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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220330T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220330T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111612
CREATED:20220114T224506Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220114T224506Z
UID:10007017-1648654200-1648657800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CBE Seminar: "Understanding and Designing Complex Materials to Stabilize Proteins and Enable Supra-Biological Properties”
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nOur group is broadly focused on understanding and controlling the intersection of biology and materials at the molecular level. This intersection is critical in many areas of biotechnology where proteins and enzymes are integrated into or in constant contact with materials\, including biocatalysis\, tissue engineering\, drug delivery\, biosensing\, and vaccine formulation. In line with this interest\, we have developed a novel approach to elucidate the structure and transient behavior of protein molecules at the solution-solid interface based on dynamic single-molecule tracking. This approach\, which is uniquely sensitive to structural and interfacial dynamics\, includes the use of high throughput tracking of protein molecules by means of internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy in combination with intramolecular as well as intermolecular Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). An important aspect of this approach is the use of bioorthogonal labeling techniques to site-specifically introduce donor and acceptor fluorophores\, which allow fluctuations in FRET efficiency to be correlated with changes in protein structure. Notably\, in this approach\, as many as 106 protein molecules are tracked as they adsorb\, desorb\, diffuse\, and simultaneously undergo conformational changes and/or intermolecular associations\, permitting the statistical identification of dynamic\, spatial\, and population heterogeneity. The subsequent correlation of these dynamic behaviors on a molecule-by-molecule basis via large-scale multi-variate analyses\, moreover\, provides new insights into the connection between interfacial dynamics and protein structure. This talk will specifically focus on the application of this approach to understand the connection between protein dynamics and conformation\, and to rationally improve enzyme function.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cbe-seminar-understanding-and-designing-complex-materials-to-stabilize-proteins-and-enable-supra-biological-properties/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering":MAILTO:cbemail@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220330T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220330T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111612
CREATED:20220323T201520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220323T201520Z
UID:10007130-1648654200-1648657800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CIS Seminar: "Building the Reliability Stack for Machine Learning"
DESCRIPTION:Currently\, machine learning (ML) systems have impressive performance but can behave in unexpected ways. These systems latch onto unintuitive patterns and are easily compromised\, a source of grave concern for deployed ML in settings such as healthcare\, security\, and autonomous driving. In this talk\, I will discuss how we can redesign the core ML pipeline to create reliable systems. First\, I will show how to train provably robust models\, which enables formal robustness guarantees for complex deep networks. Next\, I will demonstrate how to make ML models more debuggable. This amplifies our ability to diagnose failure modes\, such as hidden biases or spurious correlations. To conclude\, I will discuss how we can build upon this “reliability stack” to enable broader robustness requirements\, and develop new primitives that make ML debuggable by design.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cis-seminar-building-the-reliability-stack-for-machine-learning/
LOCATION:Levine 307\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ORGANIZER;CN="Computer and Information Science":MAILTO:cherylh@cis.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220322T195015Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220322T195015Z
UID:10007128-1648724400-1648728000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ESE Spring Seminar - "From Exact Laws to Design Principles of Quantum Information Machines"
DESCRIPTION:Many-body quantum systems are the most powerful computers allowed by Nature. \nHow do they work? Can we control them? Are they useful? \nIn this talk\, I discuss how recent results in quantum information theory translate into quantum engineering solutions. I introduce a geometric information measure that rigorously evaluates the difference between two complex configurations of arbitrarily large quantum systems\, e.g.\, thousands of interacting atoms. The result is instrumental in finding the maximum conversion rate of physical resources\, such as energy and time\, into quantum computational power. A simple but universally valid inequality\, formally similar to the Heisenberg uncertainty relations\, bounds the size of a program that creates a target quantum state by its experimental cost. \nFinally\, I outline strategies to tackle critical problems related to information storage in quantum networks\, diagnostics of quantum devices\, and quantum sensing. New ways to identify\, quantify\, and harness distinctive traits of quantum particles\, e.g.\, entanglement\, will accelerate the transition of quantum technologies from textbooks to reality
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/ese-spring-seminar-from-exact-laws-to-design-principles-of-quantum-information-machines/
LOCATION:Raisler Lounge (Room 225)\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Electrical and Systems Engineering":MAILTO:eseevents@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220131T154813Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220131T154813Z
UID:10007057-1648740600-1648744200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:BE Seminar: "Engineered Systems for Controlling Cellular Microenvironments: From Synthetic Extracellular Matrices to Multidimensional Disease Models" (April M. Kloxin)
DESCRIPTION:This seminar will be held in person and via zoom – check email for link. \nThe properties of the microenvironment in which cells reside\, from structure to mechanics and biochemical content\, increasingly are recognized as important drivers of cell function and fate\, including in the onset and progression of disease (e.g.\, late cancer recurrence and fibrosis).  Engineering soft materials to mimic key features of these complex microenvironments offers unique opportunities to probe and direct cellular functions and to test hypotheses about the role of specific extracellular cues in these diseases. In this seminar\, I will share our recent efforts to design reductionist synthetic mimics of complex collagen-rich microenvironments.  Specific applications of these and other engineered systems will be discussed for the creation of relevant multidimensional controlled cell culture models.  Further\, the opportunity that ‘omics’ tools provide for interrogation of cell responses within these engineered systems\, from benchmarking versus in vivo and patient data to obtaining unique insights into cellular responses\, also will be highlighted.  This multipronged approach to understanding cell-microenvironment interactions is providing new tools and insights for addressing currently intractable diseases\, including lung fibrosis and late cancer recurrence.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/be-seminar-april-m-kloxin/
