the opportunity to talk to each other about their research and research methods. These virtual seminars will be about an hour long with two students giving a short presentation followed by a discussion.
Email Katie Thompson (kathom at seas.upenn.edu) for the zoom details.

PICS Alumni Spotlight: Kurt Fredrickson
2020-07-06 14:00 - 15:30
PICS will be hosting a virtual seminar featuring an alumni of the Vojvodic lab. Kurt Frederickson, PhD, will speak about his education and working in both academia and the private sector. After his talk Kurt will be available to answer any questions students may have.
Email Katie Thompson (kathom at seas.upenn.edu) for the zoom details.

Reflections on the Experiences of Black People and Other Minorities at Penn Engineering
2020-06-10 14:30 - 15:30
Opening Remarks:
Dr. Vijay Kumar, Professor and Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering
Dr. Wendell Pritchett, Provost and Presidential Professor of Law

Moderator:
Dr. CJ Taylor, Raymond S. Markowitz President’s Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science
Panelists:
Dayo Adewole (BE’15 ), current doctoral candidate in Bioengineering
Dr. Christine Allen-Blanchette (CIS’20), Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
Dr. Paulo Arratia, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
Dr. Danielle Bassett, J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering
Dr. Brian Peterson (ENG’93, GED’97, GR’13), Director of Makuu: the Black Cultural Center
Dr. Laura Stubbs (ME’79, GME’80), Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Penn Engineering Class of 2020 Undergraduate and Master's Graduate Recognition
2020-05-15 10:00 - 11:00
Dean Vijay Kumar will address the Penn Engineering Class of 2020 undergraduate and master’s graduates and their loved ones. Join us to hear Dean Kumar’s address, view student photos, and watch congratulatory video messages submitted by students’ families and by Penn Engineering faculty and staff. Please visit this webpage to access the link to our Class of 2020 Undergraduate and Master’s Celebration. (While the link will go live on Friday, May 15, at 10:00 a.m. ET, no elements will be broadcast live; please join us at your convenience. The total runtime will be less than one hour.)

Penn Engineering Class of 2020 Doctoral Graduate Recognition
2020-05-14 10:00 - 11:00
Join us to hear a message from the Dean of Penn Engineering, Dr. Vijay Kumar, and view a virtual roll call of the Class of 2020 doctoral graduates, complete with video messages from our graduates and members of the Penn Engineering faculty. The total run time of this virtual celebration is less than one hour. No elements will be broadcast live, and the video will be available to view at your convenience once it has been made public. The link to view the virtual celebration for the doctoral graduates will be posted here on Thursday, May 14, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

BE Thesis Defense: “Design, Synthesis, Structural Studies, & Applications of Synthetic Collagen Peptides”
2020-05-05 13:00 - 14:00
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. David Chenoweth are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Alexander John Kasznel.
To request the Zoom link, please contact Sarah Gormley at gormley@seas.upenn.edu.

