CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Mechanical Confinement as a Driver of Aneuploidy in Cancer" (Steven Phan)
2025-09-26 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:

Cell confinement and mechanical stress are common in solid tumors, but any impact on genetic changes remains unclear. Using chromosome reporters (ChReporters) that reveal heritable losses of chromosomes in live cells, we discover that ChReporter losses are surprisingly equivalent when cells are subjected to either mild confinement (6-10µm) or strong confinement (2µm). Strong confinement causes interphase nuclear rupture in most cells, whereas mild confinement suffices to perturb mitotic spindles, prolong pro/metaphase, and induce micronuclei. However, micronuclei that form upon chromosome mis-segregation in mitosis do not emerge during mild confinement but do emerge following release – indicating a mitotic memory of the confined state. Live cell imaging post-confinement revealed that mitotic cells and their daughters also tend to arrest or die. Delayed induction of micronuclei and ChReporter loss are phenocopied by transient disruption of microtubules. Inhibition of cell cycle entry using a clinically deployed CDK4/6-inhibitor further shows ChReporter loss requires mitosis and inhibitor washout increases ChReporter loss. Consistent with a memory of spindle confinement, single cell RNA-sequencing demonstrates enrichment of chromosome segregation factors long after confinement.

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Pneumatic Actuation in Soft Robotic System"
2025-09-26 15:00 - 16:00 | CTA
Soft robotic systems, constructed from compliant and adaptive materials, offer advantages such as safe interaction with humans, flexibility in motion, and the ability to conform to unstructured environments. These capabilities make them promising for applications in healthcare, manufacturing, and exploration. A central challenge, however, is the development of actuation strategies that are versatile, efficient, and capable of integrating sensing and control.
This dissertation investigates pneumatic actuation as a broad platform for advancing soft robotic systems. Pneumatic systems naturally couple deformation with pressure signals, enabling not only motion generation but also embedded feedback and logic. Three representative studies are presented: the design of pneumatic actuators that support diverse motion behaviors, the development of stimuli-responsive valves that achieve autonomous environmental interaction, and the creation of pneumatically controlled lattices that demonstrate tunable mechanical properties.
Together, these works highlight the role of pneumatic actuation as more than a source of force, showing how it can support adaptability, responsiveness, and structural intelligence in soft systems, while pointing toward future directions in miniaturization and simplified pneumatic control.

MSE PhD Defense: "Integrated Photonics for Intelligent Parameter Retrieval"
2025-09-29 11:30 - 12:30 | Room 313, Singh Center for Nanotechnology, 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Thesis Committee:
Prof. Liang Feng (Chair)
Prof. Firooz Aflatouni
Prof. Ritesh Agarwal
Prof. I-Wei Chen

Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/2449152154

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Gas Encapsulating Microcapsules (GEMs)" (CK Yeh)
2025-09-29 12:00 - 14:00 | Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, Room 121, 231 S 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:

Microcapsules that can respond under hydrostatic pressure would open a new avenue of application in ultrasound- or impact-induced release of therapeutic agents. While microcapsules that are designed to release cargo under uniaxial compressive loadings have been developed, they are filled with liquid, rendering them insensitive to hydrostatic pressure. To overcome this limitation, bubbles can be introduced into the core of the capsule that can impart hydrostatic pressure sensitivity. Although microcapsules that contain bubbles have been reported, the methods for their fabrication make it difficult to control the size of the bubble and microcapsule. In this work, we use microfluidics to create uniform microcapsules while also utilizing osmosis-induced-cavitation to convert microcapsules into gas-encapsulating microcapsules (GEMs). Following GEMs formation under high salt concentrations, the size of the bubble can be modulated by placing the GEMs back into relatively lower salt concentrations. GEMs with a well-defined thickness to diameter ratio (t/D) and volume fraction of gas are subjected to a known hydrostatic pressure through the means of a drop tower. These data establish a relationship between how the thickness to diameter ratio and volume fraction of bubble influence the rupture pressure and drug release, helping to establish the foundation for a new class of on-demand therapeutics that take advantage of pressure inputs.