LOCATION:Room 337\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="Bioengineering":MAILTO:be@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220331T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220324T132300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220324T132300Z
UID:10007131-1648740600-1648744200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CIS Seminar: “Towards a Foundation for Reinforcement Learning”
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, reinforcement learning algorithms have achieved strong empirical success on a wide variety of real-world problems. However\, these algorithms usually require a huge number of samples even just for solving simple tasks. It is unclear if there are fundamental statistical limits on such methods\, or such sample complexity burden can be alleviated by a better algorithm. In this talk\, I will give an overview of my research efforts towards bridging the gap between the theory and the practice of reinforcement learning. \nIn the first part of the talk\, I will show that under conditions that permit sample-efficient supervised learning\, any offline reinforcement learning algorithm still requires exponential number of samples information-theoretically\, due to a geometric amplification of the estimation error. Moreover\, through extensive experiments on a range of tasks\, I will show that substantial error amplification does occur in practical scenarios. Our results highlight a crucial difference between offline reinforcement learning and supervised learning. I will conclude this part by suggesting possible ways to improve the performance of practical reinforcement learning systems based on our new insights. \nIn the second part of the talk\, I will focus on the horizon-dependence of the sample complexity of tabular reinforcement learning. I will show the first tabular reinforcement learning algorithm whose sample complexity is completely independent of the horizon length. Our result resolves a fundamental open problem in reinforcement learning theory.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/6597/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email CIS for link\, cherylh@cis.upenn.edu
ORGANIZER;CN="Computer and Information Science":MAILTO:cherylh@cis.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220401T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220401T114500
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220309T145002Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220309T145002Z
UID:10007114-1648809000-1648813500@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:GRASP on Robotics: Kevin Lynch\, Northwestern University\, “Robot manipulation research in the Center for Robotics and Biosystems”
DESCRIPTION:*This seminar will be held in-person in Wu and Chen Auditorium as well as virtually via Zoom. \nResearch at the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University encompasses bio-inspiration\, neuromechanics\, human-machine systems\, and swarm robotics\, among other topics.  In this talk I will give an overview of some of our recent work\, with a particular focus on autonomous in-hand manipulation and human-robot collaborative manipulation with teams of mobile cobots.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/grasp-on-robotics-kevin-lynch-northwestern-university-robot-manipulation-research-in-the-center-for-robotics-and-biosystems/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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:20220401T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220401T150000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220118T193728Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220118T193728Z
UID:10007022-1648821600-1648825200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:PICS Colloquium: "Preserving microscale features in continuum models of fiber network materials"
DESCRIPTION:Fiber networks at different length scales represent a prevalent microstructure of highly deformable materials and biological matter. At the microscale\, these fiber networks are key for the function of biological systems\, while at the macroscale they endow materials with striking characteristics\, such as unusual kinematic behavior and high defect tolerance. Resolving the microstructure in discrete network models has helped understanding the mechanisms responsible for these outstanding characteristics\, and computational homogenization can be used to simulate the macroscopic response. Notwithstanding\, nonlinear continuum mechanics\, by definition only applicable at the larger length scales\, has likewise proved suitable to capture many of these special features in dedicated approaches. \nAfter discussing some recent examples of special characteristics and their implications in network materials\, this seminar will focus on analytical methods to model the transition from the single fiber to the homogenized network scale in continuum mechanical models. The commonly used micro-macro approaches used to this end are based on establishing relations between the macroscopic deformation field and the deformation of vectorial line elements\, which represent referential fiber directions and are defined on the unit sphere. For non-affine networks\, this concept reaches its limit\, and an alternative concept will be presented instead. The latter is based on a new type of constitutive relation between the distribution of fiber stretch and the macroscopic deformation gradient. This new approach\, albeit not free of challenges\, opens up new routes for constitutive modelling of network materials\, able to capture both the macroscale behavior and features of their distinct microscopic kinematics. Finally\, the approach allows reformulating the classical concepts\, and thus not only provides alternative strategies for their numerical implementation but also new perspectives that reveal inherent and potentially limiting assumptions behind these theories.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/pics-colloquium-preserving-microscale-features-in-continuum-models-of-fiber-network-materials/
LOCATION:Zoom – email kathom@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Penn Institute for Computational Science (PICS)":MAILTO:dkparks@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220404T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220404T100000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220401T172323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220401T172323Z
UID:10007147-1649062800-1649066400@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:GRASP Seminar: Robert J. Wood\, Harvard University\, “Soft robotics for delicate and dexterous manipulation”
DESCRIPTION:This seminar will be held virtually via Zoom. \nRobotic grasping and manipulation has historically been dominated by rigid grippers\, force/form closure constraints\, and extensive grasp trajectory planning. The advent of soft robotics offers new avenues to diverge from this paradigm by using strategic compliance to passively conform to grasped objects in the absence of active control\, and with minimal chance of damage to the object or surrounding environment. However\, while the reduced emphasis on sensing\, planning\, and control complexity simplifies grasping and manipulation tasks\, precision and dexterity are often lost. This talk will discuss efforts to increase the robustness of soft grasping and the dexterity of soft robotic manipulators\, with particular emphasis on grasping and in-hand manipulation tasks that are challenging for more traditional robot hands. This includes compliant objects\, thin flexible sheets\, and delicate organisms. Examples will be drawn from manipulation of everyday objects and field studies of deep sea sampling using soft end effectors.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/grasp-seminar-robert-j-wood-harvard-university-soft-robotics-for-delicate-and-dexterous-manipulation/
LOCATION:https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
