Abstract: "Solid tumor cells grow in a stiff microenvironment with dense extracellular matrix (ECM) and condensed packing of adjacent cells. Tumor cells are capable of migrating through constricted pores formed by ECM or surrounded by other cells, and the nuclear envelope can break with repair factor mislocalization, further leading to DNA damage and genetic changes, […]
Room: Towne 225/Raisler Lounge For zoom link, contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.
Natural swarms exhibit sophisticated colony-level behaviors with remarkable scalability and error tolerance. Their evolutionary success stems from more than just intelligent individuals, it hinges on their morphology, their physical interactions, and the way they shape and leverage their environment. Mound-building termites, for instance, are believed to use their own body as a template for construction; […]
Many of the activities in cyberspace, from social networking to the use of mobile apps, leave digital footprints compromising the users’ privacy. As digital tracking technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive, there is a need to understand and quantify the users’ privacy risk, that is, what is the likelihood that users in cyberspace can be […]
Abstract: A "sketch" is a data structure supporting some pre-specified set of queries and updates to a database while consuming space substantially (often exponentially) less than the information theoretic minimum required to store everything seen, and thus can also be seen as some form of functional compression. A "streaming algorithm" is simply a data structure […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and Virtual attendance via Zoom here… Algorithms play a central role in our lives today, mediating our access to civic engagement, social connections, employment opportunities, news media and more. While the sociotechnical systems deploying these algorithms—search engines, social networking sites, and others—have the […]
This special event is part of the virtual programming for Penn Homecoming 2021 and is open to all alumni, parents, and friends. Nemirovsky Family Dean and Professor Vijay Kumar will give a State of the School Update including an overview of the newly established Center for Precision Engineering for Health, which will bring together researchers […]
If cooled sufficiently quickly, the disorder of a liquid can be "quenched" or locked in place; the resulting amorphous solid is glass. Although it appears to be solid on human timescales, glass continues to creep due to thermal vibrations at the molecular scale. Consider now a pile of sand; it too is a disordered system, […]
The African-American Resource Center & Office of Affirmative Action Presents: Critical Race Theory and DEI: From Theory to Practice Join us as we examine the language switch from Critical Race Theory to Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and what each term means and what DEI means and looks like at Penn. Zoom Link: http://upenn.zoom.us/j/7443577924 […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Wu & Chen Auditorium and Virtual attendance via Zoom Webinar here. There has been significant research over the past two decades in developing new systems for spiking neural computation. The impact of neuromorphic concepts on recent developments in optical sensing, display and artificial vision is […]
Abstract: The ability to rapidly learn from high-dimensional data to make reliable predictions about the future is crucial in many contexts. This could be a fly avoiding predators, or the retina processing terabytes of data guiding complex human actions. Modern day artificial intelligence (AI) aims to mimic this fidelity and has been successful in many domains […]
Room: Towne 225/Raisler Lounge For zoom link, contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Rebecca Wells are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Dongning Chen. Title: Versican/Collagen Interactions in Tissue Structure and Mechanics Date: Nov. 8, 2021 Time: 12pm The public is welcome to attend in person at BRB 253 and via zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/6088045110
Fracture of materials and interfaces is often time and rate dependent. The underlying mechanisms for the time and rate dependent fracture may include local molecular processes, viscoelasticity, and poroelasticity (solvent diffusion coupled with deformation). In this talk, I will present our recent works on two different mechanisms. First, the effects of poroelasticity on fracture of […]
Semiconductor sales will reach over $500 billion worldwide in 2021, a gigantic industry that keeps on growing with increasing demand for faster, more powerful, and smaller chips. However, as we keep scaling, the silicon (Si) transistor will soon reach its physical limit, and there is a pressing need to find an alternative post-Si material to […]
Abstract: Discrete optimization plays a critical role in solving various resource allocation problems within the industry. In this talk, we study problems from the two extremes of the optimization landscape; operational decision-making in real-time and resource provisioning for future considerations. Motivated by real-world business requirements ranging from load balancing in heterogeneous environments to privacy concerns […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and Virtual attendance via Zoom here… Our research employs artificial intelligence techniques that seek to automate the main time/cost drivers of engineered-systems design. The features of a system inform the form, function and behavior of the resulting concept that can be subsequently created […]
Over the last 5-10 years, deep learning has transformed biomedical imaging, from enhancing acquisition to maximizing downstream utility of scans. My research group has been at the forefront of this revolution, developing novel methods that have laid the foundation for next-generation tools. As I will describe in my talk, much of this progress relies on […]
