BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//mce.divisions.caltech.edu//Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Caltech events: https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/ical X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles LAST-MODIFIED:20230407T050750Z TZURL:https://www.tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:PDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:PST TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250918T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250920T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech@Thu Sep 18 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/international-student-orientat ion-ibegincaltech-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 21 10:00:00 2025@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-check-in-for-under graduates-87966 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250928T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 21 10:00:00 2025@mc e.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-check-in-for-under graduates-87967 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-in for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Check-in for Graduates@Mon Sep 22 09:00:00 2025@mce.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-check-in-for-gradu ates-87968 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250926T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Orientation for Graduates@Mon Sep 22 12:00:00 2025@mce.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-orientation-for-gr aduates-87969 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250925T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250925T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Thu Sep 25 13:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-87972 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250929T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250930T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term@Mon Sep 29 00:00:00 2025@mce.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-fa ll-term-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Marcia A. Cooper: Engineering Emergent Material Behaviors with Con trolled Microstructures DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251002T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251002T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering@Thu Oct 2 11:00:00 2025@mce.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Marcia A. Cooper\, Associate Professor\, J. Mike Walker '66 De partment of Mechanical Engineering\, Texas A&M University\nMechanical and Civil EngineeringTitle: "Engineering Emergent Material Behaviors with Cont rolled Microstructures"Abstract: The performance of advanced materials has traditionally been controlled by engineering ordered\, periodic microstru ctures\, but this approach can often be performance-limiting. Recent resea rch has shown that disordered microstructures can enhance material propert ies by leveraging inherent irregularities to tune macroscale responses. Th is talk will explore the emergent behaviors of both ordered and disordered systems through two case studies: the dynamic responses of multi-material additively manufactured kerf structures and the DC electrical conductivit ies of metal-ceramic powder mixtures. Additionally\, the challenges of cha racterizing irregular\, particle-based systems—where a disordered networ k of hard elements is cemented by soft bonds—will be contrasted with new opportunities for tailoring performance in shock environments. The discus sion will highlight how engineering irregularity can unlock novel material behaviors for a wide range of applications.Bio: Marcia Cooper is an Assoc iate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&\;M University with a courtesy appointment in the Materials Science and Engine ering department. Her Dynamic Material Response Lab at the Texas A&\;M University Turbomachinery Laboratory center combines aspects of shock phys ics\, mechanics of materials\, material science\, thermal science\, and co mbustion to study the performance of materials in severe environments. Pri or to joining Texas A&\;M in fall 2021\, she was a Senior Scientist in the Component Science\, Engineering\, and Production Center at Sandia Nati onal Laboratories in Albuquerque\, New Mexico. She currently serves as Cha ir of the American Physical Society\, Compression of Condensed Matter Topi cal Group. She is an associate technical editor for Experimental Technique s and on the advisory board for Propellants\, Explosives\, and Pyrotechnic s. Marcia has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University (199 9)\, and a M.S. (2000) and a Ph.D. (2004) in mechanical engineering from t he California Institute of Technology. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89903 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Manuel Ayala: "Bridging Air and Sea: Physics-Inspired Models for W ind-Wave Interactions" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251008T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251008T110000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering: Trailblazer Seminar@Wed Oct 8 10:00 :00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Manuel Ayala\, Ph.D. Candidate\, Department of Mechanical Engi neering\, Johns Hopkins University\nMechanical and Civil EngineeringTitle: "Bridging Air and Sea: Physics-Inspired Models for Wind-Wave Interactions "Abstract: Accurately modeling the interaction between ocean waves and the atmosphere is vital for improving weather forecasts\, climate predictions \, and offshore wind energy design. However\, current methods are either c omputationally expensive or rely heavily on empirical tuning\, limiting th eir practicality and accuracy. In this talk\, I introduce two physics-insp ired models—MOSD and SWARL—that bridge this gap by capturing essential wave-atmosphere dynamics while remaining simple to implement and computat ionally efficient. The Moving Surface Drag (MOSD) model enables large-eddy simulations to account for wave-induced drag without resolving full wave fields\, reducing computational cost by orders of magnitude. The Surface W ave-Aerodynamic Roughness Length (SWARL) model estimates surface roughness directly from wave statistics\, outperforming traditional empirical model s. Together\, these models offer a robust\, low-cost alternative for study ing wind-wave interactions\, with applications ranging from offshore wind energy to atmospheric science.Bio: Manuel Ayala is a Ph.D. candidate in Me chanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Originally from Venezuel a\, he earned his B.S. from Universidad de Oriente\, where he continues to mentor undergraduates in computational fluid dynamics. He completed his M .S. in Aerospace Engineering at Old Dominion University\, where he occasio nally serves as adjunct faculty. His current research focuses on developin g physics-inspired models to enhance predictions of wind-wave interactions \, with applications in offshore wind energy and weather forecasting—wor k that has led to collaborations with the National Renewable Energy Labora tory. Committed to advancing equity in STEM\, Manuel mentors Latinx studen ts\, supports first-year Ph.D. scholars\, and serves on international wind energy and diversity committees. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-trailblazer-seminar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Pascal Lava: "The "Underestimated" Unseen in Digital Image Correla tion: Digital Twin in Material Identification\, Full-Field Model Validatio n and Fracture Mechanics" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251009T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251009T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 9 11:00:00 2025@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pascal Lava\, Managing Director\, MatchID\nMechanical and Civi l Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: The "Underestimated" Unseen in Digital Image Correlation: Digital Twin in Material Identification\, Full-Field Mo del Validation and Fracture MechanicsAbstract: Digital Image Correlation ( DIC) is gradually becoming a standard tool in experimental mechanics\, for both industry and academia. Despite the fact that the measurement system is often sold with the argument of being easy in use and setup\, a poor un derstanding of issues arising in the whole measurement chain (imaging\, no ise\, correlation algorithm\, smoothing\, …) can result in poor or misin terpreted results. In this presentation\, a digital twin methodology will be presented that relies on the use of synthetic speckle image deformation to generate ground-truth strain images [1]\, enabling to properly evaluat e the spatial resolution and inherent systematic and random errors of DIC. Next\, this strategy will be invoked to elaborate on the concept of mate rial testing 2.0 [2] and geometry optimization\, applied to composites\, e lastomers and sheet metal. In a second part\, the difficult question of ho w to validate FEA simulations via full-field DIC data is addressed. The un derpinning novelty is the fact that it takes into account the filtering ef fects of DIC\, which according to the authors\, is a compulsory step to ob tain robust validation [3]. Finally\, the digital twin concept will be app lied to uncertainty quantification of DIC on fracture properties\, such as crack-tip position\, crack growth\, stress intensity factors and energy r elease rate using J-Integrals. Bio: In June 2002 Pascal Lava obtained a ma ster degree in mathematics at Ghent University\, followed by a PhD in nucl ear physics at Ghent University in 2006. From January 2008 till April 2014 \, he worked as a professor at the MTM department at Leuven University. He is a co-founder of the spin-off company MatchID\, developing optical meas urement solutions or Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to assess materials a nd structures. Currently\, he is Managing Director and CTO within MatchID with a specific focus on the integration of DIC with design and developmen t: from the calibration of material models towards the validation of FEA s imulations. His personal drive is to improve the general knowledge about D IC and its error sources\, increasing the technique's range of credibility and applicability in a plethora of verticals. Pascal is the author of mor e than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers\, a fellow and board member of the International DIC Society and received the SEM A. J. Durelli Award for out standing contributions to DIC. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89901 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Chris MacMinn: "Compression-Driven Gas-Liquid Displacement" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 16 11:00:00 2025@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chris MacMinn\, Professor\, Department of Engineering Science \, University of Oxford\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTi tle: "Compression-Driven Gas-Liquid Displacement"Abstract: The gas-driven displacement of a viscous liquid from a confined geometry is a classical c lass of problems in interfacial fluid dynamics. This process also features in a variety of practical applications\, including the operation of a fue l cell\, the subsurface storage of carbon dioxide or hydrogen\, and even t he squeezing of ketchup out of a bottle. In all of these scenarios\, the c ompression of the gas provides the driving force and the viscosity of the liquid provides the resistance. However\, both the amount of compression a nd the amount of resistance are typically coupled to the amount of liquid that has been displaced. Here\, we show that the tight coupling of these b asic mechanical ingredients leads to surprising behavior\, even in the sim plest of settings. We study the impact of gas compression on gas-liquid di splacement in capillary tubes and Hele-Shaw cells using laboratory experim ents\, minimal mathematical models\, linear stability analysis\, and fully nonlinear numerical simulations. We show that a steady rate of squeezing can generate a strongly unsteady flow and we identify a new dimensionless parameter\, the compressibility number\, that controls the evolution of th e flow. We show that increasing the compressibility number can trigger a s udden flow transition in a capillary tube and can systematically delay the onset -- and decrease the ultimate severity -- of viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell.Bio: Chris is a Professor of Engineering Science at the Uni versity of Oxford. He is an engineer and applied scientist with an interes t in physical mathematics\, fluid and solid mechanics\, and interfacial ph enomena. His research group -- the Poromechanics Lab -- is an interdiscipl inary team of engineers\, physicists\, mathematicians\, and geoscientists who use modelling\, simulation\, and multi-scale experiments to study flow \, transport\, and deformation in porous media and other multiphase system s. Their work has applications in subsurface science and engineering\, sof t materials\, and biology and medicine. Prior to joining Oxford in 2013\, Chris earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and was then a Pos tdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89902 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Oct 17 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87948 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Nick Glumac: The Challenges\, Mysteries\, and Promises of Metal Co mbustion DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251023T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251023T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:David G. Goodwin Memorial Lecture@Thu Oct 23 16:00:00 2025@mce.