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:20220404T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220404T130000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220131T131617Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220131T131617Z
UID:10007048-1649073600-1649077200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:PSOC@Penn: “A Biomechanical Approach that Differentially Regulates Thrombosis and Hemostasis from the Atomic Level" (Yunfeng Chen\, PhD)
DESCRIPTION:Physical Sciences in Oncology Center PSOC@Penn \nSpring 2022 Hybrid-Seminar Series \nTowne 225 / Raisler Lounge @ Noon (EST) \nFor Zoom link \, please contact manu@seas.upenn.edu
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/psocpenn-a-biomechanical-approach-that-differentially-regulates-thrombosis-and-hemostasis-from-the-atomic-level-yunfeng-chen-phd/
LOCATION:Raisler Lounge (Room 225)\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="PSOC":MAILTO:manu@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T113000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220303T175603Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220303T175603Z
UID:10007111-1649152800-1649158200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Seminar: "From Mollusk Shells to Dense Architectured Materials to Granular Crystals: How Building Blocks and Weak Interfaces Create High Mechanical Performance"
DESCRIPTION:Regular building blocks of controlled shape and size can be assembled to create fully dense “architectured” materials and structures. When the building blocks are very stiff and when they interact through much softer materials or even only by frictional contact\, the blocks can slide\, rotate\, separate or interlock collectively\, providing a wealth of tunable mechanisms\, precise structural properties and functionalities. In this talk I will illustrate this design strategy with three examples: First\, I will show how the brick-and-mortar architecture of nacre from mollusk shell exploits near-perfect structural periodicity and geometric hardening to promote large deformations and toughness\, which are key features we recently translated into tough\, impact resistant bioinspired glasses. In the next example geometric hardening is pushed to the extreme to create geometrical interlocking. Tetrahedral or octahedral blocks are assembled into “topologically interlocked” panels\, which can turn brittle ceramics into ductile\, tough and damage tolerant 2D panels purely from the interplay of block geometry\, interlocking and frictional sliding. Finally\, my third example will show how this design principle can be extended to three-dimensional granular crystals. Here we assembled millimeter-scale 3D printed grains of specific geometries into fully dense crystals\, which we found are 10 times stronger than traditional granular materials. These granular crystals display a rich set of mechanisms: Nonlinear deformations\, crystal plasticity reminiscent of atomistic mechanisms\, shear-induced dilatancy\, micro-buckling. Once fully understood and harnessed\, we envision that these mechanisms will lead to engineering materials with unusual and attractive combinations of mechanical performances.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-seminar-from-mollusk-shells-to-dense-architectured-materials-to-granular-crystals-how-building-blocks-and-weak-interfaces-create-high-mechanical-performance/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220328T145904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220328T145904Z
UID:10007133-1649156400-1649160000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ESE Spring Seminar - "Emergent Active Photonic Platforms for Next-Generation Mid-Infrared and Ultrafast Photonics"
DESCRIPTION:As two basic properties of light\, wavelength and timescale are central to numerous photonic applications. Compared to visible and near-infrared\, the longer wavelength mid-infrared spectral regime contains unique thermal visual information and chemical fingerprints of the environment.  On a different front\, femtosecond light sources and systems can enable ultrafast information processing\, sensing\, and computing. Yet\, current chip-scale photonic devices and systems are facing tremendous challenges in detecting\, generating\, and processing light of long wavelength and ultrashort timescale. Overcoming these challenges requires new materials and clever device architectures\, and these technologies stand poised to revolutionize fields such as biomedical sensing\, free-space communication\, and photonic computing in both classical and quantum domains. \nIn this talk\, I will show that by engineering the carrier and nonlinear dynamics in emergent active photonic materials\, we can detect photons beyond the regimes accessible to conventional laser sources and detectors\, and process information in an ultrafast manner. In the first half of my talk\, I will first briefly introduce the discovery of black phosphorus (BP) mid-infrared photonics\, highlighting the world’s first BP mid-infrared detectors with high internal gain\, as well as BP’s electrically tunable spectral response due to its unique bandgap tunability. Then\, I will discuss a new strategy for detecting longer wavelength mid-infrared radiations at 12 µm. This is achieved by harnessing the intrinsic mid-infrared plasmons in large-scale graphene. \nThe second half of my talk will cover my recent work on integrated lithium niobate (LN) ultrafast photonics in both classical and quantum domains. I will discuss the realization of ultra-strong nonlinear optical interactions and dynamics in dispersion-engineered and quasi-phase-matched integrated LN devices\, which have enabled 100 dB/cm optical parametric amplification\, ultra-wide bandwidth quantum squeezing\, as well as femtosecond and femtojoule all-optical switching. Finally\, I will outline promising pathways toward realizing chip-scale ultrafast light sources and microsystems for on-chip spectroscopic sensing\, mid-infrared free-space communication\, coherent all-optical computing\, and next-generation thermal vision technologies.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/ese-spring-seminar-emergent-active-photonic-platforms-for-next-generation-mid-infrared-and-ultrafast-photonics/
LOCATION:Raisler Lounge (Room 225)\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Electrical and Systems Engineering":MAILTO:eseevents@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220406T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220406T140000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220329T211913Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T211913Z
UID:10007138-1649250000-1649253600@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Deep Learning and Uncertainty Quantification: Methodologies and Applications"