Virtual Joint Seminar: Open Source Multicellular Systems Modeling for Cancer (and COVID-19)
2020-05-04 14:00 - 15:30
Virtual Joint Seminar of Penn PSOC, Bioengineering, PICS
For Zoom details, email gormley@seas.upenn.edu
Cancer and other critical human health problems are inherently multiscale: molecular-scale processes such as receptor trafficking and metabolism drive cell-scale processes such as cycling and motility. Biophysical processes like diffusion and tissue mechanics both constrain and drive single-cell behavior. Moreover, cells communicate and coordinate through chemical and mechanical processes. All these processes are dynamically linked to drive emergent multicellular systems behaviors in healthy and diseased tissues.
Computational models can act as “virtual laboratories” for multicellular systems biology. The ideal such laboratory should include cell and tissue biomechanics, biotransport of multiple chemical substrates including signaling factors, and many interacting cells. This talk presents PhysiCell (http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005991), an open source agent-based platform for 3-D multicellular systems biology. With PhysiCell, desktop workstations can routinely simulate systems of ten or more cell-secreted chemical signals and tissue substrates, along with 10^5 to 10^6 individual cells that grow, divide, die, secrete chemical signals, move, exchange mechanical forces, and remodel their tissue microenvironment. High-performance computing (HPC) resources can run tens of thousands of copies of these models to perform vast 3-D computational experiments, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can help us to accelerate these investigations and analyze the simulation results.
We will explore PhysiCell models of two cancer problems: (1) We will investigate how tumor-parenchyma biomechanical cross-talk can lead to tumor dormancy in liver micrometastases, and how changes in tissue mechanics (e.g., after an illness, injury, or aging) can lead to tumor “reawakening”. (2) We will explore the critical role of stochastic tumor-immune interactions in cancer immunosurveillance. We will show joint work with Argonne National Lab to explore large hypothesis and design spaces on supercomputers, as well as very recent advances in using machine learning to accelerate these explorations while also improving model interpretation.
We will also present work by a growing coalition of mathematicians, virologists, immunologists, pharmacologists, and others to rapidly prototype and iteratively improve a comprehensive multiscale SARS-CoV-2 tissue simulator. The first prototype model was built and shared internationally as open source code and interactive, cloud-hosted models in under 12 hours, and the work was disseminated as a community-written preprint within a week. The second prototype was updated to include ACE2 receptor-driven virus endocytosis and a more modular design; the third prototype is well underway. This coalition-based approach is developing submodel components in parallel and coordination, allowing us to rapidly advance towards a feature complete framework to drive many independent investigations that help us attack COVID-19. This project shows the potential for similar community-driven advances in cancer. Moreover, the novel mix of cancer biologists, immunologists, microbiologists, and others is fueling creative advances and new technical capabilities in multiscale tissue modeling. We anticipate that this progress will drive advances in cancer immunology, inflammation, and virus-driven carcinogenesis for years to come.
PhysiCell Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ2urSm4ilU&authuser=0

PSOC Seminar Cancelled : “A physics-driven open source software ecosystem for multicellular systems biology”
2020-05-04 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

CBE Dissertation Defense: "Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to Targeted Therapy in Glioblastoma"
2020-04-24 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom – Email CIS for link, cherylh@cis.upenn.edu
Co-Advisors: Matthew J. Lazzara, PhD and Dennis E. Discher, PhD; Committee Members: Scott L. Diamond, PhD, M. Celeste Simon, PhD and Benjamin Purow

Closing the Gap between Theory and Practice: Rethinking Engineering Education in Real Time
2020-04-23 15:00 - 16:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Despite 20 years of focus on organizational change and effective educational best practices in STEM higher education, significant research findings have had minimal influences on practice. In 2016, the U-M BME Department sought to disrupt engineering education. Informed by organizational change theory, we asked: 1) Is there potential for change; 2) what strategies facilitate change; and 3) how can these strategies be implemented? As a result, we developed an Instructional Design Sequence, a new approach to instruction in which students, post docs, and faculty create short Modules that use evidence-based teaching practices to expose BME students to BME professional practice. This talk describes how the Sequence was conceived of and demonstrates how organizational theory, entrepreneurship, and design can be used to inform education practice. The resultant Sequence has the potential to be a transferrable model for transforming engineering education, offering a new mechanism for integrating career relevant curriculum into undergraduate curriculum in real-time, while training future educators in instructional evidence based practices.

This lecture is offered as part of the Lecturers’ Seminar on Teaching and Learning.

Cancelled: CBE Seminar - Biomaterials-Mediated Inflammation Control"
2020-04-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
Many chronic disabling diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus are increasingly linked to inappropriate and chronic activation of inflammatory cells. A central event in the pathogenesis of these diseases appears to be an aberrant activation of innate immune sensors, most prominently the Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs), by nucleic acids that are released from dead and dying cells. Moreover, such extracellular nucleic acids have also been implicated in inflammatory diseases such as heart attack, traumatic injury, and stroke in activating the contact pathway of coagulation. In this presentation, I will discuss the application of nucleic acid-binding polymers in the configuration of either soluble or immobilized polycation to scavenge these pathogenic nucleic acids as a molecular strategy to combat inflammation.

