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Events

• Feb

  6

  ME512 Distinguished Seminar Speaker: Dr. Mary Frecker

  McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)

  3:00 PM ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

  EVENT DETAILS

  Making compliant mechanisms smart: nonlinear modeling and design optimization

  Dr. Mary Frecker

  Distinguished Speaker

  Professor of Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering

  Penn State University

  Abstract - Compliant mechanisms have been the subject of intense research in recent decades. Making compliant mechanisms “smart” to form flexible, adaptive structures is the focus of my research group, with applications ranging from medical devices to aerospace structures. This seminar will describe recent work on modeling approaches for compliant mechanisms with both superelastic material behavior and large deformations, which have not been considered previously in the literature. This approach allows for design of compliant mechanism-based metamaterials with highly nonlinear stiffness and enhanced energy absorption. Additionally, the presentation will cover our method for designing active compliant mechanisms that change shape on demand due to application of external stimulus such as magnetic field, electric field, or temperature. Methods to optimize origami-based designs with magneto active elastomer and dielectric elastomer materials will be described, along with an analytical modeling approach for soft magneto active elastomer devices produced via additive manufacturing.

  Bio - Mary Frecker is the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, the Leighton Riess Chair in Engineering, and the founding director of the Center for Biodevices at Pennsylvania State University. She has served as Associate Department Head for Graduate Programs in Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, as well as Director of the Bernard Gordon Learning Factory in the College of Engineering. Dr. Frecker has a B.S. from the University of Dayton, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Frecker has been awarded the Pearce Endowed Development Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State, the GM/Freudenstein Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Mechanisms Committee (2002), the Outstanding Advising Award by the Penn State Engineering Society (2002), the Outstanding Research Award by the Penn State Engineering Society (2005), three ASME Best Paper awards (2009 and 2015), and the ASME Adaptive Structures and Material Systems Award (2021). She served as an Executive Leadership in Academic Technology & Engineering (ELATE) Fellow in 2018-2019, and completed the Changing the Future for Senior Women Faculty in STEM leadership program in 2019. Dr. Frecker is a Fellow of the ASME, is currently an Executive Committee member of the ASME Design Engineering Division and past Chair of the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Technical Committee, and has served as Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Chair of the ASME Adaptive Structures and Material Systems Technical Committee, and Executive Committee member of the ASME Aerospace Division.

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  TIME Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

  LOCATION ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Jeremy Wells    jeremywells@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)

• Apr

  30

  ME Alumni Seminar Series- Apostolos Karafillis

  McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)

  2:00 PM 1.350, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

  EVENT DETAILS

  On the Design and Manufacture of Structures for Flightworthy Gas Turbines
  by Apostolos Karafillis
  Chief Consulting Engineer
  Structures and Additive Design
  GE Aerospace
  Abstract
  The design and manufacture of gas turbine components presents unique technical challenges that highlight the relevance and importance of the disciplines of mechanical and aerospace engineering. In this presentation, we will focus on describing the fundamental technical requirements for parts of flightworthy gas turbines and will then share examples of designs and innovations to meet these requirements. The talk will include the description of typical loading conditions and operating environments, and the description of how these requirements guide the selection of design features, materials, and manufacturing methods. We will discuss three specific examples: The selection of features and architecture of a bearing housing, the design of a turbine frame with a mix of metallic and composite materials, and the development of methods for characterizing the performance of components manufactured with non-traditional methods. Through these examples, it will be shown that successful hardware design requires the combination of robust design methods, rigorous implementation of the principles of mechanics of materials, and the development of design and manufacturing innovation.

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  TIME Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  LOCATION 1.350, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Jeremy Wells    jeremywells@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)

• May

  3

  Russ Tedrake, MIT and Toyota Research Institute, "Dexterous Manipulation with Diffusion Policies"

  Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)

  11:30 AM M416, Technological Institute

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  

  Speaker: Russ Tedrake, Toyota Professor of EECS, Aero/Astro, ME at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and VP of Research at Toyota Research Institute

  Title: Dexterous Manipulation with Diffusion Policies

  Date and Time: Friday, May 3 at 11:30 AM CT

  Location: Tech ESAM M416 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:

  At the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we've been working on behavior cloning for dexterous manipulation. Building on the Diffusion Policy framework that we've recently developed in collaboration with Shuran Song, we now have a very solid pipeline for taking ~50-100 bimanual haptic teleop demonstrations and turning that into a surprisingly effective visuomotor (+tactile) policy. Because there is no explicit state representation required, these skills work equally well manipulating deformable, liquid, or other difficult to model tasks as they do for more traditional rigid-object manipulation. We're actively scaling this up into the multi-task setting and now see a plausible path towards "Large Behavior Models". This behavior cloning pipeline is working incredibly well, and must be understood deeply in the broader context of output-feedback control. Time permitting, I'll also tell you a bit about some new results in optimization-based planning and control, and where they might fit in the age of foundation models.