DESCRIPTION:Uncertainty quantification is a recent emerging interdisciplinary area that leverages the power of statistical methods\, machine learning models\, numerical methods and data-driven approach to provide reliable inference for quantities of interest in natural science and engineering problems. In practice\, the sources of uncertainty come from different aspects such as: aleatoric uncertainty where the uncertainty comes from the observations or is due to the stochastic nature of the problem; epistemic uncertainty where the uncertainty comes from inaccurate mathematical models\, computational methods or model parametrization. Cope with the above different types of uncertainty\, a successful and scalable model for uncertainty quantification requires prior knowledge in the problem\, careful design of mathematical models\, cautious selection of computational tools\, etc. The fast growth in deep learning\, probabilistic methods and the large volume of data available across different research areas enable researchers to take advantage of these recent advances to propose novel methodologies to solve scientific problems where uncertainty quantification plays important roles. The objective of this dissertation is to address the existing gaps and propose new methodologies for uncertainty quantification with deep learning methods and demonstrate their power in engineering applications. \nOn the methodology side\, we first present a generative adversarial framework to model aleatoric uncertainty in stochastic systems. Secondly\, we leverage the proposed generative model with recent advances in physics-informed deep learning to learn the uncertainty propagation in solutions of partial differential equations. Thirdly\, we introduce a simple and effective approach for posterior uncertainty quantification for learning nonlinear operators. Fourthly\, we consider inverse problems of physical systems on identifying unknown forms and parameters in dynamical systems via observed noisy data. \nOn the application side\, we first propose an importance sampling approach for sequential decision making. Second\, we propose a physics-informed neural network method to quantify the epistemic uncertainty in cardiac activation mapping modeling and conduct active learning. Third\, we present an anto-encoder based framework for data augmentation and generation for data that is expensive to obtain such as single-cell RNA sequencing.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-ph-d-thesis-defense-deep-learning-and-uncertainty-quantification-methodologies-and-applications/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220406T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220406T160000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220401T170128Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220401T170128Z
UID:10007146-1649257200-1649260800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Spring 2022 GRASP SFI: Jason Ma\, University of Pennsylvania\, “Beyond Expected Reward in Offline Reinforcement Learning”
DESCRIPTION:*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Levine 512 and Virtual attendance via Zoom \nOffline reinforcement learning (RL)\, which uses pre-collected\, reusable offline data without further environment interactions\, permits sample-efficient\, scalable and practical decision-making; however\, most of the existing literature (1) focuses on improving algorithms for maximizing the expected cumulative reward\, and (2) assumes the reward function to be given. This limits the applicability of offline RL in many realistic settings — for instance\, there are often safety or risk constraints that need to be satisfied\, and the reward function is often difficult to specify. In this talk\, we will explore how we can (1) train a broad class of risk-sensitive agents using purely risk-neutral offline data and provably prevent out-of-distribution extrapolations\, and (2) bootstrap offline RL through flexible forms of expert demonstrations\, significantly expanding the scope of valid supervision for offline policy learning. With these advances\, we aim to bring offline RL closer to real-world applications.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/spring-2022-grasp-sfi-jason-ma-university-of-pennsylvania-beyond-expected-reward-in-offline-reinforcement-learning/
LOCATION:Levine 512
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:20220406T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220406T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220115T004024Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220115T004024Z
UID:10007018-1649259000-1649262600@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CBE Seminar: "Processive-Cleavage and Functionalization-Cleavage for Deconstruction of Polyolefins”
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nThe massive quantities of single-use plastics discarded each year requires new sustainable end-of-life solutions. Current technologies\, such as melt-processing for recycling or incineration for partial energy recovery\, are insufficient to deal with the crisis in its entirety. New methods involving chemical upcycling\, by catalytic conversion of the used materials into higher value products\, could provide molecules that make use of components of the existing catenated carbon starting materials. In addition\, few existing catalytic methods can break carbon-carbon bonds in aliphatic hydrocarbons lacking directing groups and introduce new heteroatom functionality. In collaborative work\, we have constructed and studied the first example of a hydrogenolysis catalyst that makes use of its 3D architecture to transform polyolefins into narrow distributions of shorter linear hydrocarbon chains. A second approach considers approaches to break carbon-carbon bonds in polyolefins and concurrently introduce reactive sites that could enable the use of products as chemical synthons. Early transition metal complexes are capable of breaking carbon-carbon bonds via β-alkyl elimination to form shorter carbon chains in oligomerylmetal species. Transmetalation to a main group element could afford reactive species to access fatty alcohols and fatty acids by oxidation or carboxylation\, for example. We have developed examples of such transformations\, based on organozirconium single-site catalysts and hydride-generating organoaluminum reagents.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cbe-seminar-processive-cleavage-and-functionalization-cleavage-for-deconstruction-of-polyolefins/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering":MAILTO:cbemail@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T113000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220314T173006Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220314T173006Z
UID:10007119-1649327400-1649331000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MSE Seminar: "Hierarchically Ordered Block Copolymer Materials via Nonequilibrium Processing"
DESCRIPTION:The diversity and vastness in the types of properties of living systems\, including enhanced mechanical properties of skin and bone\, or responsive optical properties derived from structural coloration\, are a result of the multiscale\, hierarchical structure of the materials. The field of materials chemistry has leveraged equilibrium concepts to create complex materials seen in nature\, yet achieving the remarkable properties present in living systems requires moving beyond this formalism by utilizing nonequilibrium processes to create new and exciting materials. Here\, the presentation will describe a new method to create hierarchically ordered\, physically crosslinked hydrogels\, and recent developments in further processing the hydrogel materials to create linear and rotary actuators. Specifically\, we have explored a modified nonsolvent-induced phase separation method termed rapid injection processing to produce hierarchically ordered hydrogels with structures and mechanical properties resembling those of living biomaterials. The hydrogel fabrication process entails injecting a triblock copolymer\, such as poly(styrene)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(styrene) (SOS)\, solution into a coagulating liquid (i.e.\, water)\, driving the hydrophobic polymer domains to organize at the nano and microscale and forming bulk hydrogels. We have established a universal and quantitative method for fabricating and controlling physically crosslinked hydrogels exhibiting hierarchical ordering by controlling the initial pre-injection triblock copolymer solution concentration and water-miscible organic solvent. Additionally\, water-swollen hydrogel materials are easily processed to create high-performance linear and rotary actuators via strain-programmed hydrogel crystallization. The crystallized fibers display enhanced mechanical properties due to the aligned alternating amorphous and crystalline domains\, and actuation is triggered using either water or heat. The work presented here highlights that by harnessing nonequilibrium methods\, it is possible to create materials with tunable physical properties via controlling the structure from the nanometer to the micrometer.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/mse-seminar-hierarchically-ordered-block-copolymer-materials-via-nonequilibrium-processing/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ORGANIZER;CN="Materials Science and Engineering":MAILTO:johnruss@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220329T164642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T164642Z