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nick Glumac\, Shao Lee Soo Professor\, Mechanical Science and Engineering Department\, University of Illinois\, Urbana-Champaign\nThe va st majority of combustion involves hydrocarbons. Metals are known to burn at very high temperature and with generally high heat content and can comb ust in water and carbon dioxide. These properties have led metals to be co nsidered for many applications\, though historically use has been limited to propellants and explosives\, primarily due to challenges associated wit h high ignition temperatures\, low burning rates\, and solid product gener ation. The emergence of new technologies\, including production of nanosca le and nanoengineered materials\, mechanical alloying\, mixed metal hydrid es\, and other developments\, has generated new interest in metal combusti on and opened up many avenues for research. In this talk\, I'll review rec ent developments in metal combustion\, including changes in the way combus tion chemistry and transport are modeled for fine particle systems. I'll a lso discuss potential applications in transportation and energy that could emerge from expanded use of metal combustion. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/david-g-goodwin-memorial-lectu re-4 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251029T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251104T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Oct 29 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-879 49 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Jerry Qi: "Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing for Shape-Morphing Structures and 4D Printing" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 30 11:00:00 2025@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jerry Qi\, Woodruff Endowed Professor\, George W. Woodruff Sch ool of Mechanical Engineering\, Georgia Institute of Technology\nMechanica l and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: "Multimaterial Additive Manuf acturing for Shape-Morphing Structures and 4D Printing"Abstract: 3D printi ng (additive manufacturing\, AM)\, where materials are deposited in a laye r-by-layer manner to form a 3D solid\, has seen significant advances in re cent decades. 3D printing has the advantage in creating a part with comple x geometry from a digit file\, making them an idea candidate for making ar chitected materials. Multimaterial 3D printing is an emerging field in rec ent years in additive manufacturing. It offers the advantage of placement of materials with different properties in the 3D space with high resolutio n\, or controllable heterogeneity. In this talk\, we present our recent pr ogress in developing multimaterial additive manufacturing methods. In the first approach\, we present a new development where we integrate two AM me thods\, direct-ink-write (DIW) and digital light processing (DLP)\, into o ne system. In this system\, the DLP can be used to print complex bulk part s while DIW can be used to print functional inks\, such as conductive inks and liquid crystal elastomers. In the second approach\, we recently devel oped a grayscale DLP (g-DLP) 3D printing method where we can print a part with gradient material properties. We further investigate how to use machi ne learn to help the inverse design of 4D printing of shape-morphing struc tures with multimaterial additive manufacturing.Bio: Dr. H. Jerry Qi is th e Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engine ering at Georgia Institute of Technology and is the site director of NSF I UCRC on Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials (SHAP3D ). He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tsinghua Univer sity and a ScD degree from MIT. After one-year postdoc at MIT\, he joined the University of Colorado Boulder in 2004 and moved to Georgia Tech in 20 14. Prof. Qi's research is in the broad field of nonlinear mechanics of po lymeric materials and focuses on developing fundamental understandings of multi-field properties of soft active materials through experimentation an d constitutive modeling\, then applying these understandings to applicatio n designs. He and his collaborators have been working on a range of soft a ctive materials\, including shape memory polymers\, light-activated polyme rs\, and covalent adaptable network polymers\, for their interesting behav iors such as shape memory\, light actuation\, healing\, reprocessing\, and recycling. In recent years\, he has been working on integrating active ma terials with 3D printing. He and his collaborators pioneered the 4D printi ng concept. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award (2007)\, Sigma Xi Best F aculty Paper Award (2018)\, Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenbur g Association for Polymer Research (2019)\, the James R. Rice Medal from S ociety of Engineering Science (2023)\, the T. H. H. Pian Award from Intern ational Conference on Computational &\; Experimental Engineering and Sc iences (2024)\, and the ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024). He was listed as one of the highly cited researchers by Clarivate in 2024 and 2025. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89904 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon Nov 10 09:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-deficienc y-notices-87951 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Elizabeth Opila: Extreme environment materials testing: thermochem ical life prediction and improved material design DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251112T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251112T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Materials Science Research Lecture@Wed Nov 12 16:00:00 2025@mce.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Elizabeth Opila\, Department Chair\, Rolls Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering\, Materials Science and Engineering\, University of Virginia\n***Refreshments at 3:45pm in Noyes lobbyAbstract:Structural m aterials are key for applications in extreme environments of propulsion an d hypersonic leading edge systems. Materials development can be limited by lack of lab scale test capability that achieve relevant environments by e conomical "bench-top" means. In this presentation capabilities for studyin g materials thermochemical stability in propulsion and hypersonic environm ents are described. First\, a steam jet furnace capable of temperatures\, steam partial pressures\, and gas velocities relevant for hot sections of aeroturbine engines is described. Results for steam-induced material volat ilization from binary oxides and complex oxides are presented demonstratin g both improved engineering life prediction and fundamental science gains. Next a microplasma resistive heating system with temperatures and dissoci ated oxygen contents relevant for hypersonic reentry environments is descr ibed. Oxidation results for selected transition metals and carbides in the se extreme environments will be presented. Mechanistic understanding devel oped in both environments enables improved life prediction. More about the Speaker:Elizabeth Opila is Chair and Professor of Materials Science and E ngineering\, the Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Me chanical and Aerospace Engineering. She is also the Director of the Rolls- Royce University Technology Center for Advanced Materials Systems at the U niversity of Virginia. Prior to 2010\, she held the position of Materials Research Engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland\, OH for 19 years where she worked primarily on ceramics for applications in turbin e engines\, rocket engines\, hot structures for thermal protections system s\, and other power and propulsion applications. Her current research focu s includes understanding thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms for material degradation in extreme environments\, development of life prediction meth odology based on understanding of fundamental high temperature chemical re action mechanisms\, and materials development for protection of materials from extreme environments. She studies thermochemical stability of ceramic matrix composites\, refractory metals and alloys\, ultra-high temperature ceramics\, and environmental and thermal barrier coatings using a variety of specialized experimental approaches\, materials characterization\, and computational methods. Prof. Opila received her BS in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Illinois\, her MS in Materials Science from the Un iversity of California Berkeley\, and her PhD in Materials Science from th e Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is Fellow of the American Cer amic Society and the Electrochemical Society and recipient of the 2021 Ame rican Ceramic Society's Arthur L. Friedberg Award. She has approximately 1 50 publications\, is editor of 10 proceedings volumes\, and coinventor on seven patents. LOCATION:Noyes 147 (J. Holmes Sturdivant Lecture Hall) URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/materials-science-research-lec ture-8970334444255828333785624988500453332345665013266603356322152 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Sujit Datta: "Chaos in "Confinement: Using Polymers to Mix Fluids and Speed Up Chemical Reactions in Porous Media" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Nov 13 11:00:00 2025@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sujit Datta\, Professor\, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering\, Caltech\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTit le: "Chaos in Confinement: Using Polymers to Mix Fluids and Speed Up Chemi cal Reactions in Porous Media" Abstract: Many energy\, environmental\, i ndustrial\, and microfluidic processes rely on the viscous flow of polymer solutions through porous media. These fluids are typically shear-thinning \; however\, these solutions can unexpectedly flow thicken when forced thr ough confined\, tortuous spaces such as in porous media. The reason why ha s been a puzzle for over half a century. In this talk\, I will describe ho w by directly visualizing the flow in a transparent 3D porous medium\, we have found that this anomalous flow thickening reflects the onset of an el astic instability in which the fluid exhibits chaotic velocity fluctuation s reminiscent of inertial turbulence\, despite the vanishingly small Reyno lds number. In addition to characterizing this fascinating flow state\, we have found that this phenomenon can be harnessed for improving mixing&nbs p\;and the efficiency of flow-mediated chemical reactions \;— with i mplications for a broad range of processes that are typically limited by p oor mixing. Bio: Sujit Datta is a Professor of Chemical Engineering\, Bio engineering\, and Biophysics at Caltech\, where his group integrates exper iment\, theory\, and computation to study transport processes \;of com plex fluids\, gels\, and microbes in complex environments. He is also Edit or-in-Chief of Reviews of Modern Physics. Prior to moving to Caltech in 20 24\, Sujit was Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Che mical &\; Biological Engineering at Princeton University. Sujit's schol arship has been recognized by awards from a range of different communities \, including three awards from the APS (Early Career Award in Biological P hysics\, Andreas Acrivos Award in Fluid Dynamics\, and Apker Award)\, the Allan P. Colburn and 35 Under 35 Awards of the AIChE\, \;Pew Biomedica l Scholar Award\, Arthur Metzner Award of the Society of Rheology\, Unilev er Award of the ACS\, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award\, NSF CAREER A ward\, and Soft Matter Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Suji t received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania\, his PhD in Physics from Harvard\, and postdoctor al training at Caltech. \; LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89905 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Nov 19 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-21 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:W. Craig Carter: Failure Modes in Oxide Solid State Electrolytes: Direct Observations of the Stress Accompanying Dendrite Growth DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Materials Science Research Lecture@Wed Nov 19 16:00:00 2025@mce.