MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Enabling Ultra-Low Viscosity Lubricants Through Fundamental Understanding of ZDDPs Anti-Wear Additives and their Tribofilm Growth Mechanisms: An In-Situ Study”

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

Lubricants with low viscosity have the potential to improve fuel efficiency in engines due to friction reduction. However, a reduction in viscosity increases the likelihood of wear. Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP), the most widely used antiwear additive in engine oils, has been extensively studied over the last few decades. ZDDP forms surface-bound tribofilms at sliding contacts […]

MEAM Seminar: “Cell Packings and Tissue Flows in Developing Embryos”

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

During embryonic development, groups of cells reorganize into functional tissues with complex form and structure. Tissue reorganization can be rapid and dramatic, often occurring through striking embryo-scale flows that are mediated by the coordinated actions of hundreds or thousands of cells. In Drosophila, cell rearrangements in the embryonic epithelium rapidly narrow and elongate the tissue, […]

A Celebration of the Life of Dr. Max Mintz

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

The CIS Department and GRASP Lab invite you to please join us on Thursday, November 17th, at 3:30pm as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Max Mintz, Professor of Computer and Information Science. Max joined Penn as an assistant professor of Systems Engineering (now part of ESE) in 1974. He changed his primary […]

MEAM Seminar: “The Challenges and Opportunities of Battery-Powered Flight”

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

Sustainable transportation and aviation are critical to address climate change and renewable energy powered battery electric vehicles represent a promising path towards this goal. I will discuss the performance metrics needed of batteries for electric land and air vehicles, and assess the energy-efficiency of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft compared to ground vehicles. […]

PICS Seminar: “A Non-local Plasticity Model for Porous Metals with Deformation-induced Anisotropy: Mathematical and Computational Issues”

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

A non-local (gradient) plasticity model for porous metals that accounts for deformation-induced anisotropy is presented. The model is based on the work of Ponte Castañeda and co-workers on porous materials containing randomly distributed ellipsoidal voids. It takes into account the evolution of porosity and the evolution/development of anisotropy due to changes in the shape and […]

MEAM Seminar: “Nonlinear Mechanical Behavior of Kirigami-inspired Architected Materials”

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

As 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing techniques have become more common, it is increasingly possible to produce structures with nearly arbitrary internal geometric and compositional features, opening up vast new design space for engineers. In this work, we consider a kirigami-inspired, flexible architected material comprising rotating squares joined at their vertices. The rotational degrees […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “An Aquatic Underactuated Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robotic System for Information-Limited Navigation in Gyre-Like Flows”

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

Aquatic modular self-reconfigurable robotic systems (MSRRs) have incredible potential for bringing practical, flexible, and adaptable robotic tools to challenging environments. They could build mobile ocean platforms or bridges for larger vehicles, act as ocean-going manipulators to perform repairs on infrastructure, or function as oceanographic research platforms, using reconfiguration to achieve precise spatial resolution when sensing […]

MEAM Seminar: “Role of Water in the Mechanics of Cells and Tissues”

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

A large fraction of cell and tissue mass is made of water. The flow of water across the cell surface follows osmotic and hydraulic pressure gradients, and is actively controlled by the cell. This physical fact suggests that the mechanical behavior of cells is intimately connected with cell ionic homeostasis and osmotic control. In this […]

MEAM Seminar: “Multifunctional Soft Materials for Electronics, Robots, and Adhesives”

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

Multifunctional soft materials and interfaces create intriguing new opportunities to enhance performance through programmable and adaptable properties. I will discuss: 1) Novel material architectures of solid-liquid soft composites for electronics, 2) Switchable and programmable materials for adhesion control, and 3) Morphing materials for soft robotics. For soft composites, I will show how liquid metal droplets […]

PICS/MEAM Seminar: “A Low Rank Tensor Approach for Nonlinear Vlasov Simulations”

PICS Conference Room 534 - A Wing , 5th Floor 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In this work, we present a low-rank tensor approach for approximating solutions to the nonlinear Vlasov equation. Our method takes advantage of the tensor-friendly nature of the differential operators in the Vlasov equation to dynamically and adaptively construct a low-rank solution basis through the discretization of the equation and an SVD-type truncation procedure. We utilize […]