CBE Dissertation Defense: "Role of Soluble Fibrin and Fibrin Degradation Products on Platelet Signaling During Trauma
2020-04-20 15:00 - 17:00 | Zoom – Email CIS for link, cherylh@cis.upenn.edu
Advisor: Scott Diamond, PhD; Committee Members: Talid Sinno, PhD; Ravi Radhakrishnan, PhD; Lawrence Brass, PhD

PSOC Seminar Cancelled : Patrick Seale, PhD
2020-04-20 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

BE Thesis Defense: "Development and application of computational tools for unraveling the structure of the 3D genome"
2020-04-15 15:00 - 17:00
Thomas Gilgenast’s thesis defense
Date and Time: Wednesday 4/15, 3:00pm EST
Title: Development and application of computational tools for unraveling
the structure of the 3D genome
Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Cremins
Thomas’ defense will take place virtually via Zoom. Please contact
jcremins@seas.upenn.edu for the zoom link and password.

CANCELLED: MEAM Seminar: "Modeling the Behavior of Shape Memory Alloy Structures"
2020-04-14 10:30 - 12:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
I will present recent work on the modeling of the structural response of shape memory alloy tubes, bars, and beams. We have developed a new constitutive model that captures pseudoelastic transformation induced recoverable deformation in SMAs including the strong asymmetries in the tensile and compressive responses. Instead of introducing multiple conditions for forward phase transformation, reverse phase transformation, and martensite reorientation, the model is based on a J2-type nonlinear kinematic hardening framework with a single transformation surface and the back stress represented through a weighted mix of two potential functions that are calibrated to the tensile and compressive stress-strain responses of the material. The constitutive model has been used to simulate numerically the interaction of these complex material behaviors with structural nonlinear behavior observed in experiments. Problems analyzed include the buckling and recovery of NiTi tubes under axial compression, the propagation of a well defined deformation front in uniaxial tension, and the reversible propagation of curvature localization in NiTi tubes under bending. The numerical simulations reproduce the structural behavior both qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrating the fidelity of the constitutive modeling framework developed. After illustrating the success of the isothermal model, I will present some recent work on modeling non-isothermal behavior within the same constitutive framework.

PSOC Seminar Cancelled : Alexandra Zidovska, PhD
2020-04-13 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

POSTPONED: John A. Quinn Distinguished Lecture: "Molecular and Colloidal Interactions in Water"
2020-04-08 15:00 - 16:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
Life occurs in water, and water-mediated interactions between molecules and interfaces are central to biological assembly processes. Synthetic materials as common as shampoo rely on water-mediated interactions. This presentation will describe experiments that highlight our lack of understanding of interactions in water. This lack of understanding presents the opportunity to formulate a refined set of design rules for self-assembly of engineered functional materials in water.

CANCELLED: MEAM Seminar: "U.S. Army Additive Manufacturing Materials and Technologies"
2020-04-07 10:30 - 12:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
With the constantly changing threat environment, the Army needs to be able to quickly adapt their tactics and equipment. But burdensome and lengthy acquisition cycles make this challenging. Additive manufacturing can potentially be utilized to overcome many of the challenges and enables on-demand manufacturing of repair parts, as well as rapid prototyping.
Through topology optimization, parts can be designed lighter and/or stronger and more cost-effective. In addition to new technologies being explored such as hybrid manufacturing in which entire metal and plastic devices can be fabricated within the same piece of equipment, a host of novel feedstocks are being developed such as multi-material thermoplastics and filled resins that further increase the range of properties and applications of the 3D printed parts. In addition to the research performed in Army laboratories, one of the major thrusts of current Army additive manufacturing research is the ability to manufacture at the point of need in remote environments. Research at the US Army Research Laboratory Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC-ARL) is showing that agile, expeditionary manufacturing could be accomplished through the use of materials at or near to the location of our operating bases. These materials could include not only commercial feedstocks, but also the organic and inorganic materials naturally occurring in the area and recycled materials from the operating bases such as polymers, metals, and paper materials. Distributed manufacturing could reduce the logistics tail needed to conduct wars on foreign soil, saving valuable resources and lives, and allowing the warfighter to perform the mission, instead of guarding and securing convoy transports. In addition to reduced energy costs related to transportation, the operational readiness and self-sustainability of operating bases would be increased.

