"Colloidal Nanocrystal Materials and Devices with Extraordinary Structures and Functions" Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) can serve as "artificial atoms" to construct materials and devices with extraordinary structures and functions. This talk will discuss the process of designing materials and devices from single- and multiple-types of NCs. These designs can leverage the unique characteristics of NCs, in […]
This free, half-day event for undergraduates is hosted by the National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence-driven RNA BioFoundry (AIRFoundry). Led by experts from the University of Pennsylvania and University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, the event will highlight how AI can enhance RNA, with applications in medicine, agriculture and more. Students will also be able to tour cutting-edge labs and engage […]
From silo discharge and granular avalanches to the erosion of granular beds, granular materials play a central role in many industrial and environmental processes. While significant advances have been made in understanding the statics and dynamics of cohesionless grains, the role of interparticle adhesion, which fundamentally alters bulk rheology and transport mechanisms, remains elusive. In […]
Abstract: Global transition to clean energy relies on the development of efficient hydrogen storage materials and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts—two primary chemistries investigated in this thesis. MXenes, a family of two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides, have emerged as promising candidates for hydrogen technologies due to their high electrical conductivity, chemical tunability, and structural […]
Abstract: Machine learning applications are increasingly reliant on black-box pretrained models. To ensure safe use of these models, techniques such as unlearning, guardrails, and watermarking have been proposed to curb model behavior and audit usage. Unfortunately, while these post-hoc approaches give positive safety ‘vibes’ when evaluated in isolation, our work shows that existing techniques are quite brittle when deployed […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT What do diffusion models/flow matching, Gaussian splatting and efficient transformer architectures have in common? Under the hood, they all turn a discrete set of points into a function defined everywhere. In the case of diffusion models/flow matching, […]
Abstract: Recent technical advances are leading to a rapid transformation of the chemical palette available in cells, thus making it conceivable to produce nearly any organic molecule of interest—from biofuels to biopolymers to pharmaceuticals. However, these feats require the ability to “hijack” native cellular machinery and metabolism and navigate the complexity inherent in cellular regulation. […]
One of our key research areas focuses on developing innovative nanoplatforms for cancer diagnosis, treatment, and therapy-response monitoring. We aim to understand material-biosystem interactions and design nanoparticles capable of delivering effective therapeutic payloads. This presentation will discuss strategies for synthesizing and engineering nanoparticles to ensure stability, extended blood circulation, and controlled drug release while overcoming […]
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98220304722 Abstract I will present recent work by my research group on the design and analysis of stochastic-gradient-based algorithms for solving nonconvex constrained optimization problems, which may arise, for example, in informed supervised learning. I will focus in particular on algorithmic strategies that have consistently been shown to exhibit the best practical […]
I aim to build complete intelligent agents that can continually learn, reason, and plan: answer queries, infer human intentions, and make long-horizon plans spanning hours to days. In this talk, I will describe a general learning and reasoning framework based on neuro-symbolic concepts. Drawing inspiration from theories and studies in cognitive science, neuro-symbolic concepts serve […]
This event is presented by the Wharton Accountable AI Lab and co-sponsored by the Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative; Penn Engineering; the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition; and the Perry World House. The Penn AI Governance Workshop will feature panel discussions, lightning talks and networking opportunities, and will conclude with a reception. The workshop brings together leading Penn researchers to explore key […]
We have made exciting progress in AI by massive models on massive amounts of data center compute. However, the demands for AI are rapidly expanding. I identify how to maximize performance under any compute constraint, expanding the Pareto frontier of AI capabilities. This talk builds up to an efficient language model architecture that expands […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT As the population ages, the need grows for AI agents to assist people to remain living independently. Older adults are typically set in their ways, so AI agents should adapt to their ways of doing things, […]
Abstract: Despite recent advances in catalytic conversion of plastic waste into high-value chemicals, the interactions between the polymers and catalysts, which are highly porous nanomaterials, are not well understood. Fundamental understanding of these interactions and the ability to modulate them would allow us to design effective catalysts for polymer upcycling reactions. To study the interactions […]
