The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Drs. Eric Granquist and Beth Winkelstein are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Megan Sperry. The public is welcome to attend.
We will discuss two complementary mechanical models for DNA that deal with, respectively two problems: one, phase transitions in a DNA molecule, and two, allosteric interactions between two ligands bound to DNA. Experimental studies on single molecules of DNA have reported a rich variety of cooperative structural transitions, including coexistence of three phases, when a […]
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are a nanomaterial derived from plants that have high specific stiffness and strength, can be made into optically transparent materials, and are biodegradable. These properties make CNFs an attractive building block for bulk structural materials. However, CNFs are typically produced in aqueous suspension at low CNF weight fractions (<1 wt.%), which makes […]
The importance of meaningful tactile experiences has become increasingly apparent in areas such as teleoperation, education, and gaming. As the applications of rendering haptic stimuli are growing, so are the requirements of haptic interfaces, in that the intended audience is becoming more diverse and the intended interactions are becoming more complicated. For the past few […]
Committee Members: Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen, Advisor; Raymond Gorte, John Vohs and Mark Allen.
Committee: Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen, Advisor; Raymond Gorte, John Vohs and Mark Allen
This era of the internet of things is poised to experience explosive growth in the number of interconnected smart electronic devices. Machine learning algorithms, such as neural networks, are expected to play an indispensable role in analyzing the data gathered by these devices, and in many cases, will also facilitate informed device responses. However, the […]
Autonomous flight through unknown environments in the presence of obstacles is a challenging problem for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). A majority of the current state-of-art research focuses on modeling obstacles as opaque objects that can be easily sensed by optical sensors such as cameras or LiDARs. Since obstacles may not always be opaque, particularly in […]
Committee: Robert Riggleman, PhD (co-advisor); Russell Composto, PhD (co-advisor); Ravi Radhakrishan, PhD; and Jeff Meth, PhD
Low temperature synthesis of high quality 2D materials directly on flexible substrates remains a fundamental limitation towards realization of robust, strainable electronics possessing the unique physical properties of atomically thin structures. Here, we describe room temperature synthesis of uniform, stoichiometric amorphous MoS2, WSe2, and other transition metal dichalcogenides and subsequent large area (>5 cm2) photonic […]