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Engineering Multiphasic Processes to Enhance Droplet Microfluidics and Biofuel Conversion" (Owen Land)
2025-09-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, Room 121, 231 S 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:

Multiphasic processes underpin nearly every aspect of modern life; from the food we eat and the clothes we wear to the medicines that sustain us and the energy systems that power our world. This thesis presents three contributions to the advancement of multiphasic processes by developing intelligent control, scalable processing, and reactor design. First, artificial intelligence is applied to droplet and bubble microfluidics through convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in the form of soft-sensors. Coupled with proportional–integral–derivative (PID) feedback loops, these sensors enable autonomous control of droplet size and flow regimes, maintaining stable operation under disturbances and recovering from failure modes without operator intervention. The framework is further extended to complex geometries, including double emulsions and anisotropic hydrogel rods, demonstrating adaptability across several multiphase microfluidic systems. Second, a sliding film evaporator (SFE) is developed as a continuous method for solvent removal from PLGA emulsions. By spreading emulsions into thin films across temperature-controlled channels, the SFE accelerates chloroform removal while maintaining particle uniformity, overcoming the inconsistency and scalability limitations of traditional evaporation techniques. Finally, bubble-mediated transesterification reactors are developed for biodiesel synthesis from algae-derived triglycerides. Methanol microbubbles enhance interfacial mass transfer and lower the apparent activation energy, enabling >95% conversion under moderate conditions. Kinetic studies coupled with ASPEN PLUS simulations demonstrate reactor scalability, while highlighting the importance of diffuser design and continuous glycerol removal. Together, these contributions provide a pathway to the continual improvement of multiphasic process engineering.

MEAM Seminar: "Taking Advantage of Coherent Vortex Wakes: Formation Flight and High Density Tidal Energy Harvesting"
2025-09-30 10:15 - 11:15 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Wake flows – the fluid mechanical “debris” shed behind an aerodynamic body – are often characterized by unsteady, turbulent, low-momentum fluid. Usually these wakes are to be avoided, but in several situations the wake can exhibit an organized structure consisting of well-defined high energy vortices. Examples of these coherent, or structured, wakes include trailing vortex flows behind animals in flight or swimming fish as well as the vortices shed behind wings pitching to high angles of attack. In this talk I will illustrate several examples of structured wakes in both natural and engineered systems, drawing from several projects from our lab including measurements of enhanced renewable energy harvesting using arrays of oscillating flow turbines, and energy savings experienced by birds flying in small flocks.

ASSET Seminar: "Title TBD"
2025-10-01 12:00 - 13:15 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414, 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
Abstract TBD

Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98963621993

Fall 2025 GRASP SFI: Binghao Huang, Columbia University, "Scaling Touch: Flexible Tactile Skin for Dexterous Manipulation"
2025-10-01 15:00 - 16:00 | Levine 307, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance via Zoom.
ABSTRACT
Tactile and visual perception are crucial for fine-grained human interactions with the environment. Developing similar multimodal sensing capabilities for robots can significantly enhance and expand their manipulation skills. This talk presents a scalable tactile stack that couples flexible, large-area tactile skin with multimodal perception and simulation-driven learning. (1) Hardware. I will first introduce a low-cost, flexible tactile “skin,” outline the associated design choices, explain why I value it over other sensors in different contexts, and describe how I integrate it into the system to ensure high-quality tactile data. (2) Learning. Vision and touch have distinct natures yet are both important for robot decision making; I will explain how we encode tactile and visual data so that both contribute effectively to the decision-making process. (3) Scaling up Tactile Data. I will present two directions: (i) using portable tactile devices to collect large-scale real-world tactile data and leveraging this dataset to enhance policy learning, and (ii) leveraging tactile simulation to increase policy robustness. We use a real-to-sim-to-real pipeline that calibrates a GPU-parallel tactile simulation and uses RL fine-tuning to let policies explore with the small corrective “wiggling” behaviors required for tight-fit bimanual assembly.

MSE Seminar: "Quantum Technologies with Atom-Light Interaction" Chuanwei Zhang - Washington University in St. Louis
2025-10-02 10:30 - 12:00 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
From knotted cords to contemporary computers, the revolution in information technologies has been a major driving force of human civilization. Since its emergence in the early 1900s, quantum mechanics has played a foundational role in enabling many
transformative technologies—such as lasers and transistors—that are now recognized as hallmarks of the first quantum revolution. Over the past two decades, the focus has shifted to the second quantum revolution, which aims to develop novel quantum
technologies that harness the creation, manipulation, and measurement of quantum superposition and entanglement in physical systems. In this talk, I will provide an overview of this rapidly evolving field and highlight the transformative potential of
quantum technologies through two illustrative examples involving ultracold atoms and trapped ions controlled by light: (i) quantum simulation of topological quantum matter, such as triply-degenerate fermions; and (ii) quantum squeezing and sensing via
exceptional points in nonlinear optical media. Despite significant technological challenges, these emerging quantum technologies hold great promise to revolutionize computing, communication, security, materials science, and sensing in the near future.