The theory of homogenization provides a systematic approach to the derivation of macroscale constitutive laws, obviating the need to repeatedly resolve complex microstructure. However, the unit cell problem which defines the constitutive model is typically not amenable to analytical solution. It is therefore of interest to learn constitutive models from data generated by the unit […]
Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, which bypass common safeguards put in place to prevent these models from generating harmful output. Notably, these attacks can be transferrable to other models---even proprietary ones—potentially compromising a wide range of AI systems with a single exploit. This surprising fragility underscores a critical weakness in […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT As AI-enabled systems become integral to critical domains, their robustness is increasingly tested by dynamic environments, continual learning, and inferential uncertainty. Whether an AI proxy informs high-stakes medical decisions or an embodied agent relies on a foundation […]
Abstract: Electrifying the chemical industry has been much touted as a path to a low-carbon future, but nearly all pathways of interest are electrochemical reductions. If we want water-to-hydrogen, CO2-to-chemicals, or nitrogen-to-ammonia, from where will we get the electrons? Water-to-oxygen is thermodynamically expensive, kinetically slow, and generates a zero-value product. This talk will discuss two […]
With finite resources to complete tasks like monitoring, coverage, and search, the challenge lies in identifying and performing tasks that can change both in frequency and location. One potential solution is teams of robots equipped with the necessary capabilities to complete the desired tasks. However, robot teams require methods that effectively assign robots to tasks, […]
This talk presents the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and how stakeholders at the University of Pennsylvania can engage in a dialog with the funding agency. ARPA-E advances high-risk high-impact transformational technologies to generate, store, and use energy. As part of the US Department of Energy, ARPA-E’s mission is to enhance the economic and energy […]
We present a new perspective on online learning that we refer to as gradient equilibrium: a sequence of iterates achieves gradient equilibrium if the average of gradients of losses along the sequence converges to zero. In general, this condition is not implied by, nor implies, sublinear regret. It turns out that gradient equilibrium is achievable […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. This seminar will NOT be recorded. ABSTRACT Recent years have witnessed remarkable progress in 3D reconstruction and generation. However, most existing methods primarily focus on modeling geometry and appearance. I believe the next generation of 3D reconstruction […]
Abstract: Proteins perform many important biological functions while also avoiding fouling in an aqueous and crowded cellular environment. Their surfaces have evolved to be both chemically heterogeneous (containing nonpolar, polar, and charged groups) as well as hydrophilic. While nonpolar groups are known to induce hydrophobicity, surface heterogeneity has been found to enhance hydrophilicity and the […]
A panel hosted by Penn Engineering Entrepreneurship (EENT) highlighting the importance of AI for the next generation of leaders and showcasing how Penn has been, and will continue to be, at the forefront of this evolving field. Panelists include: Elizabeth (Liz) Golden CEO & Co-Founder @ Wavelet Medical Mel Tang Founding Operating Partner & CFO of Matter […]
Click here for more details. The workshop will explore the state of the art in sustainable computing and share recent research at the intersection of technology, economics, and policy. Through invited talks, panel discussions, and breakout sessions, participants will help shape a research agenda for the field. The workshop aims to produce a white paper and publish […]
This will be an IN-PERSON event ONLY with in-person attendance in AGH 306. ABSTRACT Robots show great promise if they can get out of the lab into the field and go beyond a single-operator per robot paradigm. However, the unstructured nature of the real-world requires nuanced decision making of the robot. In this talk I […]
Critical to advancing immunotherapy and cell therapy in cancer is developing a deeper understanding pf the dynamics of immune cell-mediated cytotoxicity. The results from the multidisciplinary effort reported here include numerous measurements and movies of immune cell-mediated cytotoxicity with striking examples of serial killing, foraging, path-tracking, cytokine gradients at tumor margins, and killing dynamics, in […]
Please RSVP here. We are living in an age where capabilities previously thought to be hallmarks of human intelligence are increasingly being replicated, or at least mimicked, in artificial systems. Tasks involving language, reasoning, perception and even interaction with the real world have all been demonstrated in silico. What does this fact tell us about […]
Penn Engineering alumni working in AI will share industry insights in a panel discussion, followed by student networking sessions. Schedule: 2–3 p.m. Panel Discussion and Q&A 3:15–4 p.m. Breakout Networking Sessions Panelists include: Sara Dwyer (ENG’19) Founder & CEO at Parambil David Q. Sun (GEE’14, GR’20) Senior Engineering Manager, Siri & Information Intelligence, AIML at Apple […]
Abstract: Robust simulation and precise modeling of physical dynamics are essential for advancing perception, planning, and control in the development of generalist physical agents. In this talk, I will present my research on building generative models that combine physical realism with scalability in high-dimensional environments. The presentation delves into both the theoretical foundations and practical […]
AI agents, both in the physical and digital worlds, should generalize from their training data to three increasingly difficult levels of deployment: training tasks and environments, training tasks and environments with variations, and completely new tasks and environments. Moreover, like humans, they are expected to learn from as little training data as possible, especially in […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Motivated by the study of complex social behavior and by the bottom-up design of collaborative autonomy, we present and analyze a nonlinear dynamic model of social belief formation. In our framework, belief updates of individuals are informed by the interplay […]
Dense photonic integration requires miniaturization of materials, devices, circuits and systems, including passive components (e.g., engineered composite metamaterials, filters, etc.), active components (e.g., modulators and nonlinear wave mixers) and integrated circuits (Fourier transform spectrometer, programmable phase modulator of free space modes, linear algebra processors, etc.). In this talk we will discuss recent progress in developing […]
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98220304722 Abstract: This talk considers the problem of resilient distributed multi-agent optimization for cyberphysical systems in the presence of malicious or non-cooperative agents. It is assumed that stochastic values of trust between agents are available which allows agents to learn their trustworthy neighbors simultaneously with performing updates to minimize their own local […]
Software engineers never start from a blank page, but rather from an extant and usually long-running project in need of modification (for repair, extension, update, etc.). One way to view modern programming is thus as a continual process of iteratively transforming existing programs into something new, and hopefully better. In this talk, I will discuss […]
Neural compression, which pertains to compression schemes that are learned from data using neural networks, has emerged as a powerful approach for compressing real-world data. Neural compressors often outperform classical schemes, especially in settings where reconstructions that are perceptually similar to the source are desired. Despite their empirical success, the fundamental principles governing how neural […]
The three-dimensional organization of chromatin within the cell nucleus plays a critical role in regulating gene expression, maintaining genome stability, and guiding cellular responses to environmental cues. Despite advances in imaging and sequencing technologies, the fundamental principles governing chromatin architecture and dynamics, particularly the role of associated proteins like HP1α in driving these processes, remain […]
Directly training deep learning models for applications in large-scale cyber-physical systems can be intractable due to the large number of components and decision variables. Instead, we focus on exploiting spatial symmetries in systems by designing size-generalizable architectures. Once trained on small-scale examples, such architectures exhibit equivalent or comparable performance on large-scale systems. The first example […]
RSVP at https://bit.ly/3RzmdVH Learn what confirmation bias is, how to identify it in your own research, and acquire the skills to mitigate it. Yes, it turns out, we’re all biased and this can negatively impact your research. Join Professor Konrad Kording in this live training session based on the Community for Rigor's new educational unit. […]
The inverse design paradigm has emerged as a transformative approach for the synthesis of nanophotonic structures, offering a powerful alternative to conventional intuition-driven design. By approaching photonic device design as a computational optimization problem, inverse design enables the systematic exploration of high-dimensional parameter spaces to uncover non- intuitive structures that meet complex performance targets. This […]
Jet propulsion is a common locomotion strategy in nature. We developed an underwater particle image velocimetry (PIV) system to investigate the hydrodynamic effects of the SALP (Salp-inspired Approach to Low-energy Propulsion) robot, a soft underwater robot that swims using jet propulsion. Multiple SALP units can be physically connected to form a multi-SALP system, coordinating their […]
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a bourgeoning additive manufacturing technique for rapid prototyping and creating unconventional designs using metal alloys. In parallel, graphene has garnered significant research interest since its discovery, owing to its remarkable mechanical and transport properties. Driven by the potential advances in additive manufacturing, this project aims to harness the intrinsically […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in AGH 306 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Despite the success of deep learning, there remain challenges to progress. Deep models require vast datasets to train, can fail to generalize under surprisingly small changes in domain, and lack guarantees on performance. Incorporating symmetry constraints into […]
The compute demands of AI and robotics continue to rise due to the rapidly growing volume of data to be processed; the increasingly complex algorithms for higher quality of results; and the demands for energy efficiency and real-time performance. In this talk, we will discuss the design of efficient tailored hardware accelerators and the co-design […]