The ability to design the composition and microstructure of electronic ceramics for emerging technological applications requires sophisticated characterization techniques that can provide quantitative information about local structure and chemistry. Such structure quantification is particularly important to the fundamental understanding of properties in many important non-linear dielectrics, where chemical heterogeneities associated with dopants or intrinsic lattice […]
Levine Lobby 11/11 from 1pm-3pm ODEI and EngiQueers are collaborating to host a grab and go snack break, that showcases prominent LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM throughout history. Come grab a snack, and get a fact about a queer individual who played an integral role in the advancement of the STEM field and industry. While learning […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance for Dr. Matuszek’s in-person talk in Wu & Chen Auditorium and Virtual attendance via Zoom Webinar here. As robots move from labs and factories into human-centric spaces, it becomes progressively harder to predetermine the environments and interactions they will need to be able to handle. Letting […]
Abstract: The formation of membraneless organelles (MLOs) via phase separation of proteins and nucleic acids has emerged as an essential process with which cells can maintain spatiotemporal control. Despite enormous progress in understanding the role of MLOs in biological function in the last ten years or so, the molecular details of the underlying phenomena are […]
Room: Towne 225/Raisler Lounge For zoom link, contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.
Flying modular robots offer a suitable autonomous platform for multiple applications such as: search and rescue, cargo lifting, and object transportation. In addition, modular robots in a swarm can use their own bodies as building units to assemble large structures. This thesis introduces ModQuad, the self-assembly structure that can cooperatively fly based on autonomous modules. […]
Thirty years ago, semiconductor manufacturers (wafer fabs) rolled their eyes and muttered under their breath when they heard the word MEMS. Micro-Electromechanical Mechanical Systems are minute mechanical devices built on silicon integrated circuit wafers. They are the microphones, gravity sensors, oscillators, motion sensors, electronic filters in your cell-phone – and more. MEMS processes were “weird”. […]
Launched in May 2021, the Future Leaders in Mechanobiology is a monthly seminar series featuring up-and-coming leaders in mechanobiology–PhD students and postdocs from a wide range of fields, backgrounds, and institutions. By providing an international stage to share one’s work and opportunities to interact with researchers at all career stages, we aim to create an inclusive and […]
On Wednesday November 17 at 4pm, Penn Engineering will celebrate the Hispanic/Native American Heritage. This celebration of our students, faculty and staff of Hispanic/Latinx, and Native American background is in support of our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the School. Dean Vijay Kumar will give welcome and opening remarks, followed by student and faculty […]
In many applications in robotics, there exist teams of robots operating in dynamic environments requiring the design of complex communication and control schemes. The problem is made easier if one assumes the presence of an oracle that has instantaneous access to states of all entities in the environment and can communicate simultaneously without any loss. […]
This seminar will be held virtually on zoom - check your email for the link or contact ksas@seas.upenn.edu. Ionic liquids, the liquid salts comprising organic anions and cations, offer exciting opportunities for several therapeutic applications. Their tunable properties offer control over their design and function. Starting with biocompatible ions, we synthesized a library of ionic […]
The ability to design, pattern, and process materials at the nanoscale has enabled vast research opportunities ranging from fundamental science to technological applications and device integration. The continued development of nanoscience and nanotechnology relies upon pushing the limits of nanoscale fabrication capabilities. After decades of development, this frontier has moved to the sub-10 nm length […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Brian Chow are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Michael Magaraci. Title: Novel design strategies for engineering biliverdin-binding fluorescent proteins Date: Friday, November 19, 2021 Time: 10:00 AM (EST) Location: Towne 337 and via Zoom at the link below: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98253474334?pwd=MXNQMWR2dWlXU2dZc0ZHb0FhV0Z0Zz09 The public is welcome […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Wu & Chen Auditorium and Virtual attendance via Zoom Webinar here. There have been significant advances in the field of robot learning in the past decade. However, many challenges still remain when studying how robot learning can advance interactive agents such as robots that collaborate […]
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have shown great potential in diagnostics, therapeutics, and have been discovered to play a key role in intercellular communication. The study of EVs in biological fluids has proven challenging due to the nanoscale size of EVs (30 nm-1 µm diameter), the enormous quantity of EVs present in clinical samples (e.g. 10E10/mL), and […]
SWE Headshots | November 20, 3-4 pm | On Smith Walk (between Towne and Hayden Hall near the Penn Engineering Banner) Come get a professional headshot taken on Saturday, November 20th (rain date Sunday, November 21st)! Headshots will be taking place on Smith Walk (between Towne and Hayden Hall near the Penn Engineering Banner) from […]
Room: Towne 225/Raisler Lounge For zoom link, contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.
