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BE Dissertation Defense – Adam Rayfield, “Predicting the Functional Effects of Brain Injuries Through Modeling and Experiment”

ESE Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense – “Layering and Task Generalization in Control Architectures”
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Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 515
3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States
Learning-based control architectures have unlocked remarkable capabilities in autonomous systems, from robotic manipulation to autonomous driving and traffic coordination. This progress has motivated the widespread use of layering to manage large-scale systems and multitask control to handle multiple systems and missions. The increasing integration of these architectures into society calls for a rigorous theory that […]

MEAM Seminar: “Modeling and Analysis of Wall-bounded Turbulent Flows”
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Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall
3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Most fluid flows at human scales and at moderate speeds (> 1 m/s) reach Reynolds numbers of at least 10⁴ or higher, causing even tiny disturbances to amplify and drive the flow toward turbulence. Turbulence is a broadband, continuum phenomenon: turbulent eddies of vastly different time and length scales enhance the mixing and transport of […]

Rigorous and Glamorous in 100 Words or Less 2.0 – An Abstract-Writing Workshop
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It’s hard to write an abstract. It’s harder to write a glamorous one that tells your story without overselling your results. Last year, we hosted a virtual abstract-writing workshop where our P.I., Konrad Kording, reviewed and refined students’ abstracts live. Back by popular demand, the workshop returns — this time with a bonus! Participants can use […]

Academic Innovation Speaker Series: “A’s for All” (as time and interest allow)
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Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology
3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Traditional grading paradigms often fail to cater to diverse learning paces and styles, potentially sidelining those needing more time to learn the material. "A's for All" (as time and interest allow) is an innovative pedagogical philosophy that builds on grading for equity, mastery learning, growth mindset, and competency-based approaches. It gives every student the opportunity […]

Fall 2025 GRASP SFI: Minghan Zhu, University of Pennsylvania, “3D Robot Vision for Structured World Understanding”
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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 Deploying robots in diverse real-world environments is a fundamental challenge. While recent AI advances are impressive, robots still struggle […]

CBE Seminar: “New Technologies for Delivery of Nucleic Acids and Proteins to Plants” (Markita Landry, UC Berkeley)
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Wu & Chen Auditorium
Abstract: Genetic engineering of plants is at the core of sustainability efforts, natural product synthesis, and agricultural crop engineering. Plant bioengineering requires delivery of biomolecules for genetic or post-transcriptional manipulation of plants, however, current delivery methods either suffer from host range limitations, low transformation efficiencies, tissue regenerability issues, tissue damage, or unavoidable DNA integration into […]

MSE Seminar: “Ion Transport in Hydrated Anion Conducting Polyelectrolytes” – Paul F. Nealey – Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering of the University of Chicago, Senior Scientist at Argonne National laboratory
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Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall
3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
The realization of next-generation electrochemical technologies demands anion-conducting polymers that break the fundamental trade-offs between conductivity, stability, and swelling. Ion transport in these materials is a complex, emergent property that arises from the coupling of water dynamics, nanoscale morphology, and polymer chemistry across multiple length and time scales. In this talk, I will present a […]


Responsive Materials Meet Intelligence
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Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology
3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Fold It. Stretch It. Build it. Shape it. Responsive Materials Meet Intelligence. Keynote Speakers: H. Jerry Qi Woodruff Endowed Professor George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Talk title: “Photocuring: grayscale digital light processing printing for pixel-level property manipulations” Jenny Sabin Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture Chair, Department […]

LAMP Seminar: “Mechanics of Contact, Friction, and Fracture (by design) – Towards the Interaction between the Natural and Built Environment”
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LRSM Reading Room
3231 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, United States
Contact, friction, and fracture are fundamental processes governing the emergent (mechanical) behaviors of various complex (material) systems, from as large as tectonic slip to as small as third-body wear. In this talk, we briefly discuss (1) challenges in understanding the (nonlinear) mechanics of these processes, specifically focusing on those designed into metamaterials, and (2) novel […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Real Time Local Wind Inference for Robust Autonomous Navigation”
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Room 337, Towne Building
220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Urban air mobility and autonomous package delivery represent promising avenues for integrating aerial robots into everyday life. However, operating these systems safely and efficiently in windy urban environments remains a major challenge due to the complexity of urban wind flow fields. Existing methods for predicting and navigating wind fields rely on precise environmental knowledge, distributed […]