FOLDS seminar: Theory and practice of LLM quantization
2025-10-02 12:00 - 13:00 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 306, 3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98220304722

Modern LLMs process information by repeatedly applying a basic primitive of matrix multiplication. Estimates show that about 60-84% of the energy consumed by LLMs goes into memory load/store operations. How can we reduce this power consumption? Tokens start as about 16-bit integers but get mapped to vectors of floats of length in the 1000s, suggesting very low information density per dimension. Thus, unsurprisingly there has been much success in reducing precision of both weights and activations without much loss in LLM performance. In this talk we will present information-theoretic analysis of quantized representations and show how it lead us to creating NestQuant, a new SOTA algorithm for weight/KV-cache/activations (ICML’2025).

Fall 2025 GRASP on Robotics: Jiatao Gu, University of Pennsylvania, “Towards Robust World Models”
2025-10-03 10:30 - 11:45 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium.
ABSTRACT
Autonomous agents need a world model that explains observations, predicts what comes next, and chooses actions over long horizons. Think of catching a ball: the robot must infer where it is now and where it will be next—even when it slips out of view—and move to intercept. Recently, large diffusion-based video models trained on internet-scale data have shown promising results for world modeling; however, they remain brittle—forecasting errors accumulate over time, especially during long open-loop rollouts without geometric grounding or collective feedback. In this talk, we present our recent research toward a more robust video generation foundation. Instead of diffusion, we build on scalable normalizing flows–a different family of generative models based on invertible transformations. We will detail the mathematical formulation, explain how these models can be trained end to end, and describe how we construct a practical video model from this framework. We will conclude by outlining research directions derived from this approach and steps toward a truly robust world model.

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Microscopic Surface Electrochemical Actuators for Voltage-Tunable Optical Elements"
2025-10-03 12:30 - 13:30 | Brand Details
Surface electrochemical actuators (SEAs) harness ion-induced surface stress changes to produce large bending deformations at the microscale. They have previously been applied in microrobot locomotion and microbattery validation, demonstrating their versatility as low-voltage microscopic actuators. Here, we extend their functionality by showing that ultra-thin platinum membranes (10 nm thick, 10–100 µm wide), fabricated via low-temperature lithographically patterned atomic layer deposition, can undergo voltage-driven buckling displacements of several hundred nanometers in aqueous electrolyte. These out-of-plane motions, controlled within ±150 mV of applied bias, span the full visible wavelength range when integrated as the movable membrane of an optical resonator. The buckling mechanics are characterized using atomic force microscopy and finite element analysis, while we also develop a hyperspectral imaging method to optically reconstruct the device topology. The actuators operate with response times on the order of tens of milliseconds and exhibit static power consumptions below a nanowatt, while remaining directly compatible with CMOS circuitry. By coupling surface-stress–driven mechanics with electronic control, these buckling-enabled actuators (BEAs) provide a pathway toward compact, low-power, voltage-tunable optical elements for applications in reflective displays and holography.

PICS Colloquium: Flow and heat transfer over rough walls: fundamental physics, numerical simulations, and bulk parametrizations with Elie Bou-Zeid
2025-10-03 14:00 - 15:00 | PICS Conference Room 534 – A Wing , 5th Floor, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Understanding the physical processes modulating the transport of scalars, such as heat, over very rough surfaces is essential for understanding the thermal environment of
cities, how wind and solar farms modify heat and water exchanges between the
atmosphere and Earth surface, and parameterizing surface physics in coarser Earth
systems models. This talk examines this problem in the urban context. Since passive
scalars such as water vapor are advected with the flow, broad similarity is expected
between the widely-studied momentum transfer problem and its scalar counterpart.
However, unlike momentum that is dominated by form drag over very rough walls,
scalar transport must occur through the viscous exchanges at the solid-fluid interface.
This results in transport dissimilarity, as well as in a continuous dependence on the
Reynolds number. In addition, the spatial variability of the geometry gives rise to the so-
called dispersive fluxes that can be larger than conventional turbulent fluxes in the
roughness layer. In this talk we will use large eddy simulations to examine the role of
surface topography, the resulting transport dissimilarity, and novel approaches for
parametrizing scalar exchanges using the surface renewal theory.