UID:10007136-1649329200-1649332800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ESE Spring Seminar - "Minimally Invasive and Chronically Stable Brain-Machine Interface"
DESCRIPTION:Stable chronic mapping of brain activities at the action potential level with high temporal resolution is essential for both fundamental neuroscience research and biomedical applications\, including cognitive studies\, memory encoding and retrieval\, and neural prostheses. Conventional neural probes can provide high spatiotemporal-resolution brain signal recordings independent of probing depth\, although they generally trigger foreign body response and tissue damage in the brain. As a result\, they are usually unable to stably interface with the brain in a chronic manner\, which substantially hinders their applications in brain-machine interface and neuroscience researches. In this seminar\, I will present a new paradigm\, mesh-like electronics\, for minimally invasive and chronically stable brain-machine interface. The mesh-like electronics can seamlessly interface with mammal brains with significantly reduced foreign body response and can stably record brain signals with high spatiotemporal resolution for more than 8 months. I will then present the application of mesh-like electronics for chronic recording and modulations of spinal cord sensory and motor neurons in awake mice. In the end\, I will present an alternative approach to designing minimally invasive neural electronics with hydrogel-based materials and the rapid fabrication of designed neural electronics with additive manufacturing. Both the mesh-like electronics and hydrogel electronics opened up new windows to stably communicating with the nervous system with minimum perturbation and foreign body responses.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/ese-spring-seminar-minimally-invasive-and-chronically-stable-brain-machine-interface/
LOCATION:Zoom – Meeting ID 992 3585 3697
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Electrical and Systems Engineering":MAILTO:eseevents@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20211210T164738Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211210T164738Z
UID:10006995-1649345400-1649349000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:BE Seminar: "Analysis of High-content Genomic Screening Data with Large-scale Optical Pooled Screens" (Paul Blainey\, MIT)
DESCRIPTION:This seminar will be held in person in Towne 337 and on zoom (check email for link or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu). \nGenetic screens are critical for the systematic identification of genes underlying cellular phenotypes. While pooling gene perturbations greatly increases screening throughput\, this approach was not yet compatible with the high-content imaging of complex and dynamic cellular phenotypes. Our group recently developed optical pooled screening using in situ sequencing-by-synthesis to link pooled perturbations with their associated visual phenotypic outcomes at the single-cell level in mammalian cells. We have since established this approach for very large-scale screens where hundreds of phenotypic parameters are recorded for each cell.  I will provide an overview of the applicability of this kind of approach and discuss in more detail two large-scale\, high-content collaborative screening projects\, one related to intracellular responses to viral infection\, and another focused on human cell division phenotypes.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/be-seminar-paul-blainey/
LOCATION:Room 337\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="Bioengineering":MAILTO:be@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220407T163000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220329T212252Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T212252Z
UID:10007139-1649345400-1649349000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "User-friendly\, Low-cost\, Microfluidic Devices with Capillary Circuits for Multiplexed\, Isothermal\, Point-of-care Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests"
DESCRIPTION:Rapid\, sensitive\, and specific detection of causative pathogens is key to personalized medicine and the prompt implementation of appropriate mitigation measures to reduce disease transmission\, mortality\, morbidity\, and cost. Conventional molecular detection methods require trained personnel\, sophisticated equipment\, and specialized laboratories\, which limits their use to centralized laboratories. To enable molecular diagnostics at the point of need and in resource-poor settings\, inexpensive\, simple devices that combine multiple unit operations and are capable of co-detecting endemic pathogens are needed. \nIn this dissertation\, I have developed microfluidic devices with capillary circuits to automate liquid distribution\, eliminating the need for expensive equipment\, sophisticated laboratory facilities\, and skilled personnel to enable molecular diagnostics at the point of need. Capillary valves with different sizes were developed and implemented to aliquot samples and reagents to multiple reaction chambers and to enable draining liquids from supply lines without affecting liquids in the various reaction chambers\, enabling bubble-free operation. The sealing of my microfluidic devices to prevent evaporation during incubation is facilitated with phase-change materials and capillary-induced motion. When my microfluidic chip is heated to its incubation temperature\, the phase change material melts and flows to seal ports of entry and air vent. Numerical simulations were carried out to assess the viability of on-chip\, in-house developed\, two-stage isothermal nucleic acid amplification in the presence of diffusion and advection. An Android-based smartphone application was developed to automate real-time signal monitoring\, time series image analysis\, and diagnostic result interpretation. Three different 3D-printed\, portable\, microfluidic devices with capillary circuits were designed\, fabricated\, and tested for single-stage and two-stage\, isothermal nucleic acid amplification with either liquid reagents or ii pre-stored dry reagents that do not require a cold chain. All devices have proved successful for rapid\, sensitive\, and specific multiplexed detections of human and animal pathogens.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-ph-d-thesis-defense-user-friendly-low-cost-microfluidic-devices-with-capillary-circuits-for-multiplexed-isothermal-point-of-care-nucleic-acid-amplification-tests/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220408T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220408T114500
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220113T180556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220113T180556Z
UID:10007012-1649413800-1649418300@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:GRASP on Robotics: Jing Xiao\, Worcester Polytechnic Institute\, “Perception-Action Synergy in Uncertain Environments”
DESCRIPTION:Many robotic applications require a robot to operate in an environment with unknowns or uncertainty\, at least initially\, before it gathers enough information about the environment. In such a case\, a robot must rely on sensing and perception to feel its way around. Moreover\, it has to couple sensing/perception and motion synergistically in real time\, such that perception guides motion\, while motion enables better perception. In this talk\, I will introduce our research in combining perception and motion of a robot to achieve autonomous contact-rich assembly\, object recognition\, object modeling\, and constrained manipulation in uncertain or unknown environments\, under force/torque\, RGBD\, or touch sensing. I will also introduce our recent work on integrated semantic SLAM and accurate loop closure detection\, SmSLAM+LCD.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/grasp-on-robotics-perception-action-synergy-in-uncertain-environments/
