MEAM Seminar: "Wave Engineering: From Geometry to Fragility"
2021-01-26 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
The elastic properties of materials are determined by a few material constants such as the Young’s modulus. Using super-structures one can effectively change these “constants”. In this way we obtain functionalities such as wave-guiding, acoustic lensing or programmable failure. I will show how topological band theory, known from the description of electrons in solids, provides us with a powerful design-principle for such mechanical metamaterials. Moreover, mechanical metamaterials offer a powerful platform for the study of fundamentally new phenomena that are hard to observe in other arenas. Here, I will highlight the first measurement of a quadrupole topological insulator in a silicon based metamaterial, the implementation of an axial gauge field in an acoustic Weyl system and the measurements of fragile topology.

"Integrating Knowledge and the Realities of Fake News"
2021-01-26 16:00 - 17:00 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752

ODEI Spotlight: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Interfaith Commemoration
2021-01-26 18:00 - 19:00 | PA

CBE Seminar: "Phase Behavior and Self-Assembly of Active Colloids"
2021-01-27 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom – Email CBE for link
Abstract
In recent years, a new type of synthetic microparticle has captured the imagination of researchers across the physical and biological sciences. These so-called active colloids convert chemical or environmental free energy into irreversible directed motion. Impressively, the active force generated by the particles can lead to self-propelling speeds of tens of hundreds of microns per second. Active colloids challenge our theoretical understanding of nonequilibrium phenomena and simultaneously represent a potentially innovative approach to directed transport and material design at the microscale. In this talk, I will discuss one of the most striking features of active colloids, which is their rich and complex nonequilibrium phase behavior. Special emphasis will be given to motility-induced phase separation where purely repulsive active colloids undergo a liquid-gas phase transition. This talk will provide a quantitative understanding of this phenomenon by generalizing concepts in classical statistical mechanics and liquid state theory to active systems. This newfound understanding can be leveraged to improve the self-assembly of many complex colloidal structures using active colloids.

ODEI Spotlight: The 20th Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture in Social Justice
2021-01-27 17:30 - 18:30 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.
He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.
Dr. West is the co-host along with Dr. Tricia Rose of The Tight Rope which is a weekly podcast where they take time to welcome listeners and guests as thought collaborators with revered hosts and public intellectuals.
Dr. West is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span and Democracy Now. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

BE Seminar: "Designing Biology for Detection and Control" (Pamela A. Silver)
2021-01-28 15:00 - 16:00 | PA
This seminar will be held virtually – Zoom link coming soon.
The engineering of Biology presents infinite opportunities for therapeutic design, diagnosis, and prevention of disease. We use what we know from Nature to engineer systems with predictable behaviors. We also seek to discover new natural strategies to then re-engineer. I will present concepts and experiments that address how we approach these problems in a systematic way. Conceptually, we seek to both design cells and proteins to control disease states and to detect and predict the severity of emerging pathogens. For example, we have engineered components of the gut microbiome to act therapeutics for infectious disease, proteins to prolong cell states, living pathogen sensors and high throughput analysis to predict immune response of emerging viruses.

GRASP On Robotics: "Wearable Haptic Devices for Ubiquitous Communication"
2021-01-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Abstract: Haptic devices allow touch-based information transfer between humans and intelligent systems, enabling communication in a salient but private manner that frees other sensory channels. For such devices to become ubiquitous, their physical and computational aspects must be intuitive and unobtrusive. The amount of information that can be transmitted through touch is limited in large part by the location, distribution, and sensitivity of human mechanoreceptors. Not surprisingly, many haptic devices are designed to be held or worn at the highly sensitive fingertips, yet stimulation using a device attached to the fingertips precludes natural use of the hands. Thus, we explore the design of a wide array of haptic feedback mechanisms, ranging from devices that can be actively touched by the fingertips to multi-modal haptic actuation mounted on the arm. We demonstrate how these devices are effective in virtual reality, human-machine communication, and human-human communication.
Zoom Webinar Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/94052429739

Faculty panel for Black students in STEM at Penn
2021-01-29 16:00 - 17:00 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
Find out how you can get more involved with STEM faculty and students.
Learn more about STEM majors at Penn.
Hosted by the Makuu Center and the SEAS Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
For more information, contact Rita Powell, rpowell@cis.upenn.edu
This panel discussion was recorded and is available here for viewing.