  Bio:

  Russ Tedrake is the Toyota Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Aero/Astro, and he is a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). He is also the Vice President of Robotics Research at Toyota Research Institute (TRI). He received a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2004. Dr. Tedrake is the Director of the MIT CSAIL Center for Robotics and was the leader of MIT’s entry in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the MIT Jerome Saltzer Award for undergraduate teaching, the DARPA Young Faculty Award in Mathematics, the 2012 Ruth and Joel Spira Teaching Award, and was named a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellow. His research has been recognized with numerous conference best paper awards, including ICRA, Robotics: Science and Systems, Humanoids, Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, as well as the inaugural best paper award from the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Whole-Body Control.

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  TIME Friday, May 3, 2024 at 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

  LOCATION M416, Technological Institute    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Amy Nedoss    amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)

• May

  8

  Extending Care: A Conversation about Conservation and Futurity

  Block Museum of Art

  6:00 PM Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts is a collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago and materials science-related departments at Northwestern University to pursue objects-based and objects-inspired scientific research. Materials research benefits ongoing work in conservation, archaeology, art history, and curatorial scholarship.

  Learn how the Center uses materials research to care for art objects in sustainable, innovative ways with Maria Kokkori, Senior Scientist in the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts. She will be in conversation with Corey Byrnes, Northwestern Associate Professor of Chinese Culture and co-founder/co-director of the Environmental Humanities Workshop in Kaplan Humanities Center.

  This event is presented by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in conjunction with exhibition Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology.

  Register Now

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  TIME Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

  LOCATION Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Block Museum of Art    block-museum@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Block Museum of Art

• Jun

  10

  Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  9:00 AM Welsh-Ryan Arena

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  McCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master’s Degree Recognition Ceremony

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  TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

  LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena   

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Amy Pokrass    amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Jun

  10

  Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  2:00 PM Welsh-Ryan Arena

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  McCormick School of Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

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  TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

  LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena   

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Amy Pokrass    amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Aug

  14

  Undergraduate Quantum Summer School

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  All Day Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  Innovation in Quantum Pedagogy, Application, and its Relation to Culture (IQ-PARC), funded by the Department of Defense — National Defense Education Program, is extending an invitation to underrepresented students nationwide (including military-connected students) to participate in a summer school focused on quantum technologies, to be held at Northwestern University. Join us for presentations by faculty and industry partners introducing quantum technologies, cutting-edge research areas, and related job opportunities particularly in the areas of national security.

  This effort aims to foster an inclusive environment that encourages participation from all corners of the academic community. Successful applicants will receive up to $1,000 USD to cover travel and lodging expenses in Evanston, IL.

  Priority application deadline: May 15, 2024.

  Decisions will be sent by June 15, 2024.

  Register Now

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  TIME Wednesday, August 14, 2024

  LOCATION Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Dongyang Li    lidongyang@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Aug

  15

  Undergraduate Quantum Summer School

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  All Day Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  Innovation in Quantum Pedagogy, Application, and its Relation to Culture (IQ-PARC), funded by the Department of Defense — National Defense Education Program, is extending an invitation to underrepresented students nationwide (including military-connected students) to participate in a summer school focused on quantum technologies, to be held at Northwestern University. Join us for presentations by faculty and industry partners introducing quantum technologies, cutting-edge research areas, and related job opportunities particularly in the areas of national security.

  This effort aims to foster an inclusive environment that encourages participation from all corners of the academic community. Successful applicants will receive up to $1,000 USD to cover travel and lodging expenses in Evanston, IL.

  Priority application deadline: May 15, 2024.

  Decisions will be sent by June 15, 2024.

  Register Now

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  TIME Thursday, August 15, 2024

  LOCATION Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Dongyang Li    lidongyang@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science