Life-critical medical devices require robust safety and efficacy to treat patient populations with potentially large inter-patient and intra-patient variability. Today, the de facto standard for evaluating medical devices is the randomized clinical trial. However, even after years of device development many clinical trials fail. For example, in the Rhythm ID Goes Head to Head Trial […]
In the last decade, there have been major changes in the families of ferroelectric materials available for integration with CMOS electronics. These new materials, including Hf1-xZrxO2, Al1-xScxN, Al1-xBxN and Zn1-xMgxO, offer the possibility of new functionalities. This talk will discuss the possibility of exploiting the 3rd dimension in microelectronics for functions beyond interconnects, enabling 3D […]
Visual intelligence is a cornerstone of intelligence, for both humans and machines. In this talk, I go over a number of research work by our group on the topics of visual perception and robotic learning. The guiding principle of our work is inspired by the Gibsonian belief that perceptual and robotic learning should be based […]
Room: Towne 225/Raisler Lounge For zoom link, contact manu@seas.upenn.edu.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can inform sustainable design of buildings and cities in terms of optimizing pedestrian wind comfort, air quality, thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and resiliency to extreme wind events. An important challenge is that the accuracy of CFD results can be compromised by the large natural variability and complex physics that are characteristic […]
As we march towards the age of “ubiquitous intelligence”, we note that AI and Machine learning are progressively moving from the Cloud to the Edge devices. The success of Edge-AI is pivoted on innovative circuits and hardware that can enable inference and limited learning, in hardware-constrained ultra-low-power (uW to mW) systems – an area of […]
Machine learning can be a powerful tool in helping society reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate. In this talk, we will explore opportunities and challenges in AI-for-climate, from optimizing electrical grids to monitoring crop yield, and how these impactful problems can also drive methodological innovations in machine learning.
We would like to have robots which can perform useful manipulation tasks in real-world environments. This requires robots that can perceive the world with both precision and semantic understanding, methods for communicating desired tasks to these systems, and closed loop visual feedback controllers for robustly executing manipulation tasks. This is hard to achieve with previous […]
Abstract A delicate balance of noncovalent interactions drives hydrated molecular amphiphiles to self-assemble into lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) of varied topologies, the exquisite nanodomain structures of which suggest applications as separations membranes, mesoporous materials synthesis templates, and therapeutic delivery vehicles. Based on hard sphere colloidal crystals, spherical micelles are intuitively expected to form high symmetry […]
Materials design in the quantum regime call for the integration of multi-tier materials information that go beyond atomic structures. Especially, many quantum behaviors are greatly controlled by local symmetries and local bonding environments. In this talk, motivated by Pauling’s rules, Dr. Yan will show that local bonding environments (motifs) can be incorporated in a graph-based […]
Today’s robots are very brittle in their intelligence. This follows from a legacy of industrial robotics where robots pick and place known parts repetitively. For humanoid robots to function as servants in the home and in hospitals they will need to demonstrate higher intelligence, and must be able to function in ways that go beyond […]
The exponential growth of biological datasets in recent years has increased the dependency of cancer research on AI and computational analysis. Cancer evolves through the accumulation of genetic events over time, which are represented through different types of data. Integration of machine learning methods with temporal modeling and genomic methods has the potential to improve our […]
*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Wu & Chen Auditorium and Virtual attendance via Zoom Webinar here. The prevalent approach to object manipulation is based on the availability of explicit 3D object models. By estimating the pose of such object models in a scene, a robot can readily reason about how […]
Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics simulations and experiments were conducted to study the performance of distillation membrane process for water treatment and desalination applications. Polarizations and fouling/scaling in a direct contact membrane distillation module were examined. Laminar and turbulent flow regimes in the feed and permeate channels were considered. The hydrophobic membrane separates feed and permeate […]
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Penn Engineering's diversity efforts and we invite you to join us on Friday, December 3, at 3:00 p.m. EST to celebrate Penn Engineering’s new Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), formerly known as the Office of Minority Programs. We plan to meet in Heilmeier Hall (Towne 100) […]