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:20220408T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220408T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220404T123530Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T123530Z
UID:10007148-1649415600-1649419200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:ESE Spring Seminar - "End-to-end Learning for Robust Decision Making"
DESCRIPTION:Because the physical world is complex\, ambiguous\, and unpredictable\, autonomous agents must be engineered to exhibit a human-level degree of flexibility and generality — far beyond what we are capable of explicitly programming. Achieving such rich and intricate decision making requires rethinking the foundations of intelligence across all stages of the autonomous learning lifecycle. \nIn this talk\, I will share new learning-based approaches towards dynamic\, resilient\, and robust decision making of autonomous systems. Such solutions are capable of not only reliably solving a particular problem\, but also anticipating what could go wrong in order to strategize\, adapt\, and continuously learn. We advance robust decision making by (1) computationally designing rich synthetic environments of hard to collect\, out-of-distribution edge-cases; (2) creating efficient\, expressive\, and interpretable learning models; and (3) developing adaptive\, robust\, and grounded learning algorithms\, and exploiting their interdependence to realize generalizable decision making.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/ese-spring-seminar-end-to-end-learning-for-robust-decision-making/
LOCATION:Heilmeier Hall (Room 100)\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Electrical and Systems Engineering":MAILTO:eseevents@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220408T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220408T150000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220308T163523Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220308T163523Z
UID:10007113-1649426400-1649430000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:PICS Colloquium "The Dynamics of Gas-Particle Partitioning: Insights from Laboratory\, Field\, and Modeling studies"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Ultrafine aerosols can significantly influence Earth’s climate if they are able to grow to sizes large enough to interact with the incoming solar radiation and nucleate cloud droplets. In clear air\, aerosol growth occurs via gas-to-particle conversion of condensable trace gases\, including sulfuric acid\, nitric acid\, hydrochloric acid\, ammonia\, and myriad oxidation products of many different volatile organic compounds. Nearly all aerosol models developed to date to simulate the aerosol growth assume instantaneous equilibrium between semivolatile gases and submicron-sized particles. This assumption effectively favors the growth of the largest pre-existing particles in accordance with Raoult’s law. In this talk\, I will use a combination of laboratory\, field\, and modeling studies to show that the equilibrium assumption may not always hold\, especially when aerosol growth occurs from condensation of supersaturated vapors and/or when the pre-existing aerosols are in a solid or semisolid phase state. In such cases\, gas-particle partitioning must be treated as a dynamic process and size-resolved bulk diffusion limitation must be considered inside semisolid particles. I will outline a computationally efficient dynamic gas-particle partitioning treatment in the MOSAIC aerosol model to address this issue and discuss implications on the growth of ultrafine aerosols from semivolatile vapors.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/pics-colloquium-the-dynamics-of-gas-particle-partitioning-insights-from-laboratory-field-and-modeling-studies/
LOCATION:Zoom – email kathom@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ORGANIZER;CN="Penn Institute for Computational Science (PICS)":MAILTO:dkparks@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T103000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220331T212512Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220331T212512Z
UID:10007142-1649669400-1649673000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Relationships Between Structure\, Dynamics\, and Flow in Sheared Amorphous Materials"
DESCRIPTION:Amorphous solids\, those composed of haphazardly arranged constituents\, are found everywhere from our windows as silicate glass\, in the ground and foundations as mud and concrete\, and our grocery stores as granular piles of oranges. Even though they can be found over a huge range of length scales\, it remains a challenge to systematically design their mechanical properties using knowledge of their microstructure. In this thesis\, I investigate the link between the microstructure and the mechanical properties of a-thermal solids. \nFirst\, I probe the particle trajectories for chaotic signatures that relate to bulk rheology. Particles are confirmed to exhibit chaotic\, Brownian like motion during cyclic shear\, even though the particles are large enough that thermal motion is negligible. I also find that\, the average area traced by returning particles is proportional to the amplitude of strain\, which could be useful for \emph{in situ} measurements in industrial\, granular\, mixing applications. \nNext\, I examine the interconnection between particle dynamics and the arrangements of the constituents. I calculate the characteristic time for particles to shift past each other\, called relaxation time\, and the configurational entropy of the system in excess of a reference ideal gas. I show that the relaxation time at any given instant is related to the excess entropy a quarter shear cycle later\, which implies that the dynamics of particles shape the eventual structure. This means it is possible to take a snapshot of particle positions and infer its mechanical past. \nFinally\, I focus on the interplay between particle positions and bulk yield by using concepts from kinetics\, thermodynamics\, statistical mechanics\, and shear transformation zone theory. I establish a relationship between excess entropy and energy dissipation and uncover a novel definition for the yield transition based on memory signatures within the microstructure. Using these observations\, I derive a phenomenological model that links the microstructure to bulk rheology that is physically informed and whose parameters are all quantitatively measurable. This dissertation elucidates how the statistics of particle configurations and dynamics give rise to the macroscopic transition from elasticity to plasticity during yield of amorphous\, a-thermal solids.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-ph-d-thesis-defense-relationships-between-structure-dynamics-and-flow-in-sheared-amorphous-materials/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T130000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220131T131755Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220131T131755Z
UID:10007049-1649678400-1649682000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:PSOC@Penn Seminar: Morgan Huse\, PhD
DESCRIPTION:Physical Sciences in Oncology Center PSOC@Penn \nSpring 2022 Hybrid-Seminar Series \nTowne 225 / Raisler Lounge @ Noon (EST) \nFor Zoom link \, please contact manu@seas.upenn.edu
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/psocpenn-seminar-morgan-huse-phd/