PSOC Seminar Cancelled :”Interplay of receptor tyrosine kinase activation at the cell surface and environmental mechanics”
2020-04-06 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense
2020-04-03 15:30 - 17:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
ESE

Cancelled: PICS Seminar - Dr. Francesco Paesani of the University of California, San Diego, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
2020-04-03 14:00 - 15:00 | PICS Conference Room 534 – A Wing , 5th Floor, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

CANCELLED: CBE Seminar - "Model-Based Chemical Product Design and Analysis"
2020-04-01 15:00 - 16:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
Chemical products are usually designed and developed through heuristic rule-based and/or trial-and-error experiment-based approaches. Although this kind of approaches often lead to safe and reliable product designs, since it is not practically feasible to consider all alternatives, it may not be possible to find the optimal product. As an alternative approach, the use of model-based design methods has been gaining increased attention as they have the potential to rapidly generate and/or screen product candidates in a much larger design space, and therefore reduce cost for chemical product design and development. If needed data and/or models giving reliable estimations for product properties and functions are available, model-based chemical product design methods may be applied for design and analysis of many chemical products classified as single species (such as refrigerants, solvents, and chemical substitutes) and multiple species (such as fuel blends, insect repellents, detergents and paint formulations). The seminar will highlight, with special emphasis on predictive chemical product property modelling, a model-based computer-aided framework plus associated methods and software tools for systematic design and analysis of a wide range of chemical products.

CANCELLED: MEAM Seminar: "Tackling Energy Sector Challenges with Interdisciplinary Research and Education Initiatives"
2020-03-31 10:30 - 12:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Tackling the energy sector’s pressing technological and workforce needs requires a multi-pronged approach. This talk will include a discussion of both technical research and educational approaches to address these needs. The educational initiatives include implementation of the Energy Fellows Program, a training and professional development program, as well as research on the varying perceptions of students, faculty, and practicing engineers about what skills and knowledge are required for careers in the energy sector. The technical research focuses on conversion of waste heat into electricity since the majority of energy resources are wasted as heat. Thermoelectric power generators can convert waste heat into useful electrical energy, but traditional thermoelectric device manufacturing uses bulk material processing with machining, assembly, and integration steps which lead to material waste and performance limitations. The traditional manufacturing approach offers virtually no flexibility in designing the geometry of thermoelectric modules. Additive manufacturing can overcome these challenges. This presentation will describe our progress in laser-based additive manufacturing of thermoelectric materials such as tellurides and silicides. Laser powder bed fusion (also known as selective laser melting) is an additive manufacturing process which locally melts successive layers of material powder to construct three-dimensional objects. When applied to thermoelectric materials, this technique could enable new geometries and architectures, material-to-device integration, and large-area processing. The presentation will show the first demonstrations of laser additive manufacturing applied to thermoelectric materials and discuss the link between materials, manufacturing, and system-level considerations for thermoelectric power generators.

PSOC Seminar Cancelled : “Chromatin dynamics and DNA repair”
2020-03-30 12:00 - 13:00 | Room 337, Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States

Cancelled CIS Seminar:" Harnessing the Power of People: Human-AI Interaction Design in Healthcare, Language, and Beyond"
2020-03-25 13:30 - 14:30 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:
Some claim AI is the “new electricity” due to its growing significance and ubiquity. My research investigates this vision from an HCI perspective: How can we situate this remarkable technology in ways people perceive as valuable? How could we form a symbiotic relationship between AI systems and their users, to do things neither can do on their own?
In this talk, I will discuss a number of research projects that systematically investigate these questions. Projects include the designs of clinical decision-support systems that can effectively collaborate with doctors in making life-and-death decisions and an investigation of how Natural Language Generation systems might seamlessly serve authors’ communicative intent. Each project engages stakeholders in their real-world contexts and addresses a critical challenge in transitioning AI from the research lab to the real world.
Based upon this body of work and my studies of industry practice, I propose a framework laying out the problem space of human-AI interaction design. I discuss our early work and the strategic potential in supporting effective collaboration between HCI and AI expertise.

Cancelled: CIS Seminar: "Harnessing the Power of People: Human-AI Interaction Design in Healthcare, Language, and Beyond"
2020-03-25 13:30 - 14:30 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
