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Oct
6
SPREE Seminar: Qiming Wang
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering
11:00 AM A236, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
Improving Engineering Resilience via Bioinspired Living Material
The US infrastructure is continuously aging and failing during service or under unpredictable hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. One of the NAE grand engineering challenges in the 21st century is to restore and improve urban infrastructure (www.engineeringchallenges.org/challenges/infrastructure.aspx). Living organisms typically exhibit extraordinary resilience to hazards, thus becoming continuous sources of inspiration for designing engineering materials and structures. Living organisms are typically different from engineering materials in two aspects: First, living organisms typically feature sophisticated microstructures and architectures that are challenging to reproduce in traditional engineering practice. Second, living organisms consist of living cells to support their metabolisms, such as growth, regeneration, and remodeling, which are typically impossible in traditional engineering materials. In this talk, we present the design of bioinspired living materials by integrating living components (e.g., living chemistry, microorganisms, and plants) into engineering materials using modern manufacturing technologies. The vision is that these bioinspired living structures can imitate both architectures and metabolisms of living organisms to enable self-growing, self-remodeling, self-strengthening, and self-healing in resistance to aging, fatigue, and natural hazards. For example, assisted by living chemistry, 3D-printed structures can self-heal large-scale impact damages and fractures. Assisted by living microorganisms, 3D-printed polymers can self-grow into structural composites with pre-designed delicate microstructures. Assisted by living chloroplasts, 3D-printed artificial trees can harness photosynthesis to self-remodel into multifunctional materials.
Qiming Wang is an Assistant Professor and endowed Stephen Schrank Early Career Chair at Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Southern California (USC). Before joining USC, he was a postdoctoral associate in Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014-2015) and earned his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University in 2014. He received ONR Young Investigator Award (2021), NSF Faculty Early Career Award (2020), AFOSR Young Investigator Award (2018), SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (2020), Orange County Engineering Council Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2020), MRS Graduate Student Award (2014), ACS Arthur K. Doolittle Award (2014), Duke Kewaunee Student Achievement Award (2013), Duke Lew Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (2012), and ASME Best Paper Award (2011). His research interest is centered around manufacturing and mechanics of unprecedented materials and structures that can potentially address grand engineering challenges, including infrastructure, water, environment, energy, robotics, and healthcare. His recent research is to design and understand bioinspired living materials by integrating living components (e.g., living chemistry, microorganisms, and plants) into engineering materials using modern manufacturing technologies. His research has been widely reported by more than 200 news articles in popular media, such as Science highlights, Nature highlights, Discovery, Washington Post, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Physics Today, Materials Today, and NASA Tech Briefs.
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TIME Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Alison Rodriguez    alison.rodriguez@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sep
24
SPREE Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Sep
26
EES Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
2:00 PM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Friday, September 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Sep
29
AED-MPM Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Monday, September 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
1
SPREE Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
3
EES Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
2:00 PM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Friday, October 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
6
AED-MPM Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Monday, October 6, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
8
SPREE Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
10
EES Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
2:00 PM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Friday, October 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
11
CEE Fall Career Fair
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
9:00 AM Louis Room, Norris University Center
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Saturday, October 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION Louis Room, Norris University Center    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Oct
13
AED-MPM Seminar
McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
TBA
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TIME Monday, October 13, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A230, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andrew Liguori    andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
 
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