ODEI Spotlight: Strategies and Tools for Remote Research
2021-02-02 08:00 - 09:00 | https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752

MEAM Seminar: "Modeling the Behavior of Shape Memory Alloy Structures"
2021-02-02 10:30 - 12:00 | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
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.

ODEI Spotlight: "Dissecting Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Look at the Attack on the U.S. Capitol"
2021-02-02 16:00 - 17:30 | PA
Esteemed faculty from five disciplines at Penn will come together to unpack the myriad policies, messages, and conditions that led to the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, as well as explore how we move forward as a country. This 90-minute panel discussion — moderated by Dean Erika James of the Wharton School with a Q&A session facilitated by Dean Ted Ruger of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School — is a unique opportunity to hear the diverse perspectives of scholars across our University.

Register here to receive the link to join this virtual event.

CBE PhD Dissertation Defense | Exploring the Molecular Origins of Icephilicity Using Specialized Molecular Simulations
2021-02-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom – Email CBE for link
Abstract:

Exercising control over the formation of ice and similar crystalline structures is important in a variety of contexts, from preserving organs for transplant to preventing clathrate hydrate plugs in natural gas pipelines. To achieve this control, it is crucial to understand nucleation phenomena at the molecular level. Studies have shown that heterogeneous nucleation proceeds orders of magnitude faster than homogeneous nucleation. Hence an understanding of ice nucleation phenomena in most real-world contexts hinges upon identifying the molecular-scale features of surfaces that inhibit (or even promote) heterogeneous ice nucleation. Yet the combination of molecular-scale characteristics that determines the ice nucleation propensity of a given material remain poorly understood.

We approach this challenge from a thermodynamic perspective, with the goal of understanding emph{icephilicity}: the preference of a heterogeneous solid surface (or macromolecule) for ice over liquid water. Recent work has shown that there is a complex interplay between a surface’s morphology and its icephilicity: small variations in properties (such as surface flexibility and lattice mismatch) can significantly impact a material’s ability to interact favorably with ice. We have developed novel approaches for characterizing surface icephilicity, and applied them to study a wide range of materials using molecular simulations and enhanced sampling techniques. Our results shed new light on the molecular-scale features that govern a material’s propensity to nucleate (or inhibit) ice and related crystalline structures.

CBE Seminar: "Integrating Machine Learning and Multiscale Modeling in Biomedicine"
2021-02-03 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom – Email CBE for link
Abstract
Machine learning and multiscale modeling complement each other in a unique way, enabling us to seamlessly integrate big data and biophysical pathways and interpret the results while formulating truly predictive and generalizable models, based on both data and physics. In multiscale modeling, I have developed adaptive methods and kinetic models to simulate intracellular polymerization of sickle hemoglobin (HbS) and subsequent interaction with the membrane of a red blood cell (RBC) in sickle cell anemia, which occurs at multispatial scales, ranging from nanometers to micrometers. Machine learning, especially deep learning, usually requires a large amount of data of high accuracy, which is often difficult to obtain in biological and biomedical sciences. I have developed multi-fidelity neural networks, physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), and deep operator network (DeepONets), so that we can learn deep learning models accurately and robustly from even “small” datasets. I will present several examples and discuss further the interaction of both that will lead to a paradigm shift in modeling biomedical systems in the future.

