News & EventsDepartment Events
Events
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May14
EVENT DETAILSmore info
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Speaker: Lou Raizin, President and CEO, Broadway in Chicago
Title: “The Chicago Cultural Stadium”
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1:00 PM CT
Location: Tech, Cohen Commons, 4th Floor
Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/ArtAndRobotics
Abstract: Broadway in Chicago President and CEO Lou Raizin will visit Northwestern to convene people from across the university to learn more about his vision for the Cultural Stadium in Chicago: where he imagines the possibility of linking art and engineering with a kinetic or robotics-related sculpture to inspire wonder in the Loop.
The Cultural Stadium reimagines downtown Chicago as a vibrant, inclusive arena of cultural life—where every street, bridge, and building becomes a stage. Inspired by the scale and spirit of a stadium, the concept brings culture to the forefront through art, live performances, and creative community spaces. With projects like the LaSalle Street transformation, it blends affordable housing, artist studios, and public exhibitions to make culture accessible and alive. This vision calls for structural shifts—zoning, funding, and public-private collaboration—to turn downtown into a bold, living showcase of Chicago’s creativity and diversity. A place where culture isn’t background—it's center stage.
Co-sponsored by McCormick School of Engineering, Arts + Engagement Initiative and Center for Robotics and Biosystems
Bio: Lou Raizin has over 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry. As a founder and the prime mover behind Broadway In Chicago, a joint theatrical venture formed in 2000, his leadership propelled the transformation of Chicago from a short-term stop on “the road” to the third most important city in the world for theater. Encompassing the five premiere theater stages in the city, Broadway In Chicago has presented over 400 productions, bringing an economic impact of over $750 million annually to the City of Chicago and State of Illinois and supporting more than 9,200 local jobs.
Raizin’s focus on economic development, tourism and the support of culture in our City has led to the creation and continued sponsorship of the annual League of Chicago Theatre’s Emerging Theatre Award and the Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards. Mr. Raizin has been named one of Chicago Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Chicagoans and is a tireless advocate for Chicago as a cultural destination, having served as the Board Chair of the Chicago Loop Alliance leading the organization in the creation of Pop Up Art Loop, comprised of over 14 galleries and as well as the installation of a number of major public art projects in the city including the lighting and music display along State Street.
Outside of Broadway In Chicago, Raizin’s focus is often at the intersection of arts, culture and economic development to create jobs in the city. He had long served as Treasurer for Choose Chicago and on the Executive Committee of Choose Chicago and is a Board Member of the Magnificent Mile Association. He previously chaired the Chicago Loop Alliance and the State Street Commission for multiple terms, served as a member of the Economics Club as well as serving as a director of a number of other civic and not-for-profit organizations. He founded and chaired the Board of LUMA8 (Light Up My Arts), the entity that produces the Arts In The Dark Parade and the River Walk Lantern Festival. Raizin also served as the catalyst for both the $12M permanent light art installation on the back wall of the Merchandise Mart and a digital platform for tourism.
TIME Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
LOCATION Cohen Commons, 4th Floor, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Alice Boone alice.boone@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
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May28
EVENT DETAILSmore info
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Speaker: Yipai Du, Co-Founder and Tactile Sensing Specialist, Daimon Robotics
Title: Vision-based Tactile Sensing and Applications
Date and Time: Wednesday, May 28, 11:00 AM CT
Location: Tech, B211 and Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar
Abstract: Tactile sensing capability is indispensable for animals and humans to interact with the physical world with flexibility and agility. Vision-based tactile sensing have shown great potential to obtain rich information during dexterous manipulation. We focus on reducing the design complexity and increasing the scalability of vision-based tactile sensing. The camera captures deformations of a specially designed pattern. We propose to use the Gaussian density feature to infer contact depth from this 2D deformation. We demonstrate the practical efficacy of this tactile sensing method by deploying it in different robotic actuators like robotic feet and arms. We show case properly exploiting the tactile data can reduce complexity, improve sample efficiency, and achieve robustness in a deformable cloth manipulation setting, which is prone to visual occlusion and observability issues.
Bio: Dr. Yipai Du obtained PhD from the Robotics Institute of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, under the supervision of Prof. Michael Yu Wang. During his PhD, he studied vision-based sensor design, robotic tactile perception and its applications in manipulation. He also used to work at ETH Zurich and Purdue University on vision-based tactile sensing. He is now one of the co-founders of Daimon Robotics and leads the tactile sensing team there.
TIME Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION B211, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Amy Nedoss amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
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Jun15
TIME Sunday, June 15, 2025
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Jun16
EVENT DETAILS
lessMcCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony. The most up to date information can be found on our graduation webpage.
TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave
CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Jun16
EVENT DETAILSmore info
lessMcCormick School of Engineering Undergraduate Convocation. The most up to date information can be found on our graduation webpage.
TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave
CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Jun23
EVENT DETAILS
lessSummer classes begin
TIME Monday, June 23, 2025
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Sep16
EVENT DETAILS
lessFall 2025 Classes Begin
TIME Tuesday, September 16, 2025
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar