MEAM Seminar: “Multiscale Mechano-Medicine: from Mechanobiology to Tissue-Interfacing Stimulating Medical Devices”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Many human health problems are associated with alteration of tissue mechanics and often require mechanical stimulation to promote the healing process. While it is now well established that the mechanics of the cellular microenvironment regulate various biological processes, most studies have focused only on the effect of stiffness, leaving other mechanical parameters such as viscoelasticity […]

MSE Seminar: “Engineering 2D Quantum Materials with Atomic Precision” (University of California – Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer a rich platform for studying quantum phenomena, because their properties can be profoundly altered through heterostructure stacking and defect manipulation, while the resulting electronic and magnetic structure can be directly imaged via surface-sensitive probes. I will discuss several examples that highlight the remarkable potential of engineered two-dimensional (2D) materials for exploring […]

Reflections by 50 Years of Women CIS Faculty

Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Please join Ruzena Bajcsy, Susan Davidson, Stephanie Weirich and Linh Phan for a panel discussion. Reception to Follow ABSTRACT: Women have always been part of computing at Penn, from the women who programmed the ENIAC, to the first woman faculty member, Ruzena Bajcsy, who arrived in 1972 as the CIS department was being formed, to […]

ASSET Seminar: , Dinesh Jayaraman (University of Pennsylvania)

Levine 307 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

ABSTRACT: An important goal of the field sensorimotor robot learning is to do away with cumbersome expertise-intensive task specification, so that general-purpose robots of the future might learn large numbers of new skills. In this talk, I will discuss our recent work on algorithms that exploit goals as a versatile and accessible task specification interface. Goals might […]

Spring 2023 GRASP SFI: Ram Vasudevan, University of Michigan, “Can’t Touch This: Real-Time, Provably Safe Motion Planning and Control for High Dimensional Autonomous Systems”

Levine 307 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance via Zoom. This week's presenter will be in-person as well. ABSTRACT A key challenge to the widespread deployment of robotic manipulators is the need to ensure safety in arbitrary environments while generating new motion plans in real-time. This talk describes a […]

MSE Seminar: “Natural Structural Materials: Lessons on Toughening Mechanisms, Weight Reduction, and Multifunctionality” (Virginia Tech University)

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Structural materials that are damage tolerant, lightweight, multifunctional, and sustainable are highly desirable for many engineering applications. Such combinations of properties are often found in the biological world. Organisms from nature construct a variety of different biological structural materials for protection, predation, body support, camouflage, etc. Despite the fact that these materials are made from […]

BE Seminar: “Engineering therapeutic immunity using (nano)biomaterials” (Natalie Artzi, Harvard Medical School)

Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

This seminar will be held in person only; snacks will be provided. Immunomodulatory therapies have advanced to clinical trials over the past decade for the treatment of a range of diseases and disorders, from cancer to diabetes to transplant rejection. However, the efficacy of these therapies remains limited, as challenges associated with off-target drug toxicity, […]

Spring 2023 GRASP on Robotics: Pulkit Agrawal, MIT, “Fun with Robots and Machine Learning”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance via Zoom. This week's presenter will be in-person as well.    ABSTRACT Robots are getting smarter at converting complex natural language commands describing household tasks into step-wise instructions. Yet, they fail to actually perform such tasks! A prominent explanation for these […]

Spring 2023 GRASP Seminar: Larry Matthies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, “Autonomous mobility in Mars exploration: recent achievements and future prospects”

Berger Auditorium (Room 13), Skirkanich Hall 210 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

This is a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Berger Auditorium (Skirkanich Floor B) and virtual attendance via Zoom. This week's presenter will be in-person as well.    ABSTRACT This talk will summarize key recent advances in autonomous surface and aerial mobility for Mars exploration, then discuss potential future missions and technology needs for Mars […]