Spring 2021 GRASP SFI: “Commercializing people-scale vision-based autonomy in agriculture”
2021-02-03 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
Abstract: The Burro team, including Terry Scott (CTO) and Charlie Andersen (CEO) will provide an overview of their people-scale vision-based autonomous platform and their experiences selling Burros and building an autonomy business, within agriculture.
Join the Zoom Meeting here

ODEI Spotlight: Penn Global Opportunities Fair
2021-02-04 14:00 - 20:00 | PA
Thursday, February 4 | 2:00pm–8:00pm ET | Online
Register Here: https://pennabroad.vfairs.com/
At the Penn Global Opportunities Fair, Penn undergraduate and graduate students from across all schools and programs are invited to explore the many exciting international initiatives, student support services, and global opportunities that make up life at Penn. You will have the opportunity to explore interactive booths, chat live with Penn staff, and attend exclusive live events sponsored by ISSS, Penn Abroad, Perry World House, and other globally-focused offices.

BE/MEAM Seminar: "Microbes in Biomechanics" (Christopher J. Hernandez)
2021-02-04 15:00 - 16:00 | PA
This event will be held virtually on Zoom – check email for link or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu.
The idea that mechanical stresses influence the growth and form of organs and organisms originated in the 1800s and is the basis for the modern study of biomechanics and mechanobiology. Biomechanics and mechanobiology are well studied in eukaryotic systems, yet eukaryotes represent only a small portion of the diversity and abundance of life on Earth. Bacteria exhibit broad influences on human health (as both pathogens and as beneficial components of the gut microbiome) and processes used in biotechnology and synthetic biology. Over the past eight years my group has explored mechanobiology within individual bacteria and the effects of changes in the composition of commensal bacterial communities on the biomechanics in the musculoskeletal system.
The ability of the bacteria to not only resist mechanical loads (biomechanics) but also to respond to changes in the mechanical environment (mechanobiology) is necessary for survival. Here I describe a novel microfluidic platform used to explore the biomechanics and mechanobiology of individual, live bacteria. I discuss work from my group demonstrating that mechanical stress within the bacterial cell envelope can influence the assembly and function of multicomponent efflux pumps used by bacteria to resist toxins and antibiotics. Additionally, I share some of our more recent work showing that mechanical stress and strain within the bacterial cell envelope can stimulate a bacterial two-component system controlling gene expression. Our findings demonstrate that bacteria, like mammalian cells, have mechanosensitive systems that are key to survival.
In musculoskeletal disease, bacteria are commonly viewed as sources of infection. However, in the past decade the studies by my group and others have suggested that commensal bacteria – the microbiome – can modulate the pathogenesis of musculoskeletal disorders. My group is among the first to study the effects of the gut microbiome on orthopaedic disorders. Here I provide an introduction to the microbiome and current concepts of how modifications to the gut microbiome could influence the musculoskeletal system. Specifically, I discuss studies from my group which are the first to demonstrate that the gut microbiome influences bone biomechanics and the development of infection of orthopaedic implants.

GRASP On Robotics: "Designing Human Interaction with Agents and Robots"
2021-02-05 11:00 - 12:30 | Zoom
Abstract: Over the last decade, the idea that robots and agents might participate meaningfully in complex group and organizational contexts has developed from a promising vision into a reality. Robots now assist humans in simple tasks such as delivery through complex, high-stakes tasks such as disaster response and surgery. In this talk, I will introduce the discipline of design and describe, with examples from our work, how it is a critical research practice in designing complex agent and robot systems that fit in a number of social and organizational contexts and support all aspects of interaction.
Click here to join the Zoom Webinar

ODEI Spotlight: Women in Data Science Philadelphia @ Penn
2021-02-08 - 2021-02-12 | PA
Support gender diversity in data science and join us (virtually, of course) for the second annual Women in Data Science Philadelphia @ Penn on February 8-12, 2021.
Co-hosted by Analytics at Wharton, Wharton Customer Analytics, Penn Engineering, and the Wharton Statistics Department, this interdisciplinary event will discuss the latest advances and applications in data science and aims to inspire data scientists, regardless of gender, to support and empower women in the field.
WiDS registration fees will support need-based scholarships for high school students to attend Wharton Data Science Academy.

