GRASP on Robotics: Kevin Lynch, Northwestern University, “Robot manipulation research in the Center for Robotics and Biosystems”

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

*This seminar will be held in-person in Wu and Chen Auditorium as well as virtually via Zoom. Research at the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University encompasses bio-inspiration, neuromechanics, human-machine systems, and swarm robotics, among other topics.  In this talk I will give an overview of some of our recent work, with a particular […]

PICS Colloquium: “Preserving microscale features in continuum models of fiber network materials”

Zoom - email kathom@seas.upenn.edu

Fiber networks at different length scales represent a prevalent microstructure of highly deformable materials and biological matter. At the microscale, these fiber networks are key for the function of biological systems, while at the macroscale they endow materials with striking characteristics, such as unusual kinematic behavior and high defect tolerance. Resolving the microstructure in discrete […]

GRASP Seminar: Robert J. Wood, Harvard University, “Soft robotics for delicate and dexterous manipulation”

https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96715197752

This seminar will be held virtually via Zoom. Robotic grasping and manipulation has historically been dominated by rigid grippers, force/form closure constraints, and extensive grasp trajectory planning. The advent of soft robotics offers new avenues to diverge from this paradigm by using strategic compliance to passively conform to grasped objects in the absence of active control, and with […]

MEAM Seminar: “From Mollusk Shells to Dense Architectured Materials to Granular Crystals: How Building Blocks and Weak Interfaces Create High Mechanical Performance”

Zoom - Email MEAM for Link peterlit@seas.upenn.edu

Regular building blocks of controlled shape and size can be assembled to create fully dense “architectured” materials and structures. When the building blocks are very stiff and when they interact through much softer materials or even only by frictional contact, the blocks can slide, rotate, separate or interlock collectively, providing a wealth of tunable mechanisms, […]

ESE Spring Seminar – “Emergent Active Photonic Platforms for Next-Generation Mid-Infrared and Ultrafast Photonics”

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

As two basic properties of light, wavelength and timescale are central to numerous photonic applications. Compared to visible and near-infrared, the longer wavelength mid-infrared spectral regime contains unique thermal visual information and chemical fingerprints of the environment.  On a different front, femtosecond light sources and systems can enable ultrafast information processing, sensing, and computing. Yet, […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Deep Learning and Uncertainty Quantification: Methodologies and Applications”

Zoom - Email MEAM for Link peterlit@seas.upenn.edu

Uncertainty quantification is a recent emerging interdisciplinary area that leverages the power of statistical methods, machine learning models, numerical methods and data-driven approach to provide reliable inference for quantities of interest in natural science and engineering problems. In practice, the sources of uncertainty come from different aspects such as: aleatoric uncertainty where the uncertainty comes […]

Spring 2022 GRASP SFI: Jason Ma, University of Pennsylvania, “Beyond Expected Reward in Offline Reinforcement Learning”

Levine 512

*This will be a HYBRID Event with in-person attendance in Levine 512 and Virtual attendance via Zoom Offline reinforcement learning (RL), which uses pre-collected, reusable offline data without further environment interactions, permits sample-efficient, scalable and practical decision-making; however, most of the existing literature (1) focuses on improving algorithms for maximizing the expected cumulative reward, and (2) […]

CBE Seminar: “Processive-Cleavage and Functionalization-Cleavage for Deconstruction of Polyolefins”

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

Abstract The massive quantities of single-use plastics discarded each year requires new sustainable end-of-life solutions. Current technologies, such as melt-processing for recycling or incineration for partial energy recovery, are insufficient to deal with the crisis in its entirety. New methods involving chemical upcycling, by catalytic conversion of the used materials into higher value products, could […]