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CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Structure and transport properties of nanoporous polymers derived from lyotropic mesophases” (Christopher Johnson)

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Abstract: Burgeoning energy and water scarcity challenges motivate the development of new membrane materials for charge transport as well as chemical and water separations. This in turn requires an improved understanding of the physics that govern charged and uncharged solute transport in membranes, and particularly the motion of such species in nm-scale confinement in polymeric […]

MEAM Master’s Thesis Defense: “Investigating Jet Interactions in the Multi-Jet SALP Robot”

David Rittenhouse Laboratory Building, Room 4E19 209 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

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 […]

MEAM Master’s Thesis Defense: “In Situ Additive Manufacturing of Metal-Graphene Composites by Upcycling Polymers”

4E9, DRLB 209 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

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 […]

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Designing Solvent-Based Order Parameters for Characterizing Binding of Surfaces with Different Hydrophobicity Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations” (Jun Lu)

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

Abstract: Life is dependent on water: most self-assembly and binding processes of biomolecules take place in water. Water-mediated interactions are an essential driving force behind these processes, which is largely affected by the hydrophobicity of the binding surfaces. As many biomolecular binding interfaces are amphiphilic, the hydrophobic interactions are largely affected by polar and charged […]

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Graph Neural Networks for Communication in Multi-Agent Systems”

Room 313, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Communication networks support a wide range of applications in multi-agent systems by solving core problems such as routing, scheduling, and resource allocation. In this thesis, we focus on data-driven routing and scheduling strategies using local information subject to constraints using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). First, we study information routing in communication networks with constant channel […]

MEAM Master’s Thesis Defense: “Learning a Vision-Based Footstep Planner for Hierarchical Walking Control on Unstructured Terrain”

David Rittenhouse Laboratory Building, Room 4C4 209 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

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 […]

MEAM Master’s Thesis Defense: “A Computational Model of Caenorhabditis elegans Locomotion”

Towne 319 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, United States

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 […]

ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Multiferroic Resonators for Wireless Power Transfer and Magnetic Field Sensing in Biomedical Systems”

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) composed of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials can translate information between the electrical and magnetic domains while exploiting mechanical resonance enhancement. Multiferroic MEMS devices such as these can be designed to perform magnetic field sensing and wireless power transfer (WPT) while maintaining device sizes on the order of 0.125 mm 2 . This […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Real-Time Perception and Mixed-Integer Footstep Control for Underactuated Bipedal Walking on Rough Terrain”

Towne 319 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, United States

The promise of bipedal robots is to go where people go, serving as surrogates for human labor in dangerous, unstructured environments. For the most part, this promise remains unrealized. The primary challenge for controlling bipedal locomotion is underactuation. Standing on a single leg limits control authority, requiring appropriate foot placement to generate or absorb momentum […]

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Bridging Transcription and Signaling to Study c-MYC Function and Regulation in Cancer Cells” (Reshma Kalyan Sundaram)

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Abstract: The transcription factor c-MYC (MYC) is a master regulator of gene expression and is frequently deregulated in human cancers. Despite the prevalent role of MYC in cancers, no MYC inhibitors are currently available for clinical use. In this work, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying MYC’s transcriptional function and deregulation using an integrated approach […]