PSOC Webinar: "Abnormal Mechanics in Brain Tumors" (Meenal Datta)
2021-02-08 12:00 - 13:00 | PA
Physical Sciences in Oncology Center PSOC@Penn
Spring 2021 Webinar Series Mondays at 12:00 noon (EST)
For webinar links, please contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.

MEAM Seminar: "Target: COVID-19"
2021-02-09 10:30 - 12:00 | Zoom – Email MEAM for Link, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
Until such a time when the world’s population has achieved herd immunity either through vaccination against or exposure to the SARS-Cov-2 virus, the most effective means for controlling the COVID-19 (and any other) pandemic is frequent testing and resulting preventive measures that reduce the rate of viral transmission. This talk provides a bird’s-eye view of the diagnostic landscape for COVID-19 and focuses on our lab’s off-hours efforts to develop an in-home molecular test for SARS-Cov-2 that requires minimal manufacturing and meets WHO’s ASSURED criteria of being Affordable; Sensitive; Specific; User-friendly; Rapid and robust; Equipment-free; and Deliverable to end-users. The talk concludes by pointing out future needs and research directions.

MSE Seminar: "Spirals and skyrmions in magnets and their emergent electromagnetism"
2021-02-09 17:00 - 18:00 | PA

PICS Alumni Spotlight: "Peter J. Huwe"
2021-02-10 12:00 - 13:00 | PA

CBE Seminar: "Engineering Bacteria to Expand the Chemistry of Life"
2021-02-10 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom – Email CBE for link
Abstract
In living organisms, translation of genetic information by the ribosome transforms the information embedded in DNA into actuating components, namely proteins. Though life itself is incredibly diverse at the macroscopic level, at the molecular level, all of life uses the same set of machinery for translation – 20 standard amino acid building blocks (with minor exceptions), transfer RNAs (tRNA), and ribosomes. The convergence and association of these interdependent biomolecules is neatly captured in a table known as The Standard Genetic Code. Even after billions of years of genetic drift, The Standard Genetic Code has been largely refractory to change. In this talk, I will be discussing strategies and methods for building organisms that can make and use non-standard amino acids to make proteins with enhanced or expanded function.

Spring 2021 GRASP SFI: “Using Social Robots and Computer Vision to Augment Telerehabilitation”
2021-02-10 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
Abstract: With the shortage of rehabilitation clinicians in rural areas and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, remote rehabilitation (telerehab) fills an important gap in access to rehabilitation, especially for the treatment of adults and children experiencing upper arm disability due to stroke and cerebral palsy. We propose the use of a socially assistive humanoid robot coupled with a telepresence platform and computer vision based assessment pipeline as a tool for achieving more effective telerehab. The humanoid has arms, a torso, and a face to play games with and guide patients under the supervision of a remote clinician. The computer vision system is being developed to aid in automated objective assessments of patient function. In this talk, I will outline the design of such a system, present a uniquely large perceived usefulness evaluation of the platform with hundreds of practicing therapists in the United States, and present recent results from a pilot study with the system.
Join the Zoom Meeting here

ODEI Spotlight: Virtual Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) STEM Conference & Career Fair
2021-02-11 - 2021-02-13 | PA
The BEYA STEM Conference is a Career Communications Group (CCG) event and is held annually in February and is taking place on February 11 – 13, 2021. BEYA is also open to everyone. There are two types of offerings:
1) The Career Fair is free to attend. You would only need to register and upload your resume at the conference link provided.
2) The DIEL College program, for which the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has prepaid registrations, which allows full participation in the entire conference (welcome reception, workshops, award ceremonies as well as the career fair).
To those who wish to attend the entire conference as DIEL College participants on a first come, first serve basis, a registration code will be provided. Please fill out the Virtual BEYA Interest Form as soon as possible: https://forms.gle/JyqCTYZPbjJwGeep9
The BEYA Career Fair only registration link is: https://beyadigital.vfairs.com/en/registration.

