Spring 2025 Robotics MSE Thesis and Capstone Lightning Talks and Poster Session

Wu & Chen Auditorium

This is an in-person event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen Auditorium for Lightning Talks and Levine Lobby for Poster Session. This year we will have an "Audience Choice" for best Lightning Talk and Poster. Please be sure to vote for your favorite! Voting will take place during the Poster Session using a QR […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Real-Time Perception and Mixed-Integer Footstep Control for Underactuated Bipedal Walking on Rough Terrain”

Towne 319 220 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, United States

The promise of bipedal robots is to go where people go, serving as surrogates for human labor in dangerous, unstructured environments. For the most part, this promise remains unrealized. The primary challenge for controlling bipedal locomotion is underactuation. Standing on a single leg limits control authority, requiring appropriate foot placement to generate or absorb momentum […]

AI at the Crossroads: Ethics, Innovation and Impact  

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

As part of Philly Tech Week, Penn Engineering is hosting a panel called AI at the Crossroads: Ethics, Innovation and Impact. The discussion explores the balance between cutting-edge AI advancements and responsible development, with a focus on the broader societal impact of artificial intelligence.

CBE Seminar: “Redox-responsive Interfaces for Selective Electrochemical Separations” (Xiao Su, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

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

Abstract: Electric fields and electrochemical reactions can unlock new separation pathways. While electrochemical separations have been explored previously for water desalination, their translation to value-added chemical manufacturing or resource recovery has been hampered by the lack of molecular selectivity. Here, we present the molecular design of redox-responsive materials for enabling selective electrochemical separations. Redox electron-transfer […]

Spring 2025 GRASP Seminar: Mike Shou, National University of Singapore, “Video intelligence in the era of multimodal”

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

This will be a hybrid event with a VIRTUAL speaker. The GRASP seminar will be streamed for in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance on Zoom. ABSTRACT The past few years have witnessed great success in video intelligence, as supercharged by multimodal models. In this talk, I will start with a brief sharing of our […]

CPE4H Seminar: “Engineering Native Biological Complexity from the Inside–out and Outside–in” (Cole A. DeForest, University of Washington)

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

Abstract: Engineering heterogenous multicellular tissue with native complexity remains one of the holy grails of regenerative medicine and basic biological research. As success in this regard would yield powerful bioengineered constructs useful in functional transplantation, high-throughput drug screening, and fundamental biology investigation, research efforts in our lab have centered around developing and implementing tools to […]

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Bridging Transcription and Signaling to Study c-MYC Function and Regulation in Cancer Cells” (Reshma Kalyan Sundaram)

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

Abstract: The transcription factor c-MYC (MYC) is a master regulator of gene expression and is frequently deregulated in human cancers. Despite the prevalent role of MYC in cancers, no MYC inhibitors are currently available for clinical use. In this work, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying MYC’s transcriptional function and deregulation using an integrated approach […]

ESE Guest SEminar – “Dynamical control of tip-induced quantum light-matter interactions at the nanoscale”

Greenberg Lounge (Room 114), Skirkanich Hall 210 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

The controllable manipulation of bandgap, radiative emission, and energy transfer in low-dimensional quantum materials provides a versatile platform for a range of quantum photonic devices. Moreover, the understanding and precise regulation of nanoscale behaviors exhibited by excitonic quasiparticles, such as excitons and trions, in low-dimensional semiconductors are paramount for the development of highly efficient nano-excitonic […]

MEAM Seminar: “The Role of YAP and TAZ in Regulating Mechanical Load-induced Bone Adaptation and Osteocytes Mechanosensing”

Room 337, Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Fetal movements and physical activities generate mechanical signals that regulate musculoskeletal development. It is widely accepted that a bone’s adaptive response occurs within an optimal strain range that stimulates bone formation, exceeding typical daily activity levels. This principle has led to models predicting how bones respond to mechanical loads, as insufficient mechanical signals can result […]

CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Leveraging confinement and surface effects to control polymer phase behavior and transport phenomena in polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films” (Trevor Devine)

Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, Room 121 231 S 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Abstract: Highly loaded, polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle films (PINFs) enable the synergistic combination of polymers with the functionality of nanoscale fillers. Extensive studies have found that their behavior deviates markedly from bulk polymers due to extreme confinement and high interfacial area within the interstitial pore network. However, incorporating polymer blends in these PINFs (blend-PINFs) is unexplored. Confinement […]