• ESE Fall Seminar – “Distributional Control: From Robotic Motion Planning to Generative AI”

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    Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 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 […]

    FOLDS seminar: A New Paradigm for Learning with Distribution Shift

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    Eyebrow

    Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98220304722   We revisit the fundamental problem of learning with distribution shift, where a learner is given labeled samples from training distribution D, unlabeled samples from test distribution D′ and is asked to output a classifier with low test error. The standard approach in this setting is to prove a generalization bound in terms of […]

    Fall 2025 GRASP on Robotics: Parastoo Abtahi, Princeton University, “When Robots Disappear – From Haptic Illusions in VR to Object-Oriented Interactions in AR”

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    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    This event will be in-person ONLY in Wu and Chen Auditorium. ABSTRACT Advances in audiovisual rendering have led to the commercialization of virtual reality (VR); however, haptic technology has not kept up with these advances. While a variety of robotic systems aim to address this gap by simulating the sensation of touch, many hardware limitations […]

    CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Configuration Matters: Unveiling Cis-Regulatory Arrangement as a Mechanism of Transcriptional Fine-Tuning” (Emilia Leyes Porello)

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    Towne 337

    Abstract: The precise regulation of gene expression depends on coordinated enhancer-promoter (E-P) interactions, yet the principles governing how enhancer configuration influences transcription remain unclear. Classical models describe enhancers as modular and independent of orientation or relative positioning, but accumulating evidence suggests these assumptions may not hold true. To investigate this problem, systematic manipulations of enhancer […]

    PICS Colloquium: Complex Polymer Design in the Age of AI: Why, What, and How?

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    PICS Conference Room 534 - A Wing , 5th Floor 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Polymers are essential to a wide range of technologies, yet designing them with targeted structural and functional properties remains a grand challenge. A major opportunity lies in applying machine learning to help navigate the vast combinatorial design space—spanning sequence, composition, architecture, morphology, processing, and more—to discover new formulations or replace existing ones with more sustainable […]

    MSE Undergraduate Open House

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    LRSM Reading Room 3231 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Materials Science and Engineering Undergraduate Open House Are you a first-year Student? Undecided about your major? Curious about MSE? Join us for food and fun and explore how MSE can transform your future! • Who Should Attend: All first-year undergrad engineering students, regardless of major • What: Eat good food and meet MSE faculty, staff, […]

    MEAM Seminar: “Controlling Friction and Wear via Engineered Surfaces and Advanced Nanomaterials”

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    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Friction and wear of moving components across various industries result in reliability issues, enormous energy losses, and environmental problems. These problems originate from the complex interactions between micro- and nanoscale asperities at the contacting surfaces. Such tribological challenges can be addressed via surface engineering, inspired by biological species that control friction very efficiently, combined with […]

    Democratic Repercussions of Media Fragmentation

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    Does media fragmentation contribute to democratic erosion? If so, how, and what steps are required to address potential impacts? Join the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy as we explore this topic both through the lens of empirical research - as represented by Professors Duncan Watts, Sandra González-Bailón, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen along with […]

    AI Industry Days

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    The Penn Engineering community is invited to join our inaugural AI Industry Days on Wednesday, October 22 and Thursday, October 23. Continuing Industry Days’ tradition of providing avenues for students to learn, connect, and explore career opportunities in niche areas of engineering and technology, this series offers both in-person and virtual programming.   A variety […]

    ASSET Seminar: “Unpacking the Unintended Consequences of AI in Education”

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    Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

    The rapid integration of AI into educational settings presents opportunities and challenges—this talk will discuss findings from three large-scale field studies investigating the impact of AI on student learning. First, we found that unfettered access to ChatGPT negatively impacted short-term student learning outcomes. Second, to understand longer-term effects, we examined learning in chess academies. Contrary […]

    ESE Guest Seminar: “The Versatility of Perovskite Materials for Optoelectronics”

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    Greenberg Lounge (Room 114), Skirkanich Hall 210 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have created much excitement in the past years and attract spotlight attention. This talk will provide an overview of the reasons for this development highlighting the historic development as well as the specific material properties that make perovskites so attractive for the research community. The current challenges are exemplified using a […]