The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Theodore D. Satterthwaite are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Chenying Zhao. Title: Reproducible, generalizable, and scalable analytic software for large neuroimaging datasets Date: October 2nd, Monday Time: 2:00pm Location: John Morgan Building (3620 Hamilton Walk) - The Class of 1962 Auditorium. Virtual option: […]
With the slowing of Moore's law, computer architects have turned to domain-specific hardware accelerators to improve the performance and efficiency of computing systems. However, programming these systems entails significant modifications to the software stack to properly leverage the specialized hardware. Moreover, the accelerators become obsolete quickly as the applications evolve. What is needed is a […]
ABSTRACT: It is immensely empowering to delegate information processing and automation work to machines and have them carry out difficult tasks on our behalf. But programming computers is hard. The traditional approach to this problem is to try to fix people: They should work harder to learn to code. In this talk, I argue that […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. X. Sherry Liu are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Tala Azar. Title: Leveraging Modeling and Remodeling based Bone Formation in Cyclic Administration of Anabolic Agents for Osteoporosis Treatment Date: October 4, 2023 Time: 1:00 PM EST Location: John Morgan Reunion Auditorium. Zoom […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT The rise of recent Foundation models (and applications e.g. ChatGPT) offer an exciting glimpse into the capabilities of large deep networks trained on Internet-scale data. They hint at a possible blueprint for building generalist robot brains that can […]
Genetic engineering of plants is at the core of sustainability efforts, natural product synthesis, and agricultural crop engineering. The plant cell wall is a barrier that limits the ease and throughput with which exogenous biomolecules can be delivered to plants. Current delivery methods either suffer from host range limitations, low transformation efficiencies, tissue regenerability, tissue […]
Mucus is essential for life and serves as a barrier to hydrate, lubricate, and protect tissues. Mucin glycoproteins are the major component of mucus. There are 20+ mucin genes with variable expression patterns, splicing, and post-translational glycosylation that result in structures with discrete biochemical functions. Mucins play roles in infection, immunity, inflammation and cancer. Such […]
Organizers: Rajeev Alur (Penn Engineering), John Holmes (PSOM), Insup Lee (Penn Engineering), Qi Long (PSOM), Marylyn Richie (PSOM) Event Description: Artificial intelligence and machine learning promise to revolutionize nearly every field, sifting through massive amounts of data to find insights that humans would miss, making faster and more accurate decisions and predictions as a result. Applying […]
This work presents the precise synthesis, characterization, and property analysis of transition metal and transition metal oxide nanocrystals (NCs). Specifically, the interface between catalytic and magnetic properties is explored using precisely defined NCs. The methods of NC synthesis and characterizations are discussed including an in-depth discussion of Extended X-ray Absorption Fins Structure (EXAFS) based nanothermometry […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Dr. Rizzi will provide an overview of the recently established Boston Dynamics AI Institute and its developing research efforts. This will include a discussion of the motivation for developing highly capable dynamic robots, a brief history of […]
Recent progress in diverse disciplines such as soft matter physics, nanoparticle synthesis, nanomedicine, and microbiology has enabled rich opportunities for translation of small-scale robots into medical applications. These robotic systems are providing innovative, high-precision, therapeutic and diagnostic approaches for the treatment of diseases associated with microbial biofilms and are rapidly moving from proof-of-concept studies to […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) has focused on a paradigm in which intelligence inheres in a single, autonomous agent. Social issues are entirely secondary in this paradigm. When AI systems are deployed in social contexts, however, the overall design of such systems is often naive---a centralized entity provides services to passive agents and reaps the rewards. Such […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Sydney Shaffer are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Rodrigo Gier. Title: Investigating cell state plasticity at the gastroesophageal junction with lineage tracing in humans Date: October 11, 2023 Time: 10:00 am Location: Reunion Auditorium, John Morgan Building The public is […]