LOCATION:Raisler Lounge (Room 225)\, Towne Building\, 220 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="PSOC":MAILTO:manu@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220411T153000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220404T143341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T143341Z
UID:10007149-1649685600-1649691000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CBE PhD Dissertation Defense | "Understanding the relationship between clot contraction and platelet biology under hemodynamic conditions"
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: \n“As thrombosis proceeds\, platelets in a clot can expose phosphatidylserine (PS)\, providing a negatively charged surface for thrombin generation. These PS+ platelets have been shown to sort to the perimeter of platelet masses via platelet contraction. However\, it remains unclear how thrombin and fibrin affect PS+ platelet sorting within a clot. We used an 8-channel microfluidic device to perfuse blood over collagen/TF to evaluate temporal and spatial PS+ platelet sorting. We found that thrombin inhibition\, fibrin polymerization inhibition\, or fibrinolysis each increased clot contraction and PS sorting. Fibrin attenuated clot contraction and PS sorting. Clots without fibrin had a 3.6-times greater contraction than clots with fibrin. Based on these results\, we wanted to study contraction further. We tested the effect of inhibitors of ADP and/or thromboxane A2 (TXA2) signaling on clot contraction. We developed two automated imaging methods to score fluorescent platelet percent contraction: (1) “global” measurement of clot length\, and (2) “local” changes in surface area coverage of platelet aggregates within the clot. Total platelet FI and global aggregate contraction were highly correlated (R2 =0.87). Local aggregate contraction was more pronounced than global aggregate contraction across all inhibition conditions. Conditions with TXA2 inhibition were shown to significantly reduce local aggregate contraction relative to conditions without TXA2\, unlike conditions with ADP inhibition. Lastly\, we recently obtained a glycoprotein VI (GPVI) inhibitor. GPVI is a collagen receptor on platelets that drives platelet activation; however\, its role at later stages in clotting remains unclear. We tested the effect of anti-GPVI Fab on PS exposure\, which occurs at later stages of platelet activation. On collagen/TF\, Fab present at t=0s reduced PS exposure\, but had no effect when added 30 or 90 seconds later. Thrombin generated via PS exposure had an important role in driving platelet deposition when Fab was present\, since inhibition of PS via annexin V binding in the presence of Fab significantly inhibited platelet deposition. Our results from these studies help elucidate the relationship between platelet activation\, PS exposure\, fibrin\, and clot contraction.“
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cbe-phd-dissertation-defense-understanding-the-relationship-between-clot-contraction-and-platelet-biology-under-hemodynamic-conditions/
LOCATION:Greenberg Lounge (Room 114)\, Skirkanich Hall\, 210 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Doctoral,Graduate,Student,Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering":MAILTO:cbemail@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220411T185012Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T185012Z
UID:10007158-1649757600-1649764800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:CBE PhD Dissertation Defense | “The role of clot structure and mechanics on hemodynamics and pharmacology”
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: \n“Hemostatic clots have a core/shell hierarchy comprised of a P-selectin positive core surrounded by a P-selectin negative shell. A new human blood microfluidic assay utilizing a 2-stage assay was developed to interrogate core/shell mechanics. By first perfusing whole blood over a collagen/TF surface and then swapping out the blood for buffer\, we were able to pause thrombus growth at a specific point in time. The shear rate was then drastically increased to interrogate platelet-platelet interactions. We found that thrombin inhibition\, but not fibrin\, led to greater erosion of the thrombus\, and that the core region of the thrombus was stable with or without the presence of fibrin. Next\, we tested the effects of ADP or TxA2 inhibitors on thrombus growth and stability. We found that inhibiting TxA2 production did not affect platelet deposition\, but the platelets that did attach to the clot were more likely to shear off after being subjected to shear. Both P2Y1 and P2Y12 antagonism led to decreased initial platelet deposition and more platelet erosion. P2Y12 signaling had the most significant effect on deposition and stability suggesting that it might have an amplification effect on other signaling pathways. We demonstrated a new method to examine thrombus strength and stability and demonstrated the effect of thrombin on core size and the importance of secondary agonists on stability in the shell region.\nWe used an 8-channel microfluidic device to examine the efficacy of ex vivo apixaban on platelet and fibrin deposition in neonates with CHD. This patient population was shown to have significantly more activity blood after surgery We found that apixaban drastically lowers coagulation activity in neonatal blood before and after surgery and significantly prolongs occlusion time to a greater extent than adults. We also demonstrated that andexanet alfa reverses the inhibitory effect of apixaban in both neonates and adults. These results demonstrated that microfluidics are a useful way to examine pharmacological effects\, especially in a population where only small quantities of blood can be drawn.“
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cbe-phd-dissertation-defense-the-role-of-clot-structure-and-mechanics-on-hemodynamics-and-pharmacology/
LOCATION:Greenberg Lounge (Room 114)\, Skirkanich Hall\, 210 South 33rd Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Doctoral,Graduate,Student,Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering":MAILTO:cbemail@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T233000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220329T181601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T181601Z
UID:10007137-1649757600-1649806200@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Seminar: "The Statistical Mechanics of Granular Clogging"
DESCRIPTION:The gravity-driven flow of grains from a hole in a hopper is an iconic granular phenomenon. It’s different from a fluid in that the rate is independent of fill height\, and more spectacularly so in that it can suddenly and unexpectedly clog. How does the susceptibility to clogging decrease with increasing hole size\, and is there a well-defined clogging transition above which the system never clogs? This problem is distinct from jamming due to the presence of boundaries and gradients. We show how the fraction F of flow configurations that cause a clog may be deduced from the average mass discharged between clogs. We construct a simple model to account for the observation that F decays exponentially in hole width to the power of dimensionality. Thus the clogging transition is not sharp but rather is defined by observation limits\, similar to the glass transition. When the system is immersed in water\, F barely changes. Therefore\, grain momenta play only a secondary role in destabilizing weak incipient arches and the crucial microscopic variables are likely the grain positions. Work is now in progress to distinguish free-flowing versus clog-causing position microstates using machine learning. Altogether\, this gives an entirely new way to think about clogging\, beyond the usual approach of investigating the zoology of possible arches and their mechanical stability.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-seminar-the-statistical-mechanics-of-granular-clogging/
