Glasses are generally regarded as disordered and the idea of “controlling” molecular packing in glasses is reasonably met with skepticism. However, as glasses are non-equilibrium materials, a vast array of amorphous structures are possible in principle. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) produces glasses with properties that cannot be achieved by other preparation routes, including high stability […]
Seminar
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Soft robots have the potential to adapt their morphologies and behavioral control policies to changing tasks and environments. Inspired by the dynamic plasticity of living organisms and the general adaptability of animals, this talk will discuss several shape-shifting soft robot platforms for multi-task performance and multi-environment locomotion—for example, robotic skins, robotic fabrics, and robots with […] |
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Abstract: Neurological conditions are the leading cause of illness worldwide, though over 92% of clinically tested CNS drug candidates fail to become treatments. Contributing to this high failure rate is a lack of understanding of human disease mechanisms, technologies to address them, and the restrictive blood-brain barrier (BBB), which most compounds fail to cross. New […] |
3 events,
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Metals powders like aluminum and boron are attractive potential fuel additives for pyrotechnics, propellants and explosives due to their high energy release upon oxidation. However, they tend to agglomerate, have lengthy ignition delays, and low combustion rates/efficiencies. This work aims to design metal powders with tuned surface, micro-structure, morphology, or chemistries to mitigate these challenges […]
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Our exponential technologies for reading, writing genomes and epigenomes combined with AI-ML has enabled large libraries and selections for radical new functions — e.g. resistance to all viruses, novel delivery vectors for gene therapies, xeno-transplantation, de-extinction, and de-aging. This lecture will be held remotely. Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/94497096918?pwd=5qeoyMcmEyDboMW3bKgSCmWKYBMCbP.1 |
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Motivated by the ever-increasing success of machine learning in language and vision models, many aim to build AI-driven tools for scientific simulation and discovery. Contemporary techniques drastically lag behind their comparatively mature counterparts in modeling and […] |
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Reliable forecasts of the Earth system are crucial for human progress and safety from natural disasters. Artificial intelligence offers substantial potential to improve prediction accuracy and computational efficiency in this field, however this remains underexplored in many domains. Here we introduce Aurora, a large-scale foundation model for the Earth system trained on over a million […] |
2 events,
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Towne 100 Heilmeier Hall and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT In this talk, I present an approach for interpreting the internal computation in deep vision models. I show that these interpretations can be used to detect model bugs and to improve the performance of pre-trained […]
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Abstract: The discovery of functional molecules plays a fundamental role in advancing chemical science and engineering, yet it remains a costly and time-intensive process. Recent advances in computational methods, particularly in generative artificial intelligence, have introduced a new approach—generative molecular design—which holds the promise of efficiently identifying molecules with desired properties. However, despite significant progress, […] |
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Cells across tissues, developmental stages, and disease conditions adopt distinct intracellular states – epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiles – to compartmentalize function in time and space. The ability to write DNA- and RNA-encoded programs that sense and interface with cellular states has transformative potential for biotechnology, for example in designing gene therapies with cell type- […] |
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Control tuning and adaptation present a significant challenge to the usage of robots in diverse environments. It is often nontrivial to find a single set of control parameters by hand that work well across the broad […] |
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Flow systems in nature, whether animate or inanimate, have evolved in time toward greater efficiency by adapting, or ‘morphing’, their configuration to decrease resistance to the currents flowing through them. Observations at various scales indicate that the distribution of flow, i.e. the connection of a point (source/sink) to a volume (sink/source) or vice-versa, is the […]
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Algorithms are increasingly integrated into various societal applications, often directly interacting with people and communities. This highlights the importance of understanding the interplay between algorithmic decisions and economic incentives when designing machine learning algorithms. In this talk, I will explore two examples of this dynamic through the lens of privacy in data markets and fairness […] |
1 event,
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Abstract: Nature harnesses genetic sequences to encode structural information and emergent physical and chemical transformations required by life processes. Such orchestration is achieved through hierarchical self-assemblies driven by weak molecular interactions and optimized via evolution. However, emulating this level of programmability to create designer biomolecular materials remains a grand challenge. In this seminar, I will […] |
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Deep learning's success stems from the ability of neural networks to automatically discover meaningful representations from raw data. In this talk, I will describe some recent insights into how optimization enables this learning process. First, I will show how optimization algorithms exhibit surprisingly rich dynamics when training neural networks, and how these complex dynamics are […]
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Synthetic biology is driving a new era of medicine through the genetic programming of living cells. One particular focus has been the engineering of bacteria as therapeutic delivery systems for cancer, where microbes colonize and release payloads within tumors. Here, genetic circuits are designed to enhance spatial and temporal control of microbial behaviors for improved […] |
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Designing miniaturized robots and bioelectronic devices will enable access throughout the entire human body, leading to novel procedures at the cellular level and offering localized diagnosis and treatment with unprecedented precision and efficiency. However, the soft, complex, and multi-dimensional nature of biological systems poses significant challenges for mechanical design, manufacturing, materials engineering, and functional integration […]