BE Seminar: "Multi-input Chemical Control With Computationally Designed Proteins for Research Tools and Cell Therapies" (Glenna Wink Foight)
2021-02-11 15:00 - 16:00 | PA
This event will be held virtually via Zoom – check email for details or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu
Protein modules that are responsive to small molecule inputs have enabled control of cellular processes for decades’ worth of important mechanistic studies. More recently, they have gained attention as a means of control for improved safety of cellular therapies. To date, most small molecule-responsive systems have been adapted from natural proteins, which provide limited control behaviors and often rely on small molecules with non-ideal properties for use in humans. I will describe how we have used computational protein design to move beyond these naturally occurring systems to create a new set of molecular tools that are responsive to multiple clinically approved drugs. The unique architecture of our system enables more complex control behaviors for multiple cellular outputs. I will describe applications of this designed system in the control of mammalian cytoskeletal signaling, transcription, and CAR T-cell therapy.

ODEI Spotlight: USABE Research Opportunities Panel
2021-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 | PA
Interested in getting involved in research but don’t know where to start? USABE will be hosting a virtual Research Opportunities Panel featuring current Penn engineering students and alumni who will share their own research experiences, both on and off-campus, as well as opportunities for research that are available to students. We will also have a Q&A session at the end, so please submit your questions at tiny.cc/USABEresearchpanel. If you’re interested in attending the event, please RSVP at tiny.cc/USABEpanelrsvp!

GRASP On Robotics: “Billiard-Like Robots: Let Them Be Unstable and Unobservable!”
2021-02-12 11:00 - 12:30 | Zoom
Abstract: This talk will highlight our work over the past decade on controlling robots by giving them simple rules to reflect off of obstacles in their environment. This line of work pushes the extreme limits of minimalism and is suitable for scenarios where there are limited sensing and actuation capabilities, such as consumer security robots and nanorobotics. We take heavy inspiration from dynamical billiards, a branch of mathematics pioneered by Hadamard, Artin, Sinai, and others, but adapt the bouncing laws to models that are easily achievable by robots and are amenable to algorithmic analysis. Our results include basic conditions for attractors and limit cycles, simple achievement of linear-temporal logic specifications, visibility-based algorithmic analysis, and demonstrations on embarrassingly cheap robot systems. An abundance of simple, open problems remain in this area.
Click here to join the Zoom Webinar

ODEI Spotlight: Know Your Rights: Support for Students Regardless of Your Immigration Status
2021-02-12 15:00 - 16:00 | Bluejeans
Registration link: http://bit.ly/PennDACA
This event specifically focuses on undocumented, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) students. This event is open to everyone wanting to learn more about immigration and/or whose families are impacted by immigration restrictions.
*This event is organized by La Casa Latina, Penn Law, Greenfield Intercultural Center, PennFirstPlus, and Counseling and Psychological Services.

ODEI Spotlight: Out at Work - A Virtual Discussion with GSE Alumni Sharing Insights on Navigating Careers in Education
2021-02-12 16:30 - 18:00 | PA
The Penn GSE LGBTQ Subcommittee Invites the Penn Community to:
Out at Work: A Virtual Discussion with GSE Alumni Sharing Insights on Navigating Careers in Education
Friday, February 12, 2021
4:30 pm – 5:45 pm
Featured Panelists:
Lauren Overton- School Principal, PAS
Robert Rivera-Amezola- Digital Literacy Teacher, Key Elementary School
KD Davenport- K-12 Science Curriculum Specialist, School District ofPhiladelphia
Steve Mobley- Assistant Professor, University of Alabama
Hosted by: Ed Brockenbrough
Associate Professor, Penn GSE
RSVP Here
Presented by the Penn GSE LGBTQ Subcommittee