MEAM Seminar: "Self-assembly of Colloidal Diamond by Multiple Routes"
2025-10-07 10:15 - 11:15 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
There has been considerable interest in the colloidal self-assembly of photonic crystals with a diamond structure, owing to their exceptional optical properties, such as a wide photonic bandgap and relative insensitivity to disorder. These materials are valuable for applications in optical circuits, low-threshold lasers, sensors, and solar cells. Given the three-dimensional nature of photonic crystals, colloidal self-assembly is a favored fabrication method.
In this context, we outline several different approaches for the self-assembly of colloidal diamond and zincblende. Some methods utilize specific DNA interactions, while others rely on depletion interactions. One notable advantage of the depletion interaction is its capacity to guide particles that come into contact at any point on their surfaces toward the desired interlocking configuration. This funneling mechanism significantly accelerates crystallization kinetics, allowing for crystallization at lower particle concentrations. The most effective routes may involve a combination of both types of interactions.

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: "Exploring Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Across Length Scales: From Atomistic Bias Potentials To Phase-Field Models" (Alexander M. Johnson)
2025-10-07 10:30 - 12:00 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 306, 3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Abstract:

Liquid–liquid phase separation is a fundamental thermodynamic process that governs structure and function in biological systems, chemical separations, and multiphase materials. Within this broad field, computational studies play a critical role in advancing understanding of this phenomenon by enabling investigation of phase behavior across multiple length scales. In this thesis, liquid–liquid phase separation is explored across scales ranging from atomistic simulations to phase-field models. At the atomistic level, concepts from phase-field theory are used to derive a bias potential that enables direct control of liquid–liquid phase separation in molecular simulations. Within this enhanced sampling framework, macroscopic thermodynamic quantities such as excess free energy, interaction parameters, and activity coefficients are obtained, as demonstrated using binary Lennard–Jones mixtures as model systems. Furthermore, biasing liquid–liquid phase separation under different environmental conditions provides a pathway to relate free energies of phase separation to the stimuli response of Lennard–Jones mixtures and aqueous monomer solutions. Beyond the atomistic scale, liquid–liquid phase separation is examined through simulations of bicontinuous morphologies to generate machine learning–ready datasets for autonomous materials fabrication. In addition, phase-field modeling is applied to examine equilibrium partitioning in ternary liquid mixtures and their dynamics of liquid–liquid phase separation arising from solvent transfer methods. Altogether, this thesis develops computational strategies that extend from atomistic simulations to phase-field modeling, establishing a foundation for linking molecular-level features of liquid–liquid phase separation with macroscopic thermodynamic descriptions. These tools open opportunities to design, optimize, and control multiphase processes and materials across diverse applications.

Zoom Information:
Meeting ID: 979 8424 1614
Passcode: [REDACTED]

BE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: Ryan Friedman
2025-10-07 13:00 - 15:00 | PA

CIS Seminar: "Reliable and Socially Aligned LLMs: Are We There Yet?"
2025-10-07 15:30 - 16:30 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Large language models (LLMs) are powerful but not yet reliable: they hallucinate, misalign with human values, and struggle with social reasoning. In this talk, I will trace a path from diagnosing failure modes such as hallucinations, to uncovering the pitfalls of aligning models with noisy human preferences and diverse values, and finally to emerging frontiers in socially grounded reasoning. Along the way, I will highlight design principles, empirical findings, and open questions that reveal both how far we’ve come—and how far we still have to go—toward building reliable and socially aligned LLMs.

ASSET Seminar: "Robust and Uncertainty-Aware Decision Making under Distribution Shifts"
2025-10-08 12:00 - 13:15 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414, 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
Abstract TBD

Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92346171614

Fall 2025 GRASP SFI: Tianjiao Ding, University of Pennsylvania, "Learning Parsimonious Representations for Efficient Analysis and Synthesis"
2025-10-08 15:00 - 16:00 | Levine 307, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, 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
The automatic discovery of structures in data (analysis) and generation of data (synthesis) are two core problems in machine learning. Since data is high-dimensional and complex, a common paradigm is to learn a low-dimensional representation for data to facilitate both analysis and synthesis. However, existing methods are challenged by restrictive data assumptions and lack of semantic compositionality. We address these challenges by a unifying paradigm, which is to learn/leverage latent spaces supported on low-dimensional linear subspaces. Encoders and decoders then map between data and latent spaces. Such paradigm enables us to push multiple frontiers in data analysis and synthesis, including clustering images, aligning the semantics of text generation, and efficient image generation.