ABSTRACT: The past decade has seen unprecedented growth in Software Engineering— developers spend enormous time and effort to create new products. With such enormous growth comes the responsibility of producing and maintaining quality and robust software. In this talk, I will discuss how AI can help develop quality products in different stages of the software […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. This week's speaker will be virtual. ABSTRACT Morphological Computation is a concept in robotics that suggests that the morphology of a robot should play a crucial role in the design of intelligent machines. This is inspired by observations in […]
Light matter interaction holds significant relevance across a range of applications including lasing, sensing, communications, and computing. One prominent method for modulating optical properties is through the use of a Fabry-Perot cavity, which controls the photonic density of states within optical cavities. Additionally, plasmonic and high-contrast dielectric cavities represent a cutting-edge approach for photonic dispersion […]
Humans have frequently looked to natural phenomena to inspire the design of art, structures, and mechanisms. However, there are as many different ways to learn from nature as there are words for this approach: bioinspiration, biomimicry, and biodesign to name a few. In this talk, I propose a taxonomy for categorizing distinct biodesign approaches and […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 512 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT In this talk, I will present research on building photorealistic avatars of humans wearing complex clothing in a data-driven manner. Such avatars will be a critical technology to enable future applications such as VR/AR and virtual content creation. […]
Quantum computers can solve important problems that are beyond the capability of conventional computers. Quantum computing is at an inflection point where small systems with a few tens qubits have been demonstrated and the number of qubits is expected to increase to several thousand over the coming years. As qubits are low-energy devices, they are […]
Lectures can be a useful method for communicating complex information but are most effective when students are engaged with and focused on the material. Drs. Igor Bargatin and Amish Patel will start this informal conversation by sharing their strategies for making lectures more interactive. We’ll consider ways to increase student attention and interaction to promote […]
ABSTRACT: Research in lifelong or continual machine learning has advanced rapidly over the past few years, primarily focusing on enabling learned models to acquire new tasks over time while avoiding catastrophic forgetting of previous tasks. However, autonomous systems still lack the ability to rapidly learn new generalizable skills by building upon and continually refining their […]
On small length-scales, the mechanics of soft materials may be dominated by their interfacial properties as opposed to their bulk properties. These effects are described by equilibrium models of elasto-capillarity and wetting. In these models, interfacial energies and bulk material properties are held constant. However, in biological materials, including living cells and tissues, these properties […]
It is of great interest for materials scientists to study wet biological adhesives as inspiration for synthetic adhesives that can perform well in wet conditions. A compelling example is given by the adhesive proteins secreted by marine mussels, which have inspired the development of synthetic polymer adhesives and coatings for adhesion to wet surfaces. Mussel […]
Atrial arrhythmia is a prevalent heart disease that results in weak and irregular contractions of the atria. It affects millions of people worldwide. Cardiac ablation is among the most successful treatment options. During the procedure, catheters are inserted into the left atrium to map the atrium geometry and record endocardium electrograms that are then converted […]
Recent advances in CRISPR/Cas-based epigenome editing technologies have enabled programmable control over human gene expression, chromatin states, and genomic organization. Consequently, these emerging technologies have created new opportunities to engineer human cells for therapeutic benefit and catalyzed innovative ways to functionally interrogate gene regulatory mechanisms in situ. Toward these ends, we have recently developed new […]
Abstract Emerging platforms such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and autonomous machines, while are of a computing nature, intimately interact with both the environment and humans. They must be built, from the ground up, with principled considerations of three main components: imaging, computer systems, and human perception. This talk will make a case […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT We, as robot engineers, have to think hard about our role in the design of robots and how it interacts with learning, both in "the factory" (that is, at engineering time) and in "the wild" (that is, […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Jennifer Phillips-Cremins are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Daniel Emerson. Title: Uncovering Structure-function Relationships in Chromatin Architecture Date: October 20, 2023 Time: 1:00 PM Location: BRB 0253 Zoom link The Public is welcome to attend.
