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Events
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Nov1
EVENT DETAILSmore info
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Speaker: Marc Miskin, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Presentation Title: Microscopic Robots that Sense, Think, Act, and Compute
Date and Time: Friday, November 1 at 12:00 PM CT
Location: Tech IEMS C211 and Zoom
Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar
• NU-authenticated attendees will be automatically admitted. Others, please email amy.nedoss@northwestern.eduto be admitted from the waiting room.Abstract:
Information processing is at the heart of biology with cells performing incredible feats of sensing, feedback, and computation. Yet for robots of a comparable size (i.e., microrobots) integrated intelligence remains a challenge. Instead of on-board computing, most microrobots rely on external control to tell them what to do and how to evolve, blunting their autonomy, usefulness, and behavioral complexity. This talk is about bringing the power of information processing to robots too small to see by eye. I’ll show how to build memory, sensing, computing, actuation, power, and communication systems into a single robot that could fit snugly in a plant cell. Through these circuits, I’ll show how microrobots can carry out useful, autonomous behaviors like temperature reporting and gradient climbing without additional instructions or supervision. Finally, I’ll discuss some near term applications of smart, inexpensive, programmable microrobots, including peripheral nerve repair and nanomanufacturing.Bio:
Marc Miskin is an assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a BSc. in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and PhD. in Physics from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at U. Penn, he was a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow for Nanoscale Science at Cornell University. Currently, he is interested in the design and fabrication of microscopic robots. His work has won awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Packard fellowship and been featured in several media outlets, including the New York Times, the MIT Tech Review’s 35 under 35 list, CNN, the BBC, and NPR. Outside of research, he is actively involved in science education, frequently presenting at science museums across the country.TIME Friday, November 1, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION IEMS C211, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Amy Nedoss amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
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Nov4
EVENT DETAILS
lessCollaborative robots promise to complementhuman work where automation is infeasible,costly, or ineffective. However, for thesesystems to truly complement human workand to deliver value in domains frommanufacturing to healthcare, their usersmust be able to specify collaborative taskactions for the robot and its humancounterparts. In this talk, I will presentongoing work at the People and RobotsLaboratory that explores novel mechanismsfor end-user specification of collaborativework for humans and robots. Specifically, Iwill present interfaces and systems thatintegrate end-user programming, sharedcontrol, and optimization to allow users toprogram, control, and correct collaborativerobots in real-world tasks.
Bilge Mutlu is the Sheldon B. & Marianne S. Lubar Professor of Computer Science at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison, where he directs the People and Robots Laboratory. His research focuses on
human-centered principles for designing robotic technologies and integrating them into everyday
environments. He teaches courses in human-computer interaction and user experience design and
leads the NSF Graduate Research Traineeship (NRT) program, INTEGRATE: Integrating Robots into
the Future of Work. Dr. Mutlu earned his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer
Interaction Institute. His work has received over two dozen paper awards and nominations and has
been featured in Popular Science, The Economist, and New Scientist. More information is available
at http://bilgemutlu.com.TIME Monday, November 4, 2024 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION L211, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Jeremy Wells jeremywells@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)
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Nov15
EVENT DETAILS
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Speaker: Philip Dames, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University
Presentation Title: Developing and Deploying Situational Awareness in Autonomous
Robotic SystemsDate and Time: Friday, November 15 at 12:00 PM CT
Location: Tech IEMS C211 and Zoom
Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar
• NU-authenticated attendees will be automatically admitted. Others, please email amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu to be admitted from the waiting room.Abstract:
Robotic systems must possess sufficient situational awareness in order to successfully operate in complex and dynamic real-world environments. In this talk, I will first describe how multi-target tracking (MTT) algorithms can provide mobile robots with this awareness. Next, I will discuss two key applications of MTT to mobile robotics. The first problem is distributed target search and tracking. To solve this, we develop a distributed MTT framework that scales to large teams and task assignment strategies that automatically balance the workload across a team. The second problem is autonomous navigation through dynamic social spaces filled with people. To solve this, we develop a novel neural network-based controller that takes as its input the target tracks from an MTT, unlike previous approaches which only rely on raw sensor data.Bio:
Philip Dames is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Temple University, where he directs the Temple Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Lab (TRAIL). Prior to joining Temple, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 and his BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2010. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award. His research aims to improve robots’ ability to operate in complex, real-world environments to address societal needs.TIME Friday, November 15, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION Tech C211, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Amy Nedoss amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
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Dec14
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe ceremony will take place on Saturday, December 14 in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive.
*No tickets required
TIME Saturday, December 14, 2024 at 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
LOCATION Pick-Staiger Concert Hall map it
CONTACT Andi Joppie andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science