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:W. Craig Carter\, Professor\, Materials Science and Engineerin g\, Massachusetts Institute of Technology\n***Refreshments at 3:45pm in No yes lobbyAbstract:Although solid-state batteries with metal anodes promise to enable safer\, higher energy density batteries\, metal protrusions (de ndrites) short-circuit the cell when charging faster than a critical curre nt density. Dendrite growth is accompanied by stress and we have previousl y shown that applied stresses affect a dendrite's growth. We used operando birefringence microscopy to directly observe dendrite-induced stresses. T he stress intensity is determined by fitting the experimentally measured s tress distribution to that expected around an internally loaded crack. The se operando experiments\, combined with cryogenic scanning transmission el ectron microscopy (STEM) characterization of the dendrite tip\, allow sepa rate study of electrochemical and mechanical phenomena underlying dendrite growth in ceramic electrolytes. All experiments were conducted on the mos t electrochemically stable Li-ion conducting solid electrolyte (tantalum-d oped lithium lanthanum zirconium oxide).This work is in collaboration with Cole Fincher\, Yet-Ming Chiang\, Brian SheldonMore about the Speaker:W. C raig Carter is the Toyota Professor of Materials Science at MIT. His resea rch interests are theory and modelling of materials. He has worked on many subfields of materials science including microstructural evolution\, inte rface thermodynamics\, electro-chemo-mechanics\, and reliability. He is in terested in innovations in teaching materials science. LOCATION:Noyes 147 (J. Holmes Sturdivant Lecture Hall) URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/materials-science-research-lec ture-89703344442558283337856249882500453332345665013266603356322153 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251120T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Winter Term@Thu Nov 20 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-winter-term-8 7920 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of S cience and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of Scien ce and Engineer@Fri Nov 21 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-admission-to-cand idacy-for-the-degrees-of-master-of-science-and-engineer-87946 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Kenneth Golden: "Multiscale Models for Sea Ice" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Dec 4 11:00:00 2025@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kenneth Golden\, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics\, Depa rtment of Mathematics\, University of Utah\nMechanical and Civil Engineeri ng Seminar SeriesTitle: "Multiscale Models for Sea Ice"Abstract: Polar sea ice is a multiscale composite material with complex structure on length s cales ranging over many orders of magnitude. A principal challenge in sea ice modeling and computation is how to use microstructural information to find effective or homogenized behavior relevant to large-scale mechanical \, thermodynamic\, and ecological models. From tiny brine inclusions to ic e pack dynamics on oceanic scales\, and from microbes to polar bears\, we' ll tour recent advances in modeling sea ice\, its ecosystems\, and related composite media. We'll encounter fractal geometry\, percolation\, random matrix theory\, Anderson localization\, mushy layers\, anomalous diffusion \, and even twisted bilayer graphene.Bio: Ken Golden's main research inter ests are in mathematics of sea ice\, composite materials\, polar ecology\, statistical physics\, and remote sensing. He's been on nineteen polar exp editions to obtain data that inform sea ice models\, and given over 500 in vited lectures on six continents\, including four presentations to the U.S . Congress. Golden has won awards for teaching\, mentoring\, and science c ommunication. His research has been covered by media around the world\, in cluding profiles in Science\, Scientific American\, Physics Today\, and th e BBC. He is an Inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society\, a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics\, cited for " extraordinary interdisciplinary work on the mathematics of sea ice\," a Fe llow of the Electromagnetics Academy\, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club \, whose members have included Neil Armstrong and Jane Goodall. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89906 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251206T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Fall Term@Fri Dec 5 00:00:00 2025@mce.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for fall term and the last day to register for winter term without a $50 late fee URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-fall-t erm-87921 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251206T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period@Sat Dec 6 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-87939 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251210T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Fall Term@Wed Dec 10 08:00:00 2025@mce.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-fall-te rm-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251213T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Fall Term@Fri Dec 12 00:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-fall-term-87924 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Min Dai: From Models to Data: Toward a Unified Framework forAgile and Safe Bipedal Locomotion" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T140000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Fri Dec 1 2 13:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Min Dai\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Caltech \nAbstract:Achieving agile\, efficient\, and robust locomotion in bipedal robots remains a grand challenge of robotics.Traditional model-based contr ol methods are theoretically grounded but are often sensitive to model mis match andstate-estimation uncertainty\, limiting their adaptability to rea l-world environments. Conversely\, data-driven approachessuch as reinforce ment learning produce remarkable behaviors but often lack interpretability \, require non-trivial rewardshaping\, and raise safety concerns.This thes is bridges these two paradigms through a unified framework that begins wit h model-based behavior synthesisand culminates in data-driven adaptation. The first part focuses on constructing walking behaviors and controllers u singreduced-order models of locomotion. A hierarchy of planners and contro llers is developed to enable robust walking forflat-footed and multi-domai n gaits\, as well as safety-critical locomotion over constrained footholds such as stairs andstepping stones. Additionally\, this work introduces Ro MoCo\, a modular open-source architecture\, a modular open-source architec ture designed to unify reduced-order planning\, output synthesis\, and who le-body control across multiplebipedal platforms.Building on this foundati on\, the second part introduces data-driven mechanisms that enable robots to improve andpersonalize their behaviors through various forms of data. E pisodic data collected during repeated executions are used tocorrect model ing errors and reduce constraint violations. Human preference data facilit ates automatic gain tuningthrough interactive feedback. Online robot data enables adaptation of reduced-order models by learning step-to-stepdynamic s directly from real executions. Environmental interaction data inform hig h-level planners for navigatinginfeasible paths. Finally\, large-scale sim ulation data support a reinforcement-learning framework designed for hardw aredeployment\, where model-guided rewards enable efficient training and i ntroduce perception inputs\, yielding policiescapable of dynamic stepping- stone traversal on real robots.Together\, these contributions form a progr ession from theoretically grounded model-based control to data-enabledadap tation\, demonstrating that reduced-order models and data-driven learning are complementary. Their integrationenables bipedal robots such as Cassie and G1 to walk safely\, robustly\, and efficiently across diverse terrains \, marking astep toward human-level agility in legged locomotion. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-40 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Winter Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251213T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260104T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Winter Recess@Sat Dec 13 08:00:00 2025@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/winter-recess-87925 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251217T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251217T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Wed Dec 17 09:00:00 2025 @mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-87943 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260105T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term@Mon Jan 5 00:00:00 2026@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-wi nter-term-87929 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Jan 6 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-87965 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Feifei Qian: Characterizing and Utilizing Terrain Responses for Ro bot-aided Earth and Planetary Explorations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260108T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260108T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 8 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Feifei Qian\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Electrical a nd Computer Engineering\, University of Southern California\nMechanical an d Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: " Characterizing and Utilizing Te rrain Responses for Robot-aided Earth and Planetary Explorations "Abstract : Robot-aided exploration is central to advancing Earth and planetary sci ence\, yet many high-value scientific targets\, such as Martian dunes\, lu nar craters\, muddy forests\, and snowy mountains\, remain difficult to ac cess. These environments are characterized by loose\, deformable substrate s whose mechanical behavior is governed by complex granular rearrangement \, porosity\, cohesion\, and particle–fluid or particle–ice interactio ns. Such processes control whether a substrate behaves in a solid-like or fluidized manner\, directly challenging robotic mobility\, sensing\, and s ampling.To address these challenges\, my group integrates granular physics \, locomotion science\, and proprioceptive sensing\, to develop new strate gies for robotic characterization of deformable terrains on Earth and othe r planetary bodies. Our work focuses on linking substrate force responses and yield behaviors to robot locomotion and sensing outcomes.In this talk \, I will begin with force responses in dry\, homogeneous granular media\, showing how the relationship between applied stress and yield stress gove rns solid-like versus fluid-like behavior and\, in turn\, robot mobility. Leveraging the high force transparency of direct-drive actuators\, we demo nstrate that legged robots can use their limbs as proprioceptive sensors\, inferring terramechanical properties opportunistically from every step. I will then extend this discussion to cohesive substrates\, including wet s and and mud\, where attractive interparticle forces and pore-fluid effects introduce new locomotion failure modes and necessitate different locomoti on strategies. Finally\, I will discuss our ongoing efforts to understand ice-cemented regolith\, highlighting newly observed force responses\, loco motion failure modes\, and their underlying physical mechanisms. I will co nclude with a broader vision of how systematic characterization and utiliz ation of terrain responses can enable enhanced robotic mobility and new sc ientific discovery across Earth and planetary environments.Bio: Feifei Qi an is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Uni versity of Southern California. Qian received her PhD in Electrical Engine ering and M.S. in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to h er appointment at USC\, she worked in the GRASP lab at University of Penns ylvania as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research interests include bio-inspi red robotics\, legged locomotion\, terrain mechanics\, proprioceptive sens ing and human-robot teaming\, with applications to robot-aided earth and p lanetary explorations. Qian's research has been recognized with NSF CAREER award\, Charles Lee Powell Foundation Faculty Research Award\, Best stude nt paper award from the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conference\, an d has been featured by media outlets including BBC News\, CBS News\, Reute rs\, NPR Weekend Edition\, IEEE Spectrum\, Wired\, and R&\;D Magazine. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automati on Letters (RA-L). She has also served as an Associate Editor for the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)\, the Org anizing Committee for the 2025 Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conferen ce\, and the Program Committees for the 25th International Conference on C limbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR)\, the 2021 Robotics Science and System s (RSS) Inclusion Program\, and the 2019 Robotics Science and Systems (RSS ) Pioneer Program. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89909 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Pang Tao: Efficient Planning and Learning for Contact-rich Manipul ation via Structured Exploration DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 15 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pang Tao\, Senior Research Scientist\, RAI Institute\nMechanic al and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: "Efficient Planning and Lear ning for Contact-rich Manipulation via Structured Exploration"Abstract:The success of Reinforcement Learning (RL) in dexterous\, contact-rich manipu lation has left much to be understood from a model-based perspective\, whe re key challenges include (i) locally\, the hybrid\, non-smooth contact dy namics renders planning and control methods for smooth dynamical systems i neffective\, and (ii) globally\, the non-convex cost landscape requires no n-trivial global exploration strategy. This talk first demystifies RL's su ccess\, attributing it to the implicit randomized smoothing provided by it s stochastic nature. I will then present how smoothing\, the primary insig ht from RL\, can be incorporated into classical planning and control algor ithms to efficiently and explicitly address the local and global challenge s introduced by contact dynamics. Finally\, I will demonstrate how the eff iciency gained from model-based insights can empower prevailing robot lear ning paradigms\, serving as a powerful data generation engine for Behavior Cloning (BC) and RL\, especially on robot embodiments for which teleopera tion-based data collection is challenging.Bio: Tao Pang received his PhD f rom the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, where his work on global p lanning for contact-rich manipulation earned an Honorable Mention for the IEEE T-RO King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award. His research interests li e at the intersection of robotics\, optimization and machine learning\, wi th a focus on building robots with human-level dexterity. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89912 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Miroslav Krstić: Nonholonomic Stabilization and Pursuit-Evasion: Not-so-hard After All DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260122T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260122T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 22 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Miroslav Krstić\, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Resear ch\, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\, University of Ca lifornia\, San Diego\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle : "Nonholonomic Stabilization and Pursuit-Evasion: Not-so-hard After All"A bstract: In the polar coordinates\, the unicycle/Dubins vehicle passes Bro ckett's condition. Hence\, stabilization - even global - by static feedbac k is achievable. I present feedback designs for several categories of prob lems. For steering-controlled\, constant-velocity unicycles\, finite-time stable parking is achieved. Shifting the attention from static targets and ground vehicles to moving-target interception\, a kinematically inferior evader is captured\, in spite of the evader's arbitrarily vigorous maneuve ring. In the language of control\, ISS with an asymptotic gain = 0 is achi eved in pursuit-evasion games. The new ideas are (a) treating the distance -to-target as time in the feedback design and (b) converting the vehicle's inability to slow down from a challenge into an asset. For parking and sp acecraft docking\, with direction-reversible velocity control on top of st eering\, global STRICT CLFs are sought - a problem open for 42 years - and found using integrator forwarding and backstepping. Thanks to the DRIFTLE SS nature of the unicycle\, the strict CLFs then yield (1) optimality with out solving HJB PDEs and (2) infinite gain margins. Bio: Miroslav Krstic i s Distinguished Professor\; founding director of UC San Diego's Center for Control Systems and Dynamics (CCSD) and the US Navy-funded Naval Innovati on\, Science\, and Engineering Center (NISEC)\; and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. He has received the IEEE Brockett Control Systems (Field) Award\, Bellman Award\, Bode Lecture Prize\, SIAM Reid Prize\, AS ME Oldenburger Medal\, ASME Nyquist Lecture Prize and Paynter Award\, Raga zzini Education Award\, and several IFAC awards (Chestnut Textbook Prize\, Nonlinear Control Systems Award\, Ruth Curtain Distributed Parameter Syst ems Award\, Adaptive and Learning Systems Award\, Time-Delay Lifetime Achi evement Award). Krstic is Fellow of IEEE\, AIAA\, IFAC\, ASME\, SIAM\, AAA S\, IET\, and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Krstic has coauthored nineteen books on adaptive/nonlinear control\, extremum seeking\, and PDE control. His industrial transitions have been in chip photolithography and advanced arresting gear on carriers. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89915 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260123T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260123T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Jan 23 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87949 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Paul Plucinsky: Homogenizing Origami and Kirigami Metamaterials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 29 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Paul Plucinsky\, Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanic al Engineering\, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering\, Univ ersity of Southern California\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar Se riesTitle: "Homogenizing Origami and Kirigami Metamaterials"Abstract: Shap e-morphing finds widespread utility\, from the deployment of small stents and large solar sails to actuation and propulsion in soft robots. Kirigami and origami metamaterials\, formed by repeating patterns of slits\, creas es and panels\, are a versatile platform for shape-morphing\, inspiring th e design of many morphing structures and devices. However\, it remains a c hallenge to predict the response of these and other metamaterial systems t o a broad range of loads and stimuli\, especially under large deformations .This talk describes general theoretical principles for homogenizing origa mi and kirigami metamaterials. Our broad goal is to derive\, from first pr inciples\, an effective mechanical theory for their bulk deformations\, va lid in the limit of a large number of building blocks. The first part disc usses kirigami\; the second discusses origami. We present the foundational ingredients of the theory\, along with numerical and experimental demonst rations of its predictive power.Bio: Paul Plucinsky is an Assistant Profes sor in the USC Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. His res earch interests lie at the interface of solid mechanics\, materials scienc e and mathematic\, where he applies a theory-guided approach to range of t opics including the design and modeling of origami and kirigami metamateri als. Prior to joining USC in 2020\, Paul was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Aer ospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota. He receiv ed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Caltech in 2017\, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Structural engineering at the University of Michigan in 2011. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2023. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89916 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Laura De Lorenzis: "Variational phase-field modeling of fracture: toward second-generation models" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260203T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260203T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:James K. Knowles Lectures and Caltech Solid Mechanics Symposium@Tue Fe b 3 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Laura De Lorenzis\, Professor of Computational Mechanics\, ETH Zürich\nJames K. Knowles LectureTitle: "Variational phase-field modeling of fracture: toward second-generation models"Abstract:Variational phase-f ield models of brittle fracture are powerful tools for studying Griffith-t ype crack propagation in complex scenarios. However\, as approximations of Griffith's theory—which does not incorporate a strength criterion—the se models lack flexibility in prescribing material-specific strength surfa ces. Consequently\, they struggle to accurately capture crack nucleation u nder multiaxial stress conditions. For this reason\, many recently propose d models have given up the elegance and the theoretical and practical adva ntages of the variational setting to achieve greater flexibility in reprod ucing experimental observations.In this presentation\, we explore recent s trategies developed in the group of the speaker to endow variational phase -field models with sufficient flexibility to overcome current limitations \, potentially paving the way for a second generation of variational phase -field fracture models. For fracture under multiaxial stress states\, we f irst illustrate the pros and cons of models based on the notion of energy decomposition and propose a new model of this type that controls the compe tition between nucleation under compressive and tensile stresses. Then\, w e illustrate a novel phase-field model of cohesive fracture that allows fo r an arbitrarily shaped convex strength surface\, thereby reconciling frac ture nucleation and propagation within a unified framework. Finally\, we i llustrate further recent results on phase-field modeling of cohesive fract ure in anisotropic materials and under dynamic conditions.Bio:Laura De Lor enzis received her Engineering degree and her PhD from the University of h er hometown Lecce\, in southern Italy\, where she began her academic caree r. In 2013 she moved to the TU Braunschweig\, Germany\, as Professor and D irector of the Institute of Applied Mechanics. Since 2020 she is Professor of Computational Mechanics at ETH Zürich. She was visiting scholar in se veral institutions\, including Chalmers University of Technology\, the Hon g Kong Polytechnic University\, MIT (with a Fulbright Fellowship)\, the Un iversity of Hannover (with an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship)\, the Uni versity of Texas at Austin and the University of Cape Town. She is the rec ipient of several prizes\, including the RILEM L'Hermite Medal 2011\, the AIMETA Junior Prize 2011\, the IIFC Young Investigator Award 2012\, the Eu romech Solid Mechanics Fellowship 2022\, the IACM Fellowship 2024\, two be st paper awards and two student teaching prizes. In 2011 she was awarded a European Research Council Starting Researcher Grant. She has delivered ov er 30 plenary lectures at international conferences and authored or co-aut hored more than 160 papers on international journals on different topics o f computational and applied mechanics. Since 2023 she is Editor of Compute r Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89914 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260204T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Feb 4 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-879 50 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen: What a Digital Twin Can Learn from Data\, Th ermodynamics\, and Action Principles for Damage Assessment in Complex Mate rials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260212T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260212T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Feb 12 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen\, William Prager Chair Professor\, Depart ment of Structural Engineering\, University of California\, San Diego\nTit le: "What a Digital Twin Can Learn from Data\, Thermodynamics\, and Action Principles for Damage Assessment in Complex Materials"Abstract:This talk explores the interplay between data\, thermodynamics\, and action principl es in the development of thermodynamics‑aware digital twins for damage a ssessment in complex materials microstructures. Data is leveraged in two k ey ways: image data is used to represent as-built material microstructures \, while measurable material state data supports data-driven computation. The link between microstructure\, material state\, and structural damage r esponse is grounded in thermodynamic principles and the principle of least action. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm is employed for automa tic microstructure segmentation\, enabling direct model discretization fro m image pixels without the need for body-fitted mesh generation. Inelastic material behavior is modeled in a purely data-driven manner\, bypassing t raditional constitutive models that often lack generalizability across loa ding conditions. To capture localized damage and microstructural features with coarse discretization\, we introduce neural network (NN) enrichment o f the RKPM framework. The NN approximation is formulated through energy mi nimization\, with optimal parameters encoding the location\, orientation\, and transition behavior of damage zones. Regularization ensures discretiz ation-independent solutions\, and convergence properties are analytically derived and numerically verified. For transient dynamics\, the NN-enriched formulation is based on action minimization and symplectic integration\, yielding solutions consistent with classical field theory. The effectivene ss of this digital twin framework is demonstrated in modeling damage evolu tion in composite materials and structures\, and comparison with experimen tal results validated the accuracy and reliability of the proposed computa tional framework.Bio: J. S. Chen is the William Prager Chair Professor and Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering Department\, Mechanical &\; Aerospace Engineering Department\, and the Founding Director of Ce nter for Extreme Events Research at University of California San Diego (UC SD). Before joining UCSD in 2013\, he was the Chancellor's Professor of UC LA Civil &\; Environmental Engineering Department\, Mechanical &\; A erospace Engineering Department\, and Mathematics Department\, where he se rved as the Department Chair of Civil &\; Environmental Engineering dur ing 2007-2012. J. S. Chen's research is in computational mechanics\, meshf ree methods\, multiscale materials modeling\, machine-learning-enhanced co mputational mechanics\, and physics-informed data-driven computing. He is the Past President of US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) a nd the Past President of ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI). He ha s received numerous awards\, including the John von Neumann Medal from the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM)\, the Belytschko Medal from USACM\, the Raymond D. Mindlin Medal from ASCE EMI\, the Computation al Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Me chanics (IACM)\, the Grand Prize from Japan Society for Computational Engi neering and Science (JSCES)\, the Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award f rom ASME Applied Mechanics Division\, the Computational Mechanics Award fr om Japan Association for Computational Mechanics (JACM)\, the ICACM Award from International Chinese Association for Computational Mechanics (ICACM) \, among others. He is the Fellow of USACM\, IACM\, ASME\, EMI\, SES\, ICA CM\, and ICCEES. He received PhD in Theoretical &\; Applied Mechanics f rom Northwestern University. