Celebration of Community

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

The Cora Ingrum Center for Community and Outreach is planning its annual Celebration of Community gala to showcase Penn Engineering students, staff, and faculty in their multi-talented richness. The event will consist of guest speakers, performances, presentations from student groups, and a variety of cuisines. Do not hesitate to contact Dr. Ocek Eke (ocek@seas.upenn.edu) and […]

2024-2025 Heilmeier Award and Lecture

Wu & Chen Auditorium

"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 […]

Frontiers in Science: Engineering RNA and AI

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

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 […]

MEAM Seminar: “Sticky Situations: Cohesion in Granular Flows”

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

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 […]

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Tailoring MXene Chemistry through Composition and Undercoordination for Applications in Hydrogen Chemistries” (Yamilée Morency)

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

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 […]

CIS Seminar: “Generative Computer Vision for the Physical World”

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

Generative models are revolutionizing our world, with the ability to generate photorealistic visual content that are indistinguishable from reality. Despite their overwhelming presence in the cyber world, they haven’t been very useful in the physical world that we live in. In this talk, I will present how the rich priors learned by large-scale generative models—ranging […]

AI Across Disciplines: A Penn Initiative

Amy Gutmann Hall, Auditorium 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Join President J. Larry Jameson and Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. along with the Penn AI Council for the launch of Penn AI. Senior Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell will lead a discussion with members of the Penn AI Council to explore AI’s societal implications and Penn’s potential to influence a more sustainable future. […]

ASSET Seminar: “Getting Lost in ML Safety Vibes”

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

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 […]

Spring 2025 GRASP SFI: Ke Li, Simon Fraser University, “The Devil Is in the Gaps: How (Not) To Interpolate Between Discrete Points”

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

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, […]

CBE Seminar: “Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology for a Sustainable Future” (Hal Alper, UT Austin)

Wu & Chen Auditorium

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. […]