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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T114500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20260105T170304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260105T170304Z
UID:10008597-1771583400-1771587900@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Spring 2026 GRASP on Robotics: David Held\, Carnegie Mellon University\, "Precise and Generalizable Robot Manipulation"
DESCRIPTION:This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium. \nABSTRACT\nRobots in factories are still largely limited to structured environments with known object models. How can we bring robots into the more diverse\, unstructured settings of our daily lives\, where objects may be deformable or articulated and vary widely in shape and appearance\, while maintaining reliable performance? A popular direction is to train generalist robot policies on large-scale internet data and broad robot datasets. However\, today’s generalist policies still lack the precision needed for robust real-world operation. In this talk\, I argue that closing this gap requires learning a hierarchy over robot motion: learning both what subgoals to achieve as well as how to move the robot end-effector to achieve them. I will present hierarchical motion policies that combine high-level subgoal prediction with a learned low-level policy\, enabling tasks such as articulated object manipulation and precise insertion\, while generalizing to unseen objects and novel configurations.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/spring-2026-grasp-on-robotics-david-held-carnegie-mellon-university-relational-learning-for-robot-manipulation/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="General Robotics%2C Automation%2C Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab":MAILTO:grasplab@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20260112T144328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260112T144328Z
UID:10008607-1771596000-1771599600@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:PICS Colloquium (Virtual): "Modelling active matter on large length and time scales" with Robert Jack
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Active matter consists of particles that do work on their environment\, for example by propelling themselves through a solvent. Fluids made from many interacting self-propelled particles have become popular as models of non-equilibrium matter: they are challenging for theory and computation because their steady states cannot be derived by minimizing a free energy\, nor any other thermodynamic potential. I will discuss their behaviour on large length and time scales\, including possibilities for dynamical pattern formation\, glassy behavior\, and surface phase transitions (wetting).
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/pics-colloquium-virtual-modelling-active-matter-on-large-length-and-time-scales-with-robert-jack/
LOCATION:PICS Conference Room 534 – A Wing \, 5th Floor\, 3401 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Penn Institute for Computational Science (PICS)":MAILTO:dkparks@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260225T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260225T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T201925Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251126T201925Z
UID:10008581-1772020800-1772025300@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/97254514949
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-12/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T202206Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251126T202206Z
UID:10008582-1772625600-1772630100@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/94502467828
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-13/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260306T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260306T114500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20260109T144952Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260109T144952Z
UID:10008604-1772793000-1772797500@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Spring 2026 GRASP on Robotics: Nikolay Atanasov\, University of California San Diego\, "Elements of Generalizable Robot Autonomy"
DESCRIPTION:This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium. \nABSTRACT\nRecent years have seen a transformation in artificial intelligence fueled by the convergence of machine learning models\, internet-scale data\, and large training infrastructures. Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have enabled unprecedented progress in aligned vision-language processing\, while Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and deep reinforcement learning (RL) have dominated the synthesis of intelligent robot behavior. Yet\, most VLA and RL methods are model-free\, relying on raw image sequences and expert demonstrations to make decisions. This raises concerns regarding scaling to complex tasks\, which benefits from extended spatial and temporal context\, and generalization to new operational conditions\, which benefits from modular understanding of robot\, environment\, and task properties.\n\nThis seminar explores model-based techniques for robot behavior synthesis that integrate robot\, environment\, and task models\, constructed from sensor observations. First\, we present a physics-informed approach for learning robot models using neural ordinary differential equations that guarantee energy conservation and kinematic constraints by construction. Next\, we focus on learning metric-semantic environment models from RGB and depth observations using implicit neural features. Finally\, we discuss learning task models as automata labeled with observation features and trained from demonstrations. We evaluate our techniques in autonomous robot navigation and manipulation examples.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/spring-2026-grasp-on-robotics-nikolay-atanasov-university-of-california-san-diego-elements-of-generalizable-robot-autonomy/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="General Robotics%2C Automation%2C Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab":MAILTO:grasplab@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260318T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260318T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251216T193509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251216T193509Z
UID:10008593-1773835200-1773839700@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91712393729
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-20/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260325T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260325T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T202532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251126T202532Z
UID:10008583-1774440000-1774444500@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/97160689874
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-14/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260408T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260408T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T202753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251126T202753Z
UID:10008584-1775649600-1775654100@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92802010147
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-15/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T203110Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251126T203110Z
UID:10008585-1776254400-1776258900@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/97940296114
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-16/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T114500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20260112T145356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260112T145356Z
UID:10008608-1776421800-1776426300@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Spring 2026 GRASP on Robotics: Francesco Bullo\, University of California\, Santa Barbara\, "Contraction Theory for Optimization\, Control\, and Neural Networks"
DESCRIPTION:This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium. \nABSTRACT\nThis talk surveys recent advances on contraction theory for dynamical systems\, as a robust\, computationally-friendly and modular stability theory. Starting from basic notions\, I will present novel theoretical properties and examples of contracting dynamics\, including gradient systems\, controlled Lure’ systems\, constrained optimization solvers\, and multiplayer games. As first application I will discuss online feedback optimization\, where a dynamic plant is interconnected with a controller based on first-order optimization methods. Second\, I will discuss the contractivity properties of recurrent neural networks and briefly review applications to unsupervised representation learning\, implicit learning models\, and reservoir computing.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/spring-2026-grasp-on-robotics-francesco-bullo-university-of-california-santa-barbara-contraction-theory-for-optimization-control-and-neural-networks/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="General Robotics%2C Automation%2C Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab":MAILTO:grasplab@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251210T204053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251210T204053Z
UID:10008589-1776859200-1776863700@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91849643116
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-18/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260429T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260429T131500
DTSTAMP:20260403T181722
CREATED:20251126T203320Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260227T234303Z
UID:10008586-1777464000-1777468500@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract TBD \n  \nZoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/94465954718
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/asset-seminar-title-tbd-17/
LOCATION:Amy Gutmann Hall\, Room 414\, 3333 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="AI-enabled Systems%3A Safe%2C Explainable%2C and Trustworthy (ASSET) Center":MAILTO:asset-info@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
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