A reception on inclusion will be held for new Penn Engineering doctoral students to connect them to their peers and supporting structures within the school. Please join the Dean, Deputy Dean, the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, faculty and staff leaders including chairs, graduate group chairs and coordinators, and leaders of student groups. […]
Abstract: We aim to establish and experimentally test mathematical models of embryogenesis. While the foundation of this research is based on models of isolated developmental events, the ultimate challenge is to formulate and understand dynamical systems encompassing multiple stages of development and multiple levels of regulation. These range from specific chemical reactions in single cells […]
Compressive Sensing is an acquisition technique which relies on the sparsity of the underlying signals, to enable sampling below the classical Nyquist rate. To do so, the signals must be acquired in an incoherent way with respect to the sparsity basis, which is classically obtained in practice by acquiring the signal through projection on a […]
A dynamical systems approach is taken to explain the dynamics of two classes of ‘gap-leaping’ geophysical flow as well as the hypersonic second-mode instability. First, in the context of a loop current system, it is shown that multiple steady flow patterns with hysteresis exist and appear to satisfy a cusp catastrophe geometry of solutions. Which […]
Abstract: Lipid materials having nanostructures that deviate from the conventional flat bilayer arrangement such as hexagonally packed lipid tubes and bi-continuous cubic phases are ubiquitous in nature. Their role remains elusive but over the years several pathologies and organelle functions have been coupled to lipid membrane structural complexity. In this talk, we will discuss lipid membrane polymorphism and […]
A very popular trick for solving certain types of optimization problems is this: write your objective as the solution of a two-player zero-sum game, endow both players with an appropriate learning algorithm, watch how the opponents compete, and extract an (approximate) solution from the actions/decisions taken by the players throughout the process. This approach is very […]
This talk will cover 1) devices created one atomic layer at a time and 2) electrowetting optical elements. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) are self-limiting processes that enable accurate atomic-scale thickness control either through deposition or etching of various materials. We are developing novel manufacturing processes that study how ALD materials […]
Abstract: Modern machine learning models, and in particular multilayer neural networks, exhibit a broad range of puzzling phenomena. Their training requires to minimize a highly non-convex high-dimensional cost function, and yet it is efficiently addressed using simple gradient descent (GD) or stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithms. This model contains more parameters than the number of […]
Abstract: One of the holy grails of drug-design is to obtain high-selectivity binding of a drug to the target protein, an extremely challenging endeavor for proteins that share high sequence and structural similarity. We investigate several systems of high biological importance to elucidate how selectivity emerged during evolution and how it can inform the design […]
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, especially machine learning (ML) programs, are now being employed or proposed for use in: a) scanning résumés to weed out job applicants; b) evaluating risks children face in their families; c) informing judicial decisions about bail, sentencing, and parole; d) diagnosing medical conditions, and not just classifying medical images; e) […]
Physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) aims at taking advantage of the complementary capabilities of robots and humans. One of the key challenges in pHRI is to provide a high-bandwidth human-robot interaction that is safe and intuitive for the human user. To this end, it is proposed in this work to revisit the design of robots in […]
Penn Engineering is holding a workshop for students interested in applying for the 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSFGRF) . The goal of this workshop is to discuss strategies for submitting a strong application, as well as to connect applicants with mentors to help guide applicants through the process. This event will involve […]
Abstract: We are developing chemo-mechatronic systems, structures, and machines that can transduce signals between the chemical, mechanical, and electrical domains to produce intelligent behaviors in response to an external stimuli. Inspired by systems spanning from how tissues build themselves to how animals camouflage, I will discuss our molecular-level approach to building new materials that can […]
The confluence of fundamental symmetries and spin-orbit coupling is known to produce emergent electronic states in crystalline solids that are accurately described using the language of topology. This talk provides an overview of this relatively young field of research, showing how the synthesis and study of topological quantum matter yields a playground for both exotic […]
The vision of Isogeometric Analysis was first presented in a paper published October 1, 2005 . Since then it has become a focus of research within both the fields of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) and is rapidly becoming a mainstream analysis methodology and a new paradigm for geometric design . […]
The recent artificial intelligence (AI) boom has been largely driven by three confluence forces: algorithms, big data, and computing power enabled by modern integrated circuits (ICs) including specialized AI accelerators. In this talk, I will present a synergistic approach on AI and intelligent IC/accelerator designs with two main themes, AI for IC and IC for […]
Abstract: Fourier ptychographic microscopy is a technique that achieves a high space-bandwidth product, i.e. high resolution and high field-of-view. In Fourier ptychographic microscopy, variable illumination patterns are used to collect multiple low-resolution images. These low-resolution images are then computationally combined to create an image with resolution exceeding that of any single image from the microscope. […]
Abstract: Charged polymers known as polyelectrolytes have been studied for decades, however, understanding their physical properties remains a persistent challenge for polymer scientists. This difficulty stems from the intricate interplay between length scales spanning as much as 3-4 orders of magnitude, which has stymied our understanding of a truly important class of polymers; polyelectrolytes are […]
We invite you to join an exclusive event with Penn Engineering alumni who will share their stories on how they have thrived in the startup ecosystem. These alums range from an angel investor in Uber, a serial biotech entrepreneur with several exits, an entrepreneur who has generated over half a billion in licensing deals and […]
Polymer brushes are a common feature in many biological surfaces. The ability to rapidly transform a substrate from a hard, structural material to a soft, hydrogel structure over the course of a few tens of nanometers makes polymer brushes elegant materials for tailoring the biology-materials interface. Polymer brushes, because of their surface confinement, are typically […]
In my talk, I will first describe one of the main projects in my lab that investigates the underlying cellular-molecular mechanisms for changes in alcohol sensitivity of crayfish with different prior social experiences. In this context, I will explain why “simple” invertebrates may provide unique advantages for studying complex phenomena such as socially-dependent drug effects. […]
Abstract: The connections between geometry and mechanics have been explored for centuries. How these connections shape computation is a question we are just beginning to explore. If computers can predict how materials move and deform, they can help us to understand, anticipate and manipulate the physical world. Our group develops models and algorithms that capture the characteristic behavior […]
Abstract: In this talk we present a concurrent atomistic-continuum (CAC) method for modeling and simulation of transport processes in crystalline materials. The CAC formulation extends the Irving-Kirkwood procedure for deriving transport equations and fluxes for homogenized molecular systems to that for polyatomic crystalline materials by employing a concurrent two- level structural description of crystals. A multiscale […]