CBE Seminar: "Using NMR to Probe Functionality at Electrochemical Interfaces in Beyond Lithium Batteries" (Lauren Marbella, Columbia University)
2025-10-08 15:30 - 16:30 | Wu & Chen Auditorium
Abstract:
Beyond lithium-ion batteries, like sodium and potassium, are more abundant in the Earth’s crust and alleviate geopolitical concerns surrounding the materials inside of lithium-based batteries. However, both sodium and potassium batteries display unique interfacial chemistry that develops during electrochemical cycling in conventional electrolytes, preventing performances that are on par with current lithium systems. In the region between the electrodes and the electrolyte, a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is produced by the spontaneous breakdown of electrolyte compounds that dictates these inefficiencies. In my talk, I will discuss how we use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to probe the structure and dynamics of the SEI as well as the reactions that occur at these interfaces to correlate these features with battery degradation. Insight from these methods allow us to determine the precise mechanisms of failure that arise inside of functional devices as well as develop new approaches to mitigate performance decline.

The Penn AI Symposium: Global Ideas Shaping Humanity
2025-10-10 - 2025-10-11 | Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The inaugural Penn AI Symposium is a landmark event that gathers leading thinkers who will share their explorations at the frontiers of artificial intelligence.
The symposium is hosted by Penn AI, a University-wide initiative driving responsible AI innovation at Penn. The launch of Penn AI and the upcoming symposium signal a new chapter in Penn’s commitment to pioneering the future of AI, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and addressing the most significant scientific and societal questions of our time.
The symposium is open to faculty, students, and thought leaders, both internal and external to Penn. Penn AI is an interdisciplinary initiative, and speakers will address topics in Penn AI’s core themes: AI Foundations, AI+Business, AI+Education, AI+Health, AI+Science, and AI+Society.
Speakers from Penn Engineering will include:

Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean
René Vidal, Rachleff University Professor, ESE, CIS, Radiology
Konrad Kording, Nathan Francis Mossell University Professor, BE, CIS, Neuroscience
Paris Perdikaris, Associate Professor, MEAM

Register Now

Climate Week at Penn
2025-10-13 - 2025-10-17 | PA
Now in its sixth year, Climate Week at Penn offers opportunities for every member of the Penn community to learn about and act on the climate crisis. The theme for 2025 is “Hot Spots,” be they literal (wildfires and extreme heat) or figurative (political, cultural, interpersonal, or scholarly hot topics). The Climate Week core organizing committee looks forward to working with partners across campus on this year’s lineup. Events marked in red below have been organized by a committee member. Questions or ideas about this year’s programming? Write us at contact@environment.upenn.edu.

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: "Safeguarding AI Systems Against Unexpected Inputs"
2025-10-14 09:30 - 10:45 | Greenberg Lounge (Room 114), Skirkanich Hall, 210 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Artificial intelligence systems powered by deep neural networks have achieved remarkable success across a broad range of applications. However, perturbations such as natural image corruptions or crafted malicious queries, can cause significant performance degradation. This poses severe risks in safety-critical applications, such as autonomous driving and clinical decision-making. A key vulnerability of machine learning models is their inability to handle data outside the training distribution or knowledge. When facing unseen or otherwise challenging inputs, models often make incorrect decisions without warning users.
This thesis improves the safety of machine learning systems by building three stages for handling challenging inputs: (1) rejecting unexpected inputs with an explanation, (2) providing statistical guarantees on rejection, and (3) enabling models to adapt to challenging inputs. We consider two distinct scenarios: models with known training distributions (e.g., in cyber-physical systems) where challenges are out-of-distribution data, and models with unknown training distributions (e.g., large language models in a multilingual context) where challenges are defined by standards like harmful content or deficits in knowledge across languages. We further investigate how to address challenging inputs for two clinical applications, autism diagnosis and acne classification.