Flowing granular materials arise everywhere around us, in industry from pharmaceutical processes to bulk good transport lines, and in nature from snow avalanches to captivating dune fields. In landslides, we have an interesting interplay between microscale (grain-grain contacts) and macroscale processes (continuum behavior). In order to understand critical macroscale processes such as stability of a […]
Can we accelerate convergence of gradient descent without changing the algorithm --- just by optimizing stepsizes? Surprisingly, we show that the answer is yes. Our proposed Silver Stepsize Schedule optimizes strongly convex functions in $k^{\log_p 2} = k^{0.7864}$ iterations, where $p=1+\sqrt{2}$ is the silver ratio and $k$ is the condition number. This is intermediate between […]
ABSTRACT: Verified artificial intelligence (AI) is the goal of designing AI-based systems that have strong, ideally provable, assurances of correctness with respect to formally specified requirements. This talk will review the main challenges to achieving Verified AI, and the initial progress the research community has made towards this goal. A particular focus will be on […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT I will describe engineering (im)possibilities discovered with geometry or topology. These provide or revoke “hunting licenses” for the search of quantities of interest in three contexts: feedback control, applied Koopmanism, and deep neural network autoencoders. Control-Lyapunov or barrier […]
Traditionally, the dynamic modeling of chemical processes has relied on first-principles models grounded in fundamental physics and chemistry laws. These models, primarily formulated through differential equations with constant parameters, enable the calculation of control actions optimizing process operations, taking both process and actuator limitations into account. However, the ever-evolving and nonlinear nature of chemical processes […]
Advances in hybrid and electric vehicle technologies combined with a demand for green initiatives have recently motivated necessary diversification in energy storage research. To achieve customer expectations for hybrid and electric vehicles, new battery systems with higher energy densities, power densities and cycle life than the current state-of-art Lithium (Li)-ion battery are needed. Further, to […]
Abstract Communicating with the brain enables us to advance our understanding of brain function, treat disorders, restore lost function, and when combined with artificial cognitive frameworks, can push the frontier of human capabilities. Key to realizing brain communication and replicating cognition are new computer architectures– systems that directly sense and stimulate the brain, and those […]
Abstract The physical properties of laser light make it a perfect medium for a plethora of applications. Examples include high-bandwidth data communication thanks to its fast modulation speed, efficient power delivery given its high energy density, and fine-grained human sensing and object tracking because of its nanometer-level wavelength. Despite its potential, laser light still faces […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Recent advances in robot materials and algorithms have enabled new levels of adaptive and versatile behavior. In this talk I will describe my lab’s efforts to create robots, mechanisms, and control algorithms capable of adaptive behaviors in […]
Solid state spin qubits, in particular the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond, offer a path towards truly nanoscale imaging of condensed matter and biological systems with sensitivity to single nuclear spins. Here I discuss our NV-based magnetic imaging experiments as applied to condensed matter systems, where we have imaged current flow patterns in graphene […]
Aerial robotics have become ubiquitous, but (like most robots) they still struggle to operate at high speed in unstructured, cramped environments. By considering a vehicle's mechanical design simultaneously with the design of controls and automation algorithms, we have more degrees of freedoms to find creative solutions to problems. In this talk I will present some […]
Climate change is a societal and political problem whose impact could be mitigated by technology. Underlying many of its technical challenges is a surprisingly simple yet challenging problem; modeling the interaction of atoms. In this talk, we motivate the problem and provide insights into how this opens up new intriguing directions for machine learning and […]
ABSTRACT: “Does generative AI infringe copyright?” is an urgent question. It is also a difficult question, for two reasons. First, “generative AI” is not just one product from one company. It is a catch-all name for a massive ecosystem of loosely related technologies. These systems behave differently and raise different legal issues. Second, copyright law […]
This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Countless science fiction works have set our expectations for small, mobile, autonomous robots for use in a broad range of applications. The ability to move through highly dynamic and complex environments can expand capabilities in search and rescue […]
The ability to modulate pathogenic proteins represents a powerful treatment strategy for diseases. Unfortunately, many proteins are considered "undruggable" by small molecules, and are often intrinsically disordered, precluding the usage of structure-based tools for binder design. To address these challenges, we have developed a suite of algorithms that enable the design of target-specific peptides via […]
In this talk we will discuss how to engineer the dispersion relation of photonic platforms to provide robust propagation of classical and quantum states of light. In the first part of this talk, we will unveil how to leverage the interaction of nonlinearity with higher orders of dispersion to create novel types of solitons, wave […]
This is a HYRBID event with a VIRTUAL SPEAKER. The GRASP on Robotics Seminar will be streamed for in-person attendees in Wu and Chen and virtual attendees may join the talk via Zoom. ABSTRACT Every team has top performers -- people who excel at working in a team to find the right solutions in complex, difficult […]
Many microorganisms and cells function in complex (non-Newtonian) fluids, which are mixtures of different materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic stresses. For example, mammalian sperm swim through cervical mucus on their journey through the female reproductive tract, and they must penetrate the viscoelastic gel outside the ovum to fertilize. In micro-scale swimming the dynamics […]