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Conventional approaches to scientific discovery often prioritize building larger sensors, gathering more data, and scaling up computational power. In this talk, I will present a complementary perspective: extracting insights hidden in the data we already have. The key lies in using AI not as a black-box predictor, but as a tool for interpreting data through […] |
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Recent advancements in hardware and software are bringing autonomous aerial vehicles closer than ever to finally delivering on futuristic visions of flying cars and package delivery drones. However, the safe deployment of autonomous aircraft at scale in urban environments poses significant challenges, one of which being uncertainties contributed by complex spatial and temporal winds. Clusters […]
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Partial observability is ubiquitous in Reinforcement Learning (RL) applications, where agents must make sequential decisions despite lacking complete information about the latent states of the controlled system. Partially observable RL is notoriously challenging in theory—well-known information-theoretic results […]
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Bio & Abstract: Claire Bedbrook is an engineer and neuroscientist working to extend lifespan by modulating the brain. Claire was trained in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology with Professor Frances Arnold and Professor Viviana Gradinaru, where she engineered molecular tools […] |
2 events,
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ESE Spring Seminar – “Quantum Simulation of Electronic Materials with a Superconducting Qubit Array”
ESE Spring Seminar – “Quantum Simulation of Electronic Materials with a Superconducting Qubit Array”
Arrays of coupled superconducting qubits are a compelling platform for analog quantum simulations of solid-state matter and many-body physics. These devices natively emulate the Bose-Hubbard model while offering a high degree of control, fast operation rates, and site-resolved readout. We discuss recent experiments using a 4-by-4 array of transmon qubits. By adopting a parametric coupling […]
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As learning algorithms become increasingly capable of acting autonomously, it is important to better understand the behavior that results from their interactions. For example, a pervasive challenge in multi-agent learning settings, which spans both theory and practice and dates back decades, has been the failure of convergence for iterative algorithms such as gradient descent. Accordingly, […] |
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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 State of the art prediction can fail catastrophically when operating outside of the training distribution. We show methods that can be used to reduce these failures. We then outline how […] |
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Accurate simulations of physical phenomena governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) are foundational to scientific computing. While traditional numerical methods have proven effective, they remain computationally intensive, particularly for complex, large-scale systems. This talk introduces the neural operator, a machine learning framework that approximates solution operators in infinite-dimensional spaces, enabling efficient and scalable PDE simulations […]
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Modern computing and communication technologies, such as supercomputers and the internet, are based on optically-linked networks of information processors operating at microwave frequencies. An analogous architecture has been proposed for quantum networks using optical photons to distribute entanglement between remote superconducting quantum processors. Here I will discuss our recent demonstration of a chip-scale source of […]
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Team theory is a mathematical formalism for decentralized stochastic control problems in which a “team,” consisting of a number of members, cooperates to achieve a common objective. It was developed to provide a rigorous mathematical framework of cooperating members in which all members have the same objective yet different information. In static team problems, the […] |
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT Construction remains one of the least automated industries, struggling with labor shortages, inefficiencies, and rising costs. At BotBuilt, we are revolutionizing the way homes are built by leveraging robotics and AI to automate framing, making construction faster, […]
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Abstract: Societies have prospered using a linear “take-make-use-dispose” approach, extracting natural resources to make products, using them, and ultimately discarding them or their residues. This unsustainable approach has exploited natural resources at a rate that has caused excessive pollution and loss of biodiversity, and is leading to a global climate crisis. In response to this […] |
3 events,
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Abstract: Fast solid-state Li-ion conductors are a crucial class of materials with the potential to enable all-solid-state batteries, offering enhanced safety and energy density. However, these materials remain rare, and progress in developing novel solid electrolytes has been hindered by a lack of clear descriptors for superionic conductivity and a limited understanding of ion transport […]
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The remarkable recent success of Machine Learning (ML) is driven by our ability to develop and deploy interactive models that can solve complicated tasks by understanding and adapting to the ever-changing state of the world. However, the development of such models demands significant data and computing resources. Moreover, as these models increasingly interact with humans, […]
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Bone is the third most common site for cancer metastasis, affecting ~66% of patients with common cancers—breast, lung, prostate, renal, thyroid—incurring skeletal events in up to 400,000 people in the US/year. Metastatic bone disease (MBD) results in weakened bone, leading to refractory pain and pathological fracture that increase disease state morbidity. Despite bone tissue’s dynamic […] |
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT The goal of building machines that can perceive and act in the world as humans and other animals do has been a focus of AI research efforts for over half a century. Over this same period, […]
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This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 512 and virtual attendance on Zoom. This seminar will NOT be recorded. ABSTRACT Dynamic scene reconstruction from monocular cameras often requires us to simultaneously estimate depth and 3D motion, where knowledge of either one would help to constrain the other. I will review two […] |
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