MEAM Seminar: "Fluids, Fingers, Fractures and Fractals: Patterns in Porous Media"
2025-10-14 10:15 - 11:15 | Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
The displacement of one fluid by another in a porous medium gives rise to a rich variety of hydrodynamic instabilities. Beyond their scientific value as fascinating models of pattern formation, unstable porous-media flows are essential to understanding many natural and man-made processes, including water infiltration in the vadose zone, carbon dioxide injection and storage in deep saline aquifers, methane venting from organic-rich sediments, and fracturing from fluid injection. Here, we review a handful of these hydromechanical instabilities, elucidate the key physics at play, and point to modeling frameworks that permit quantitative assessments of their impact at the geologic scale.

ESE Guest Seminar: "Post-Moore Datacenters Are Hot Beyond Belief"
2025-10-14 11:00 - 12:00 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 306, 3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Datacenters are the pillars of a digital economy and modern-day global IT services. The building blocks for today’s datacenters are cost-effective volume servers that find their roots in the basic hardware and OS organization of the desktops of 90s with a fundamental mismatch with workloads and services. Meanwhile, there are several technological trends (e.g., slowdown in Moore’s Law), application trends (e.g., rapid adoption of AI) and societal challenges (e.g., climate impact of computing) that require innovation in datacenter design from algorithms to housing infrastructure. Post-Moore datacenters are hot because of both their trajectory to consume (and dissipate) unprecedented levels of energy and the many hot research avenues to pursue for an infrastructure whose building blocks belongs to the 90s. In this talk, I will motivate and go over these research avenues.

ASSET Seminar: "Auditing Large Language Model Ecosystems: From Model Outputs to Agentic System Deployment"
2025-10-15 12:00 - 13:15 | Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414, 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 19104, United States
Abstract TBD

Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/97546234895

Fall 2025 GRASP SFI: Rao Fu, Brown University, "From Words to Worlds: Bridging Linguistic and Spatial Physical Intelligence"
2025-10-15 15:00 - 16:00 | Levine 307, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance via Zoom.
ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence has achieved remarkable advances in linguistic intelligence, enabling machines to process and generate language proficiently. Yet to truly assist people in everyday life, machines must also develop spatial physical intelligence—the ability to perceive, interpret, and act within high-dimensional physical environments. This involves not only understanding complex spatial signals but also executing dexterous, embodied actions that resist simple linguistic description.
In this talk, I will present my research on advancing spatial physical intelligence across three interconnected domains: object geometry generation, dexterous motion capture and generation, and house-scale scene generation. I will discuss fundamental challenges, including large-scale data collection for multi-sensory physical interaction, efficient representation of high-dimensional spatial signals, and interpretable modeling of spatial physical relationships.

CBE Seminar: "Electrochemical Ion Pumping: Concept, Theory, and Application" (Shihong Lin, Vanderbilt University)
2025-10-15 15:30 - 16:30 | Wu & Chen Auditorium
Abstract:
Advancements in electrochemical separation have paved the way for innovative approaches to address critical challenges in water treatment and resource recovery. In this seminar, I will introduce the Electrochemical Ion Pumping (EIP) platform, a transformative new approach to electrochemical separation that addresses the inherent limitations of conventional capacitive deionization and electrosorption. EIP leverages circuit-switching-induced ion shuttling to achieve unidirectional ion flux without solution switching, enabling enhanced desalination efficiency and scalability. I will also discuss the development of a theoretical model for dynamic ion transport in EIP systems, which provides critical insights into the unique behavior of ion shuttling mechanisms and informs the design and optimization of EIP for desalination. Finally, I will present a novel application of the EIP platform for simultaneous desalination and selective metal recovery from industrial wastewater. By precisely regulating electrode potential and switching frequency, the system enables targeted redox reactions for efficient metal recovery while performing desalination.

