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    • MSE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Stuck in the Matrix: How Chromatin Records and Replays Mechanical History”

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

    Abstract: Tissues stiffen in aging, fibrosis, cancer, and injury, yet how these physical changes are recorded inside the nucleus has remained poorly understood. This dissertation establishes that matrix stiffness is not merely sensed at the cell surface and relayed biochemically inward. It is encoded directly in chromatin architecture, accumulated over time, and expressed as distinct […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Modeling and Motion Planning for Robotic Systems with Networked Compliance”

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

    Zoom: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/3458894777?omn=91979093447 Meeting ID: 345 889 4777 Physical compliance enters robotic systems either by design, to yield gracefully to disturbances, or by circumstance, as a property of the environment or task itself. Often this compliance is distributed across many interacting elements, and how those elements are connected determines whether their combined effect on the robot's […]

    MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Development of Microfluidic Platforms for High-Throughput Biomolecular Screening”

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    Room 2C4, David Rittenhouse Laboratory Building 209 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    High-throughput screening (HTS) is an essential step in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Single-phase and multiphase microfluidic platforms offer improved sensitivity, reduced cost, and enhanced physiological relevance compared with conventional screening technologies such as microplates and fluorescence-activated cell sorters. However, a challenge towards unlocking the full potential of microfluidic platforms for HTS in […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Learning-Enabled Control: Statistical Foundations and Architectures”

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    Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 515 3317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States
    Hybrid Event

    Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/93917708817 Recent advances in learning-enabled control have dramatically expanded the capabilities of autonomous systems, with applications ranging from robots and self-driving cars to industrial automation systems. However, reliable real-world deployment remains fundamentally constrained by the uncertainty in learned components, the complexity of large-scale systems, and the high cost of collecting system data. Toward addressing […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Co-Design of Resonators, Piezoelectric Materials, and Acoustic Modes for Timing, Communications, and Power Applications”

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    Room 313, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    The growing demand for high-performance frequency control and power conversion systems has intensified research interest in piezoelectric MEMS resonators. This thesis investigates three piezoelectric material systems, including aluminum nitride (AlN), aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN), and lithium niobate (LiNbO₃), operating in different acoustic modes: bulk acoustic wave (BAW), thickness shear (TS), and Lamb wave modes, By […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Chemically Sintered Cu Nanocrystal Thin Films and Multiscale Devices”

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

    Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92477312796 Colloidal metal nanocrystals (NCs) are chemically synthesized, nanometer-scale metal particles whose surfaces are capped with organic or inorganic ligands to provide colloidal stability and solution processability. Metal NC dispersions can serve as inks for the solution-based deposition and patterning of conductors at lower thermal budgets and over large areas compared to processes […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Spatial Compositions for Agile Quadrupedal Locomotion”

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

    Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98563756560?pwd=yXnuhaTv2V2jSOHzgiz1DujOa2Ubdw.1 Robots still have a lot to learn from animals when it comes to agile locomotion. Abstracting low-DOF dynamical models from animal locomotion and using them as control targets for robots has demonstrated impressive empirical results while often facilitating formal performance guarantees. However, implementations of this approach have historically tended to restrict their […]

    MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Predicting Infant Center of Pressure with Physics and Data-Informed Modeling”

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

    Affecting 5-10% of infants worldwide, Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability among infants, presenting as a variety of motor, perception, and cognitive impairments. CP is a lifelong condition with no cure, but treatment exists through rehabilitation. Evidence suggests that rehabilitation can be especially effective before the age of 2, but to deliver […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Toward Scalable Synthesis of High-Quality Two-Dimensional Materials”

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    Fisher Bennett Hall, Room 24 3340 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
    Hybrid Event

    Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer a route to sustain semiconductor device scaling beyond the limits of silicon, providing atomically thin, dangling-bond-free channels and a versatile platform for further device scaling and the heterogeneous integration of electronic and optoelectronic functions. The principal bottleneck to their adoption, however, is the lack of a manufacturing route that simultaneously delivers […]

    MEAM Seminar: “Exploiting Bistability for the Static, Dynamic and Aerodynamic Control of Mechanical Metamaterials”

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    Heilmeier Hall (Room 100), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Mechanical metamaterials achieve extraordinary physical properties through their internal geometric architectures. While traditional metamaterials are limited by fixed designs, multistable reprogrammable metamaterials can modify these properties post-fabrication and morph into different shapes. However, existing tunable metamaterials often require continuous energy input, rely on global volumetric deformations, or necessitate complex actuation networks. In this talk, I […]

    CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Multiscale Molecular Simulation Approaches to Small Molecule Permeation in Glassy Polymers” (Sam Layding)

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

    Abstract: Glass-forming, disordered materials are ubiquitous in our world. Systems lacking long-range order like a liquid but with many of the mechanical properties of a solid have countless applications and encompass many classes of materials, including polymers, which in many ways define the modern age. The use of glassy polymers to make membranes for separations […]

    ESE Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Optical Interfacing of Solid-State Spin Defects”

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    Heilmeier Hall (Room 100), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
    Hybrid Event

    Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/94300725438?pwd=ULEYFh03w6gJQemJJ1rx6HlaPA2kZn.1 Solid-state spin defects are a versatile class of systems for emerging quantum technologies. This thesis focuses on the optical interfacing of such defect platforms. In the first half of the thesis, a photonic inverse design methodology called many-body shape optimization is implemented in order to design a metasurface optical interface for the […]