Abstract: American democracy has been undermined by an “infodemic” of fake news, coupled with the widespread segregation of consumers into ideologically homogenous echo chambers by inscrutable algorithms deployed by rapacious social media platforms—or so we are told. In this talk, I will critically examine claims of this sort—made frequently by politicians, journalists, and public intellectuals—summarizing […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT From autonomous vehicles navigating busy intersections to quadrupeds deployed in household environments, robots must operate safely and efficiently around people in uncertain and unstructured situations. However, today’s robots still struggle to robustly handle low- probability events without […]
Engineered biomaterials have emerged as powerful tools for a range of biomedical applications, including regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and additive manufacturing. These engineered biomaterials possess tunable biophysical properties, specific biochemical cues, and complex architecture, enabling precise control over cellular behavior. In this talk, I will outline three biomaterials-based approaches developed in our lab for biomedical […]
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98220304722 Abstract: Solving min-max problems is a central question in optimization, games, learning, and controls. Arguably the most natural algorithm is Gradient-Descent-Ascent (GDA), however since the 1970s, conventional wisdom has argued that it fails to converge even on simple problems. This failure spurred the extensive literature on modifying GDA with extragradients, optimism, momentum, anchoring, […]
Bipedal robots demonstrate high potential in navigating challenging terrains through dynamic ground contact. However, current frameworks often depend solely on proprioception or use manually designed visual processing pipelines, which are fragile in real-world settings and complicate real-time footstep planning in unstructured environments. To overcome this problem, this work proposes a vision-based hierarchical control framework that […]
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT I will talk about two ways we can design agents with the help of powerful vision/graphics models. In the first project, LucidSim, we augment a traditional robotics simulation engine (MuJoCo) with visual detail from an image […]
The growth in wind energy is driving a need to understand how wind turbines perform under a range of atmospheric conditions. Under stably stratified conditions, for example, wind turbine wakes can persist for long distances and impact the performance of downwind turbines. Additionally, variations in surface topography, from shallow depressions to steep mountains, can deflect […]
Abstract: Blackouts have become rarer in the last decade. However, equipment wear and faults (some predictable)affect smaller scales but many parts of Distribution Networks (DNs) more frequently and add up to several hours of interruptions per customer per year. Also, utilities will preemptively de-energize thousands of customers in the path or vicinity of forest fires […]
Higher education is navigating intense political pressure, shifting demographics, rising costs and evolving workforce demands. In this talk, John Katzmann will detail three strategies for sustaining academic excellence while lowering administrative costs, expanding reach and impact, and regaining public trust.
For two centuries, The Franklin Insitute has honored pioneering achievements in science, engineering, and industry. As the oldest comprehensive science awards program in the United States. The Franklin Insitute Awards celebrates Benjamin Franklin's legacy by honoring the Franklins of today. Through their remarkable contributions, our laureates inspire the Franklins of tomorrow. The 2025 Benjamin Franklin […]
This symposium will feature cutting-edge contributions in plasmonics and nanonphonics research that are enabling advances in life sciences, energy sustainability, and information technology. Event Schedule 8:50 am: Welcome 9:00 am: Prof. Rizia Bardhan, Iowa State University. 9:35 am: Prof. Stephan Link, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) 10:10 am: Break 10:30 am: Prof. Peter J. A. […]
Abstract: Neurosymbolic Program Synthesis (NSP) integrates neural networks and symbolic reasoning to tackle complex tasks requiring both perception and logical reasoning. This talk provides an overview of the NSP framework and its applications in domains such as image editing, data extraction, and robot learning from demonstrations. We will delve into the key ideas behind NSP […]
The Franklin Institute Awards Laureate Symposium is dedicated to honoring William James Dally, recipient of the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science The event will feature Margaret Martonosi (H. T. Adams ’35 Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University), Yakun Sophia Shao (Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley), Joe […]
Since discovered in 1897, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has surfaced as an excellent model organism for medical and genetic research. The worm propels itself through viscous-dominated creeping flows via undulatory motion. Moreover, experiments have revealed that the netamode’s swimming gait alters as a function of fluid viscosity. In the current research, we proposed a new […]
In this talk, I will discuss recent publications from my group that attempt at learning models of the world and the effect of the actions of an agent within that world self-supervised, solely via interaction. In particular, I will discuss the potential and challenges of video generative models as a candidate for such a world […]