LOCATION:Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101)\, Levine Hall\, 3330 Walnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Seminar
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T113000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220331T213440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220331T213440Z
UID:10007143-1649759400-1649763000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Metal and Air Generate Power for Robots"
DESCRIPTION:In many cases\, the size and weight of energy storage technologies required to power robotic systems are too large or massive for a robot to carry\, leading to limited operational times and long recharging times over which the robot remains unused. Computer-free autonomous decision making based on environmental cues provides exciting alternatives to classic control systems for robots and smart materials. Although this functionality has been studied in microswimmers and active colloids where energy in the surrounding liquid is prevalent\, there are no devices that can provide sufficient power from environmental chemicals to move and steer larger scale robots and vehicles in dry environments. \nIn this talk\, I will show a new approach for powering robots and electronics by electrochemically scavenging energy from metal surfaces. This approach overcomes energy storage scaling laws by allowing robots and electronics to extract energy from large volumes of energy dense material without having to carry the material on-board. Then\, we characterized the evolution of the metal during discharging by using FIB and Micro-CT in our system. Next\, we demonstrated an environmentally controlled voltage source that\, when directly attached to electric motors on a vehicle\, can increase the energy available to the vehicle and provide computer-free autonomous navigation toward chemical fuels in the environment and away from hazards. The voltage source uses electrochemistry to extract power from the chemical fuels\, and the vehicle avoids hazards that reduce the output voltage of electrochemical kinetics. \nThese works present a novel technique to simultaneously steer and power vehicles and robots without computers by directly responding to a wide variety of chemical fields in their environment using electrochemistry.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-ph-d-thesis-defense-metal-and-air-generate-power-for-robots/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220412T140000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220331T213835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220331T213835Z
UID:10007144-1649768400-1649772000@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Mechanical Properties of Fibrous Network Materials"
DESCRIPTION:We discuss mechanical behavior of specific fibrous network materials\, including the evolution of tension in fibrin clots\, compression of pulmonary emboli\, and fracture of Whatman filter paper. \nThe first material\, fibrin clots\, consist of random networks of fibrin fibers. When clots form by polymerization they develop tensile pre-stresses. We construct a mathematical model for the evolution of tension in isotropic fibrin gels. As the fiber diameter grows over time\, properties which depend on it\, such as the stored energy per unit length of a single fiber\, the force-stretch relation of a fiber\, and therefore the tension in the network as a whole\, also evolve over time. \nThe second fibrous network is pulmonary emboli\, which consist of random networks of fibrin fibers with fluid-filled pores and red blood cells (RBCs). Stress-strain responses of human pulmonary emboli under cyclic compression were measured\, revealing that emboli exhibit hysteretic stress-strain curves characteristic of foams. We describe the hysteretic response of emboli using a model of phase transitions\, in which the compressed embolus is segregated into coexisting rarefied and densified phases whose fractions change as compression progresses. Our model takes into account RBC rupture in compressed emboli and stresses due to fluid flow through their small pores. The mechanical response of emboli is shown to vary depending on their RBC content. \nThe third fibrous network is Whatman filter paper. The effect of humidity on properties such as out-of-plane fracture toughness of Whatman filter paper is studied for a broad range of relative humidities. Crack growth is modeled using traction-separation laws\, whose parameters are fitted to experiments. Additionally\, a novel model is developed to capture the high peak and sudden drop in the experimental force measurement caused by the existence of an initiation region\, an imperfect zone ahead of a nascent crack. The relative effect of each independent parameter is explored to better understand the humidity dependence of the traction-separation parameters.\nThe materials studied have biological\, clinical\, and industrial applications\, and the methods described here are also applicable to other fibrous network materials.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/meam-ph-d-thesis-defense-mechanical-properties-of-fibrous-network-materials/
LOCATION:Zoom – Email MEAM for Link\, peterlit@seas.upenn.edu
CATEGORIES:Dissertation or Thesis Defense
ORGANIZER;CN="Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics":MAILTO:meam@seas.upenn.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T130000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220405T192052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220405T192052Z
UID:10007153-1649851200-1649854800@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Cell Mechanics Discussion Group
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/cell-mechanics-discussion-group/
LOCATION:https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB)":MAILTO:annjeong@seas.upenn.edu
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T160000
DTSTAMP:20260406T111613
CREATED:20220408T195819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220408T195819Z
UID:10007157-1649862000-1649865600@seasevents.nmsdev7.com
SUMMARY:Spring 2022 GRASP SFI: Georgios Georgakis\, University of Pennsylvania\, “Cross-modal Map Learning for Vision and Language Navigation”
DESCRIPTION:*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Levine 512 and Virtual attendance via Zoom \nWe consider the problem of Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) in previously unseen realistic indoor environments. Arguably\, the biggest challenge in VLN is grounding the natural language to the visual input. The majority of current methods for VLN are trained end-to-end using either unstructured memory such as LSTM\, or using cross-modal attention over the egocentric RGB-D observations of the agent. We are motivated by studies on navigation of biological systems that suggest humans build cognitive maps during such tasks. In contrast to other works\, we argue that an egocentric map offers a more natural representation for this task. In this talk\, we will explore a novel navigation system for the VLN task in continuous environments that learns a language-informed representation for both map and trajectory prediction. This approach semantically grounds the language through an egocentric map prediction task that learns to hallucinate information outside the field-of-view of the agent. This is followed by spatial grounding of the instruction by path prediction on the egocentric map. We experimentally test the basic hypothesis that language-driven navigation can be solved given a map\, and then show competitive results on the full VLN-CE benchmark.
URL:https://seasevents.nmsdev7.com/event/spring-2022-grasp-sfi-georgios-georgakis-university-of-pennsylvania-cross-modal-map-learning-for-vision-and-language-navigation/
LOCATION:Levine 512
ORGANIZER;CN="General Robotics%2C Automation%2C Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab":MAILTO:grasplab@seas.upenn.edu
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