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/james-k-knowles-lectures-and-c altech-solid-mechanics-symposium END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Tue Feb 17 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-deficienc y-notices-87952 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Nicos Makris: "The Inherent Resilience of Large Cities to Natural Hazards: Records\, Evidence and Predictions" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Feb 19 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicos Makris\, Professor of Structures and Mechanics\, Addy Fa mily Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering\, Civil and Environmental E ngineering\, Southern Methodist University\nMechanical and Civil Engineeri ng Seminar SeriesTitle: "The Inherent Resilience of Large Cities to Natura l Hazards: Records\, Evidence and Predictions"Abstract:In view that cities will continue to house the majority of the world's population at an incre asing rate in association with the face of climate change\, in this semina r we quantify urban resilience to natural hazards by examining the respons e history of the mean-square displacement of the citizens of large cities prior and upon natural hazards strike. The recorded mean-square displaceme nts of large numbers of cell-phone users from the cities of Houston\, Miam i and Jacksonville when struck by hurricanes Harvey 2017\, Irma 2017 and D orian 2019 together with the recorded mean-square displacements of the cit izens of Dallas and Houston from traffic-flow data when experienced the 20 21 North American winter storm\, revert immediately to their pre-event ste ady-state response\, suggesting that large cities when struck by natural h azards are inherently and invariably resilient within the context of "engi neering resilience". During the talk we explain how the mean-square displa cement from a random (stochastic) process is intimately related to determi nistic\, emergent time-response functions. This overarching relation which emerges from the theory of Brownian motion in association with the record ed data presented in this study also leads to a mechanical model for citie s\, recently developed by the speaker\, which is rooted in Langevin dynami cs. Our mechanical model predicts precisely what the recorded data uncover —that following a natural hazard\, large American cities revert immediat ely to their initial steady-state regime and resume their normal\, pre-eve nt activities.Bio: Professor Nicos Makris\, an internationally recognized expert in structural-earthquake engineering and structural mechanics-dynam ics\, is the Addy Family Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering at Sout hern Methodist University\, Dallas\, Texas. Makris received his Ph.D (1992 ) and Master of Science (1990) from the State University of New York at Bu ffalo\, USA\; while he holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the Natio nal Technical University\, Athens\, Greece (1988). He has previously serve d on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame\, Indiana (1992-1996)\; t he University of California\, Berkeley (1996-2005)\; the University of Pat ras\, Greece (2003-2014) and the University of Central Florida (2014-2018) . He has published more than 140 papers in archival journals\, while he ha s supervised 16 Ph.D thesis and more than 40 MSc and 5th year Diploma thes is. He has served as the Editor of the Journal Earthquakes and Structures \; the Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics\, ASCE\, and the Chair of the Dynamics Committee on the same Journal. He is a membe r of Academia Europaea "The Academy of Europe"\, a foreign member of the S erbian Academy of Sciences and Arts\, a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Ac ademy of Engineering\, UK\; while\, he has been honored with several inter national prizes and awards including the George W. Housner Structural Cont rol &\; Monitoring Medal and the J. James R. Croes Medal (two times) bo th from ASCE\, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from A SCE\, the T. K. Hsieh Award from the Institution of Civil Engineers\, U.K. \, the Shah Family Innovation Prize from the Earthquake Engineering Resear ch Institute (EERI)\, USA and the CAREER Award from the National Science F oundation\, USA. During the years 2003-2009\, Professor Makris has served as the Director of Reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus in Ancient Nemea \, Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsxPSeWS52Q LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-89913 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Feb 25 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-22 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260311T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Spring Term@Thu Feb 26 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-spring-term-8 7935 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dominique Legendre: How to Improve the Performance of an Airtanker Drop DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Theodore Y. Wu and Chin-Hua Wu Lecture@Thu Feb 26 16:00:00 2026@mce.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Dominique Legendre\, Professor\, Fluid Mechanics\, Toulouse IN P\, National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse\nTitle: "How to Improve the Performance of an Airtanker Drop"Abstract: Airtanker firefighting is a fa scinating tool used to fight wildland fires. Airtankers are\, however\, de veloped based on empirical methods\, and their performance is only discove red after drop tests made above a grid of cups distributed on a flat field with no vegetation (the cup &\; grid method)\, developed during the 19 90s. Dropping a liquid from an aircraft seems easy to achieve because the released liquid directly falls to the ground due to gravity. However\, the fluid dynamics processes that govern this practice are characterized by r ich and varied physical phenomena\, and controlling the resulting fluid di stribution of the drop pattern raises many scientific issues.The liquid co lumn penetration in the air\, its large-scale fragmentation\, and an inten se surface atomization give shape to the rainfall produced by the airtanke r and the final product deposition onto the canopy. The respective roles o f these mechanisms are described and analyzed here in order to determine t he parameters of importance for improving airtanker drop performance for m ore efficient firefighting.Bio: Prof. Dominique Legendre graduated with a PhD in Fluid Mechanics from Toulouse INP\, France\, in 1996. He has been a Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Toulouse INP since 2007\, and he is Deput y Director of IMFT (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse)\, one of the leading fluid mechanics institutes in Europe. He has been Chairman of the Governing Board of the International Conference on Multiphase Flows (ICMF) from 2022 to 2025.His main line of research is multiphase flows\, in particular bubble and drop dynamics\, including heat and mass transfer \, icing\, and wetting phenomena. Over the last decade\, he has developed an original research program on airtanker firefighting efficiency with a s trong connection to the aerial firefighting industry. In particular\, he h as developed the NaSCa code to model ground deposits of liquid dropped by any aerial system. In 2019\, a patent was granted for a new delivery syste m\, KIOS\, in collaboration with Kepplair Evolution\, and he is now an exp ert for the KE72 project to transform an ATR72 into an airtanker. He has l ed several international publications on the subject\, in particular a con tribution to the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics in 2024. In 2023\, in Wa shington\, DC\, he delivered an invited keynote lecture on the fluid mecha nics of airtanker firefighting at one of the most prestigious internationa l fluid mechanics conferences (the Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society). For all his contributions\, h e received the "Transfert Technologique" Award of Toulouse University in 2 022. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-285 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Yoonjin Won: Intelligent Learning Strategies for Thermal Science i n the AI Era DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Mar 5 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yoonjin Won\, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineerin g\, UCI Samueli School of Engineering\, University of California\, Irvine \n\nTitle: "Intelligent Learning Strategies for Thermal Science in the AI Era"Abstract: Multiphase phenomena are observed in our everyday life in n ature and many industrial applications\, ranging from dew condensation on insects\, water harvesting\, electronics cooling\, climatology prediction \, hydrogen generations\, and manufacturing. While the fundamentals of mul tiphase processes have been studied for over a century\, key scientific qu estions remain regarding the fundamental mechanisms governing complex phen omena. The intricate interplay between the evolution of phase boundaries a nd mass transport results in nonlinear behavior\, where subtle changes in one parameter can have profound and unexpected effects on others. The mult imodal\, multidimensional\, and transient nature of these processes presen ts challenges for investigation and comprehension. Additionally\, interpre ting experimental data and predicting multiphase phenomena remain signific ant challenges. To address these challenges\, our research group seeks to integrate cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning strategies. In this talk\, Dr. Yoonjin Won introduces a paradigm shift: AI-enabled Therm al Science. By integrating high-speed computer vision with "physics-inform ed" machine learning\, Dr. Won's research group transforms raw visual data of bubble and droplet dynamics into actionable physical insights. She wil l discuss the development of the vision framework\, which autonomously ext racts high-fidelity physical descriptors at extreme spatio-temporal resolu tions. Dr. Won will demonstrate how these intelligent learning strategies allow us to move beyond traditional observation\, enabling the inverse des ign of predicting complex heat transfer behaviors. This intersection of da ta science and thermal physics provides a roadmap for the future of sustai nable energy systems and advanced electronic cooling. Bio: Yoonjin Won is currently a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Unive rsity of California\, Irvine\, with courtesy appointments in Electrical En gineering and Computer Science\, and Materials Science Engineering. Dr. Wo n's research focuses on multiphase thermal science\, integrating AI for sc ience and experiment\, scientific machine learning\, and materials design. She is a leader of the DoD funded multi-university research initiative (M URI)\, ML4HEAT. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CARE ER Award\, the ASME Electronic &\; Photonic Packaging Division Early Ca reer Award\, the ASME Electronic &\; Photonic Packaging Division Women Engineer Award\, the ASME ICNMM Outstanding Leadership Award\, the Emergin g Innovation/Early Career Innovator from UCI Beall Innovation Center\, Fac ulty Excellence in Research Awards (Mid-Career) from UCI\, and numerous be st paper and poster awards. Yoonjin Won received her B.S. degree in Mechan ical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University\, and her M. S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. F or more information on Dr. Won's qualifications and research group\, pleas e visit won.eng.uci.edu. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-281 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:ME72 Engineering Design Competition DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T140000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:ME72 Engineering Design Competition@Tue Mar 10 11:00:00 2026@mce.divis ions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:41st Annual Engineering Design CompetitionApex Cleanup: Summit \, Mint\, BankIn the 41st Annual ME72 Capstone Design Competition\, teams of mechanical and civil engineering students design and build robotic syst ems to compete in a fast-paced engineering challenge. The competition cent ers on a striking central structure: a four-foot-tall\, steel-skinned pyra mid with 37-degree sloped faces. The summit is a flat 3 ft × 3 ft deck. T he pyramid defines the game's visual identity and shapes its core challeng e. Robots must climb the inclined steel faces. Robots must crest the summi t. Robots must operate on the top platform while competing directly with o ther teams. During each match\, robots collect scattered Hot Pellets from the field. Robots transport the pellets to the pyramid's summit. Pellets d eposited at the summit are converted into Energy Credits. The Energy Credi ts are returned to the field. Energy Credits are banked at ground-level Va ults to score points. The pyramid is both an obstacle and the central mech anism through which higher-value scoring is achieved\, rewarding teams tha t can combine mobility\, control\, and strategic decision making. The comp etition emphasizes speed\, strategy\, and physical interaction in a shared arena. The arena is often congested. Teams must operate reliably under ti me pressure. Across the Fall and Winter quarters\, students enroll in the two-term ME72a/b Capstone Design course sequence. Students progress throug h the entire engineering design cycle\, encompassing concept development\, analysis\, prototyping\, fabrication\, testing\, and iteration. The Capst one course experience culminates in a public tournament. One team emerges victorious and hoists the ME72 trophy.