MSE Seminar: "From Nature to Engineering: Biological Blueprints for Next Generation Advanced Materials" David Kisailus - University of California - Irvine
2025-10-16 10:30 - 12:00 | Wu & Chen Auditorium
Organisms have derived specific sets of traits in response to common selection pressures that serve as guideposts for optimal biological designs. A prime example is the evolution of toughened structures in disparate lineages within plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates 1-4. Extremely tough structures can function much like armor, battering rams, or reinforcements that enhance the ability of organisms to win competitions, find mates, acquire food, escape predation, and withstand high winds or turbulent flow. Some of these natural systems have developed well-orchestrated strategies, exemplified in the biological tissues of numerous animal and plant species, to synthesize and construct materials from a limited selection of available starting materials. The resulting structures display multiscale architectures with incredible fidelity and often exhibit properties that are similar, and frequently superior to, mechanical properties exhibited by many engineering materials 1-4. In specific instances, comparative analyses of multiscale structures have pinpointed which design principles have arisen convergently; when more than one evolutionary path arrives at the same solution, we have a good indication that it is the best solution. This is required for survival under extreme conditions. We describe a few of these systems that show convergent design and describe how controlled syntheses and hierarchical assembly using organic scaffolds 5-8 lead to these integrated macroscale structures 8-12. We describe their function and translation to biomimetic and bioinspired materials used for engineering applications 13-16.
1. “Biological and Biologically-Inspired Functional Nanostructures: Insights into Structural, Optical, Thermal, and Sensing Applications”, C-H Sung et al., Advanced Materials, accepted (2025). DOI:10.1002/adma.202509281
2. “Convergent design evolution of multiscale biomineralized structures in extinct and extant organisms: struts, interfaces, and helicoids”, V. Perricone et al., Communications Materials, 5, (227) (2024) 1 – 18.
3. “Multiscale toughening mechanisms in biological materials and bioinspired designs”, W. Huang et al., Adv. Mat., 31, 1901561 (2019).
4. “Nano-Architected Tough Biological Composites from Assembled Chitinous Scaffolds”, W. Huang et al., Acc. Chem. Res., 50 (10) (2022) 1360-1371.
5. “Radular teeth matrix protein 1 directs iron oxide deposition in chiton teeth”, M. Nemoto et al., Science, 389 (6760) (2025) 637-643.
6. “Mesocrystalline Ordering and Phase Transformation of Iron Oxide Biominerals in the Ultrahard Teeth of Cryptochiton stelleri,” T. Wang et al., Small Structures, (2022) 2100202.
7. “Fibrous Anisotropy and Mineral Gradients within the Radula Stylus of Chiton: Controlled Stiffness and Damage Tolerance in a Flexible Biological Composite”, J.E. Lee et al., J. Comp. Mater., 57 (4) (2022).
8. “Phase transformations and structural developments in the radular teeth of Cryptochiton stelleri,” Q. Wang, Adv. Funct. Mater., 23 (2013) 2908–2917.
9. “Toughening Mechanisms of the Elytra of the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle”, J. Rivera et al., Nature, 586, 543-548 (2020).
10. “A natural impact resistant bi-continuous composite nanoparticle coating”, W. Huang et al., Nat. Mat. 9, 1236-1243 (2020).
11. “The Stomatopod Dactyl Club: A Formidable Damage-Tolerant Biological Hammer”, J. Weaver et al., Science, 336 1275-1280 (2012).
12. “Analysis of an ultra hard magnetic biomineral in chiton radular teeth,” J. Weaver et al., Materials Today, 13 (2010) 42-52.
13. “Bioinspired SiC/Chitosan impact resistant coatings”, T. Hao et al. Adv. Funct. Mater., 35 (2025), 2417291.
14. “Direct ink write printing of chitin-based gel fibers with customizable fibril alignment, porosity, and mechanical properties for biomedical applications”, D. Montroni, et al., J. Funct. Biomat., 13 (2) (2022) 83.
15. “Electrocatalytic N-Doped Graphitic Nanofiber – Metal/Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Composites”, H. Tang et al., Small, 14, 1703459 (2018).
16. “Bio-Inspired Impact Resistant Composites”, L.K. Grunenfelder et al., Acta Biomat., 10, 3997-4008 (2014).

ESE Fall Seminar - "Distributional Control: From Robotic Motion Planning to Generative AI"
2025-10-16 11:00 - 12:00 | Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Uncertainty propagation and mitigation is at the core of all robotic and control systems. The standard approach so far has followed the spirit of controlling a system “with uncertainties,” as opposed to the direct control “of uncertainties.” Borrowing ideas from the classical Optimal Mass Transport (OMT) and Schrödinger Bridge problems, distributional control has recently emerged as a principled approach to characterize and mitigate uncertainty in stochastic systems with strict performance guarantees. In this talk, I will review some recent results on covariance and distribution control for stochastic systems subject to chance constraints, including data-driven and distributionally robust implementations; I will demonstrate the application of the theory to a variety of problems ranging from model predictive control, robot motion planning under uncertainty, multi-agent mean-field control, and generative AI.