*Please help us keep our gym floors neat by wearing tennis shoes or soft rubber soled shoes. Thank you! LOCATION:Brown Gymnasium URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/me72-engineering-design-compet ition-3 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Alex Mori Carroll: Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD T hesis Defense DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T153000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Tue Mar 1 0 14:30:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Alex Mori Carroll\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering \, Caltech\nAbstract:The four giant planets\, Jupiter\, Saturn\, Uranus\, and Neptune\, contain most of the mass and angular momentum of our planeta ry system and thus are believed to have played a critical role in the form ation and evolution of our solar system. Additionally\, the giant planets represent the most frequently observed class of exoplanets\, and therefore present a uniquely interesting and relatively accessible analog for exopl anetary research. Despite this\, the giant planets are the least studied i n our solar system. Our knowledge of them is primarily based on remote sen sing from Earth-based observatories and space telescopes\, which have inhe rent limitations when compared to in situ probe measurements. For these re asons\, future probe missions to the giant planets have been identified as top priorities for the planetary science community.The upper atmospheres of the giant planets are primarily composed of gaseous hydrogen (H₂) and helium (He). During atmospheric entry\, a shock wave forms in front of th e probe. Under the high temperatures found in the post-shock region\, H₂ molecules dissociate and H atoms become electronically excited\, eventual ly ionizing to form protons (H⁺) and electrons (e⁻). To predict heat l oads and design mass-efficient thermal protection systems\, it is necessar y to model each of these non-equilibrium thermochemical processes accurate ly. The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the thermochemi stry of H₂/He shock layers and to develop accurate yet computationally-e fficient kinetic models for future giant planet probe missions.First\, a n ovel one-temperature diatomic dissociation model is developed to capture t hermal non-equilibrium and non-Boltzmann effects for H₂ dissociation. In particular\, the rovibrational state-specific master equations are used t o derive macroscopic chemical source term and rovibrational energy express ions that are valid in all three key limits/regimes of dissociation-domina ted flows\, i.e.\, the thermal equilibrium limit\, the quasi-steady-state (QSS) regime\, and the pre-QSS regime.Next\, optimal fits for H₂ dissoci ation rate constants are developed through a comprehensive literature revi ew of available experimental and computational data. This includes data fr om high-temperature shock tube experiments (2\,000 to 8\,000 K)\, low-temp erature discharge-flow experiments (<\; 350 K)\, and ab initio computati onal studies.Then\, a detailed literature review of the electronic excitat ion and ionization rate constants of atomic H (by both electron and heavy- particle impact) is performed. Using the best estimates of these rate cons tants along with the newly developed H₂ dissociation model\, an 11-speci es thermochemical model with state-specific kinetics for atomic H is devel oped. To validate the kinetic model\, 1-D steady shocks are simulated usin g a space-marching inviscid code that explicitly accounts for shock tube b oundary layer effects. The resulting radiance profiles are compared to exp erimental data from the NASA Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility and are found to reproduce the measured values reasonably accurately while capturing the distinct induction zone behavior observed in the experiment s.Finally\, a reduced-order non-Boltzmann kinetic model for H ionization i s constructed using an analogous QSS framework to the one developed for di atomic dissociation. This model reproduces the majority of the results of the state-specific H ionization model\, despite treating H as a single bul k species in the flowfield calculations. LOCATION:Gates Annex B122 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-41 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260311T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term@Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 2026@mce.divis ions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for winter term and the last d ay to register for spring term without a $50 late fee URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-winter -term-87936 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260315T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period@Thu Mar 12 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-87940 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mikhail G. Shapiro: Talking To Cells Using Mechanically Unusual Pr oteins And Ultrasound DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Mar 12 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Mikhail G. Shapiro\, Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical Engin eering and Medical Engineering\; Investigator\, Howard Hughes Medical Inst itute\, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering\, California Inst itute of Technology\nTitle: " Talking To Cells Using Mechanically Unusual Proteins And Ultrasound "Abstract: Studying biological function in intact organisms and developing targeted cellular therapies requires methods to i mage and control the function of specific cells deep inside the body. Fluo rescent proteins and optogenetics serve this purpose in small\, translucen t specimens\, but are limited by the poor penetration of light into deeper tissues. In contrast\, most non-invasive techniques such as ultrasound an d magnetic resonance imaging – while based on energy forms that penetrat e tissue – are not effectively coupled to cellular function. Our work at tempts to bridge this gap by engineering biomolecules with the appropriate physical properties to interact with sound waves and magnetic fields. In this talk\, I will describe our recent work on biomolecular reporters and actuators for ultrasound. The reporters are based on gas vesicles – a un ique class of air-filled protein nanostructures derived from buoyant photo synthetic microbes. These proteins scatter sound waves\, enabling their de tection with ultrasound. I will describe our progress in understanding the biomechanial and acoustic properties of these biomolecules\, introducing them genetically into various cell types of interest for in vivo imaging\, and turning them into dynamic sensors of intracellular molecular signals. In addition to their applications in imaging\, gas vesicles can be used t o control cellular location and function by serving as receivers of acoust ic radiation force or seeding localized bubble cavitation. Additional cont rol is provided by thermal bioswitches – biomolecules that provide switc h-like control of gene expression in response to small changes in temperat ure. I will describe how these functionalities allow the development of re mote-controlled cell therapies and diagnostics. Bio: Mikhail Shapiro is th e Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical Engineering and Medical Engineering \, an HHMI Investigator\, and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cel lular Medicine at Caltech. The Shapiro laboratory develops biomolecular te chnologies allowing cells to be imaged and controlled inside the body usin g noninvasive methods such as ultrasound. These technologies enable the st udy of biological function in vivo and the development of cell-based and g ene-based diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Mikhail received his PhD in B iological Engineering from MIT and his BSc in Neuroscience from Brown. He conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and the Univ ersity of California\, Berkeley\, where he was a Miller Fellow. Mikhail's awards include the NIH Pioneer Award\, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promi se\, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award\, the Carl Hellmuth Hertz U ltrasonics Award and the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair. Mikhai l is an inducted Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society. Alongside academic research\, Mikhail has been involved as a founder and adviser to several biotechnology and medical device startups. More information about the Shapiro Lab can be found online at shapirolab.caltech.edu. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-282 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260318T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260319T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Winter Term@Wed Mar 18 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-winter-term-87939 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Spring Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260319T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260329T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Spring Recess@Thu Mar 19 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/spring-recess-87940 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260323T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260323T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Mon Mar 23 09:00:00 2026 @mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-87944 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260330T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term@Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 2026@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-sp ring-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Mar 31 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-87966 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Oliver Schmidt: Data-Driven Modeling of Turbulent Flows: Nonlinear Modal Dynamics and Transient Forecasting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260402T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260402T154900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 2 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Oliver Schmidt\, Associate Professor\, Mechanical and Aerospac e Engineering\, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\, Unive rsity of California\, San Diego\nTitle: "Data-Driven Modeling of Turbulent Flows: Nonlinear Modal Dynamics and Transient Forecasting"Abstract: Turbu lent flows pose two closely related challenges for data-driven modeling: p redicting high-dimensional transient evolution and extracting the nonlinea r interactions that mediate energy transfer across scales. This talk prese nts two recent methods that address these problems from complementary pers pectives. First\, I will present triadic orthogonal decomposition\, a new framework for revealing nonlinear flow physics through coherent structures that optimally capture spectral momentum transfer. TOD identifies coupled modal interactions\, quantifies their energy exchange\, and localizes the regions where nonlinear transfer occurs. Second\, I will introduce space –time projection\, a forecasting framework based on extended space–tim e POD modes that provides an interpretable and competitive approach for pr edicting time-resolved flow data. The method naturally combines dimensiona lity reduction and time-delay embedding\, requires minimal tuning\, and ha s been shown to perform strongly on both transient and statistically stati onary high-dimensional datasets. Applications to canonical and engineering turbulent flows\, using both numerical and experimental data\, illustrate how these methods address two key aspects in the data-driven forecasting and analysis of turbulent flows.Bio: Oliver Schmidt is an Associate Profes sor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Unive rsity of California San Diego. He earned his Ph.D. in Aeronautical Enginee ring from the University of Stuttgart in 2014 and subsequently held a post doctoral position in Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California In stitute of Technology before joining UC San Diego. Schmidt's research focu ses on the simulation and data-driven modeling of complex turbulent flows \, with an emphasis on both method development and real-world applications . His group develops advanced tools for reduced-complexity modeling\, incl uding modal decomposition techniques\, mesh-free numerical methods\, and s tochastic modeling approaches. These methods are applied across a range of engineering and natural systems\, including aeroacoustics\, aero-optics\, noise control\, thermal management\, and design optimization. He is best known for his contributions to modal decomposition of turbulent flows\, wi dely disseminated through review articles and open-source software that ha s been downloaded thousands of times and adopted by researchers worldwide. His work is currently supported by the NSF\, ONR\, AFOSR\, and DOE. Schmi dt is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award and was recently named one of AS ME's Rising Stars of Mechanical Engineering. He currently serves as co-cha ir of the AIAA Reduced-Complexity Modeling Discussion Group\, leading a co mmunity challenge for data-driven model reduction in turbulent flows that provides benchmark datasets with baselines from both machine learning and classical model-order reduction methods. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-286 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Pol Mestres: Safety Filters for Autonomous Systems: When They Misb ehave and How to Fix Them DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T160100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 9 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pol Mestres\, Postdoctoral Scholar\, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering\, California Institute of Technology\nTitle: Safety Filters for Autonomous Systems: When They Misbehave and How to Fix ThemAbs tract: Control Barrier Function (CBF)-based safety filters have become ubi quitous in modern safety-critical control\, and are being deployed across an expanding range of autonomous systems\, ranging from humanoid robots\, self-driving vehicles\, and aerospace systems. Their appeal is clear: give n any nominal controller\, possibly precomputed to optimize some performan ce metric\, a safety filter provides a principled\, minimally invasive cor rection that provably keeps the system within a desired safe set. Their si mplicity\, generality\, and modularity has driven their rapid and widespre ad adoption. Despite this widespread use\, in this talk we argue that thei r dynamical behavior is still far from being well-understood. We provide a variety of examples showing how closed-loop dynamics induced by CBF-based safety filters are far richer (and possibly far more dangerous) than thei r design intent suggests. Those include examples with unbounded trajectori es\, limit cycles\, and undesired equilibria that can even be locally stab le. These pathologies are not edge cases: we show that they arise for broa d classes of nominal controllers and safe set geometries\, including conve x ones. Fortunately\, for an important class of systems and safe sets (pri marily linear dynamics paired with affine or quadratic CBFs) we identify c oncrete design principles that provably preclude these undesirable behavio rs. We hope these results serve as a foundation for extending such guarant ees to more general classes of systems\, with the ultimate goal of providi ng safety filters with more rigorous stability and performance guarantees. Bio: Pol Mestres received the bachelor's degree in mathematics and the bac helor's degree in engineering physics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya\, Barcelona\, Spain\, in 2020\, and the master's and Ph.D. degr ees in mechanical engineering in 2021 and 2025 respectively from the Unive rsity of California\, San Diego\, La Jolla\, CA\, USA. He is currently a p ostdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. His researc h interests include safety-critical control\, motion planning\, and reinfo rcement learning. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-287 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Stéphane Zaleski: Recent Progress on Liquid Jet Atomization DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260416T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260416T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 16 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Stéphane Zaleski\, Professor of Fluid Mechanics\, Institut Je an Le Rond d'Alembert\, Sorbonne Université\nTitle: "Recent Progress on L iquid Jet Atomization"Abstract: Atomization is one of the CFD fields with the most striking progress. It has natural\, industrial and fundamental in terest. In natural sciences\, spray formation on wave crests\, molten rock breakup in asteroid impacts and lava breakup in volcanic eruptions are al l examples of atomization. In engineering\, combustion of liquid fuels is the most studied application\, although other have emerged such as molten metal atomization for the fabrication of powders used in additive manufact uring\, or milk atomization for the production of dried milk powder. On th e fundamental side\, atomization is a nonlinear multiscale physical phenom enon with strong analogy with single phase turbulent flow. The fundamental problem of turbulence is to find a statistical probability distribution f unction for turbulent fields\, The spectral energy density is known with s ome degree of confidence to follow the Kolmogorov -5/3 law. What would be the equivalent of such a statistical theory in atomization? Instead of the power spectrum\, one may wish to predict the droplet sizes. The PDF is th en the equivalent of the spectrum. In the talk\, I shall discuss how numer ical simulations of atomization\, following the VOF method\, allow to make advances on this problem.Bio: Stéphane Zaleski is Professor of Mechanics at Sorbonne Université and member of the "Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembe rt". He spent his early years at the Physics Laboratory of Ecole Normale S upérieure in Paris where he obtained his PhD under the supervision of Yve s Pomeau. After three years at the Applied Math group of MIT he joined the Mechanics group at Sorbonne Université. He investigates numerical method s for multiphase flows with applications to atomization\, cavitation\, por ous media flow\, nucleate boiling\, hydrometallurgy\, moving contact lines and droplet impact. Methods include the Volume of Fluid method\, the Edge -Based Interface Tracking method and the Diffuse Interface method. He has written several computer codes for the simulation of multiphase flow inclu ding PARIS Simulator and is involved in the development of the Basilisk pl atform. He is Associate Editor of J. Comput. Phys. and of Computers and Fl uids. He has led the ERC-Advanced project TRUFLOW on mass transfer at larg e Schmidt numbers and is a member of Institut Universitaire de France.Awar ds and Honors: 2024: Medal of the Section of Mechanics and Informatics of the Paris Academy of Sciences LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-288 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Apr 17 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87950 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Kevin Nakahara: Nano-architected Composites Across Scales and Stra in Rates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T100000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Mon Apr 2 0 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kevin Nakahara\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, C altech\nAbstract:Transportation\, infrastructure\, personnel protection\, and all other applications requiring dynamic impact resistance drive the d emand to develop advanced manufacturing for structural materials that are simultaneously lightweight and superior at energy absorption. Polymer matr ix composites (PMCs) are widely used in mechanical applications due to the ir high strength-to-weight ratios\, high stiffness-to-weight ratios\, corr osion resistance\, and design flexibility. However\, these composites ofte n suffer from matrix and interfacially driven failure mechanisms under dyn amic compression. Nano-architected materials are an emergent class of meta materials capable of achieving high-stiffnesses and strengths while also e xhibiting high specific energy absorptions under micro particle impacts. M ost studies of nano-architected materials focus on periodic lattices geome tries or other cellular solids while their use as reinforcements in compos ites\, especially at large-scales\, remains limited. Combining the works o f nano-architected metamaterials and PMCs\, we create nano-architected com posites possessing high mechanical energy absorptions under dynamic compre ssion without the need for dense constituent reinforcement materials.We fi rst explore how nano-architected materials are fabricated at large-scales \, and we demonstrate how they can be incorporated with epoxy polymer matr ices to create nano-architected composites using molding methods. Subseque ntly\, we characterize these nano-architected composites\, showing how cha nging fabrication parameters can produce various configurations of nano-ar chitecture within samples\, and how fabrication limitations can result in defects at multiple scales. Through various quasi-static and dynamic testi ng methods\, we study how nano-architectures deform\, fail\, and contribut e to composite performance - decoupling their effects from defects. Our st udy shows that while composite performance can be mitigated by defects\, i ncreasing the amount of nano-architectures present in composites leads to higher strengths and delayed catastrophic failure. In-situ observations of these tests allow us to directly connect deformation and failure mechanis ms to enhanced stress-strain performance. We then use phenomenological mod eling to relate mechanical performances across loading rates showing high nano-architected rate sensitivities and verifying the role of nano-archite ctures in delaying catastrophic failure. Nano-architected performance is c ompared against classical PMCs reported in literature demonstrating their high energy absorptions and unique capability to address shortcomings of f iber- and particle-reinforced composites.Our nano-architected composites o ffer a new way to toughen polymer matrix composites\, utilizing small scal e architectures rather than changes to constituent material composition to delay catastrophic failures. These nano-architected composites are a uniq ue demonstration of the capabilities of nano-architectures to perform unde r high rates\, loads\, and energies\, paving the route to new possibilitie s for composite design. Our modeling work of nano-architected composite pe rformance shows the potential of these materials to absorb energies throug h the introduction and control of nano-architected structures.---------Als o available to attend over Zoom: https://caltech.zoom.us/j/84099990742 LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-42 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Resource-aware Quantum Benchmarking Symposium DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260422T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260422T150000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Resource-aware Quantum Benchmarking Symposium@Wed Apr 22 09:30:00 2026 @mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Join us for a symposium on quantum benchmarking with leading r esearchers in academia and the quantum industry! 9:30 - 9:45am Coffee Rec eption (235 Gates-Thomas) 9:45 - 10:00am Symposium IntroductionAustin Min nich (Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics\; EAS Divisi on Deputy Chair\, Caltech)10:00 - 10:30am Measurement-induced entanglement phase transition on a superconducting quantum processor with mid-circuit readout Austin Minnich (Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Ph ysics\; EAS Division Deputy Chair\, Caltech) 10:30 - 11:00am Context‑Aw are\, Resource‑Conditioned Benchmarking of Neutral‑Atom Quantum Proce ssorsRamon Szmuk (Product Solutions Physicist\, Quantum Machines)11:00 - 1 1:30am Quantum Science and Technology with Rare-Earth Ions and Nano-photon icsAndrei Faraon (William L. Valentine Professor of Applied Physics and El ectrical Engineering\; Fletcher Jones Foundation Director of the Kavli Nan oscience Institute\, Caltech)11:30am - 12:00pm From Hardware to Algorithms : Quantum Platforms for Near-Term Scientific and Engineering Impact Roger Luo (Co-founder\, Anyon Computing)12:00 - 1:00pm Lunch (235 Gates-Thomas) 1:00 - 1:30pm Benchmarking a Spin-Based Quantum Sensor in a Two-Dimensiona l MaterialJoonhee Choi (Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering\, St anford University)1:30 - 2:00pm Quantum Simulation at the Classical Fronti er: Benchmarking the Path to AdvantageGavin Hartnett (Senior Lead Scientis t and head of the Applications and Algorithms team\, Q-CTRL)2:00 - 2:30pm High-fidelity probing of magnons on a hybrid analog-digital quantum simula torTrond Andersen (Senior Research Scientist\, Google Quantum AI) LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/resource-aware-quantum-benchma rking-symposium-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Jaime Marian: Elasto-Plastic Stochasticity: The Role of Atomic Lev el Fluctuations on Mesoscale Deformation Properties in Complex Alloys DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260423T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260423T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 23 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jaime Marian\, Professor\, Department of Materials Science and Engineering\, University of California\, Los Angeles\nTitle: "Elasto-Plas tic Stochasticity: The Role of Atomic Level Fluctuations on Mesoscale Defo rmation Properties in Complex Alloys"Abstract: Materials deformation is ul timate controlled by physical processes at the atomic scale. In many cases \, these processes are controlled by fluctuations characterized by highly stochastic behavior. While we have learned to subsume this stochasticity i nto continuum laws that describe average behavior\, as science and technol ogy pushes down the boundaries of what is observable in terms of time and length scales\, the mean field approach becomes to be questionable. Specif ically\, important phenomena in metals deformation such as creep\, dynamic strain aging\, solute hardening\, and deformation processes in chemically complex alloys cannot be properly studied without capturing atomic-level fluctuations and their effect on meso/macroscopic behavior. In this presen tation\, I will discuss the development of models that take into account t hermal and compositional fluctuations explicitly and how their results can be extended into larger length and longer time scales. Results for refrac tory transition metals\, ferritic materials\, and high-entropy alloys will be shown.Bio: Professor Jaime Marian has a joint appointment in the Mater ials Science and Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Depts. at UCLA s ince 2014. Prior to that\, he was a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory\, where he worked on the development of physics models for materials under extreme conditions. He holds an industrial engineerin g degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid\, and a PhD in computat ional materials and mechanics. He did postdoctoral work at Caltech and was visiting professor at the IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-289 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260505T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Apr 29 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-879 51 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Anirudha Majumdar: Robots That Learn To Model The World By Playing DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260430T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260430T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 30 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Anirudha Majumdar\, Associate Professor\, Mechanical and Aeros pace Engineering (MAE) department\, Princeton University\nTitle: "Robots T hat Learn To Model The World By Playing"Abstract: Predictive models of the world are fundamental to robotics — from planning\, to evaluation\, to reinforcement learning. However\, despite decades of investment in physics -based simulation\, we do not have models that can endow robots with gener al manipulation capabilities. In this talk\, I will discuss the potential of action-conditioned video generation models to serve as general-purpose world models for robotics. Their ability to generate photorealistic observ ations\, to simulate complex physical interactions with non-rigid objects \, and to be improved with data make them an attractive alternative to tra ditional physics-based models. But\, how should we learn such world models ? I will argue that autonomous play may hold the key. Just as self-guided play is critical for children to explore and learn the dynamics of the wor ld\, autonomous robot play provides a scalable pathway for capturing the c omplex\, long-tailed physical interactions essential for manipulation. I w ill show how world models learned through play demonstrate significant imp rovements in accuracy compared to models trained on data from human tele-o peration. I will also show how the resulting world models can be used (i) as "simulators" for evaluating the reliability and safety of robot policie s\, and (ii) for training policies via reinforcement learning in the world model. I will end by discussing recent work on world models that know whe n they don't know through rigorous uncertainty quantification.Bio: Anirudh a Majumdar is an Associate Professor at Princeton University in the Mechan ical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department\, and founding co-Director of the Princeton Robotics Initiative. He also holds a 20% research scient ist position at Google DeepMind in the Robotics Safety &\; Alignment te am. Majumdar received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Scien ce from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016\, and a B.S.E. i n Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvan ia in 2011. Subsequently\, he was a postdoctoral scholar at \;Stanford  \;University from 2016 to 2017 at the Autonomous Systems Lab in the A eronautics and Astronautics department.Majumdar is a recipient of the Sloa n Fellowship\, ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) award\, NSF CAREER awa rd\, Google Faculty Research Award (twice)\, Amazon Research Award (twice) \, Young Faculty Researcher Award from the Toyota Research Institute\, Bes t Student Paper Award (as advisor) at the Conference on Robot Learning (Co RL)\, Paper of the Year Award from the International Journal of Robotics R esearch (IJRR)\, Best Conference Paper Award at the International Conferen ce on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)\, Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award (Pr inceton)\, and the Excellence in Teaching Award (Princeton SEAS). \; LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-290 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Lucas Meza: No Small Measure: Using Nanostructure to Create Materi als with Superior Toughness DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu May 7 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Lucas Meza\, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering\, D epartment of Mechanical Engineering\, University of Washington\nTitle: "No Small Measure: Using Nanostructure to Create Materials with Superior Toug hness"Abstract: Nanomaterials leverage size-dependent effects to achieve e xtraordinary mechanical properties\, including high strength\, flaw resist ance and enhanced ductility. Natural systems like shell and bone have intr icate nanoscale architectures that effectively dissipate energy and impede cracks\, and while the effect of architecture has long been explored\, th e role of size on toughness is not well understood. This talk examines how different ordered and stochastic nanoarchitected materials can be used to enhance toughness\, and how fracture size-effects can alter the emergent ductility of materials at small length scales. Topics include: 1) polymeri c nano-Bouligand architectures with twisted nanofibers that dissipate ener gy through nanoscale-enhanced ductility\, 2) nanocellular polymeric foams that defy traditional toughness scaling laws\, 3) shell-inspired spinodal architectures with structural gradients that slow crack growth\, 4) layere d architectures that exploit size-enhanced ductility for exceptional tough ness\, and 5) interpenetrating lattices that have toughness 6x higher than their bulk constituents. This work reframes ductility and toughness as ar chitecture- and size-dependent properties\, revealing how nanoengineering can break classic trade-offs between strength\, density\, and toughness.Bi o: Lucas Meza is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the U niversity of Washington. His research investigates new ways of engineering material properties at the micro- and nanoscale. He did his postdoc at th e University of Cambridge\, where he studied the micromechanical behavior of 3D woven fiber composites. He obtained his PhD in 2016 in mechanical en gineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for his wo rk on ultralight\, hierarchical metamaterials composed of nanoscale cerami cs. His work is supported in large part by the National Science Foundation . LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-283 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260511T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260511T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon May 11 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-deficienc y-notices-87953 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degress of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degress of Doctor of Phil osophy and Engineer@Fri May 15 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-scheduling-examin ations-for-the-degress-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes@Fri May 15 0 8:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-seniors-to-remove -conditions-and-incompletes-87948 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed May 20 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-23 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Yaozhong Shi: Generative Modeling of Earthquake Ground Motion DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T100000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Wed May 2 0 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yaozhong Shi\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Cal tech\nAbstract: Reliable earthquake ground motions are essential for seis mic hazard analysis\, structural design\, and the risk assessment of distr ibuted infrastructure systems. However\, observed records of large earthqu akes remain sparse\, while physics-based simulations are computationally e xpensive and difficult to deploy at the scale required for uncertainty qua ntification. This thesis develops generative modeling frameworks for effic ient\, scenario-specific synthesis of earthquake ground motion\, with an e mphasis on neural operators\, function-space learning\, and scalable regio nal wavefield generation.The work begins with conditional generative adver sarial neural operators for broadband three-component ground-motion synthe sis at individual sites\, conditioned on earthquake source\, path\, and si te parameters. It then develops broader methodological foundations for fun ctional generative modeling\, including operator flow matching for stochas tic-process learning and mesh-informed neural operators for domain- and di scretization-agnostic generation on complex geometries. Building on these advances\, the thesis introduces Ground-Motion Flow\, a physics-inspired l atent operator flow-matching framework for large-scale 3D regional ground- motion synthesis. By generating wavefields in a physics-aligned latent rep resentation and reconstructing full spatiotemporal motions through neural operators\, the framework produces spatially coherent earthquake wavefield s conditioned on physical parameters with orders-of-magnitude acceleration relative to direct numerical simulation.Together\, these studies establis h a progression from single-site waveform synthesis to regional-scale\, un certainty-aware ground-motion wavefield generation. The results demonstrat e the potential of functional generative models to complement physics-base d simulation and empirical ground-motion modeling\, opening a path toward fast\, probabilistic\, and scalable seismic hazard workflows for resilient infrastructure systems.---------Also available to attend over Zoom: Zoom Link LOCATION:South Mudd 365 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-43 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Re search DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Resear ch@Thu May 21 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-fall-term-and -registration-for-summer-graduate-research-87951 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Angkur Shaikeea: X-ray Based Full Field Stress-Strain Measurements in Metals DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T122400 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu May 21 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Angkur Shaikeea\, Assistant Professor of Aerospace\; Bren Scho lar\, The Lynn Booth & Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace\, California Ins titute of Technology\nTitle: "X-ray Based Full Field Stress-Strain Measure ments in Metals"Abstract: We are developing an X-ray instrument to measur e spatially resolved elastic strain fields in metals. Because stress is co njugate to elastic strain\, these measurements enable reconstruction of fu ll-field stress distributions. When combined with digital image correlatio n (DIC)\, the method captures full-field stress–strain behavior and prov ides much needed data for data-driven discovery in metals. It enables prob ing of local stress–strain responses in heterogeneous materials\, includ ing additively manufactured metals\, and supports investigation of crack-t ip stress fields and the micromechanics of metamaterials. The capability a dvances understanding of microscopic behavior under mechinical loading and supports the design of next-generation materials.Bio: LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-291 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260530T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students@Fri May 29 00:00 :00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-senior s-and-graduate-students-87952 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philos ophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer@Fri May 29 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-presenting-theses -for-the-degrees-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-87953 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Sathvik Sanagala: Discrete Shell Methods for Stimuli-Responsive an d Deployable Structures: Buckling\, Bistability\, and Topology Optimizatio n DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T140000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Fri May 2 9 13:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sathvik Sanagala\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Caltech\nAbstract: Shells - thin curved structures such as eggshells\, i nsect wings\, and pressure vessels - are ubiquitous in nature and engineer ing. They are slender yet structurally capable\, supporting many times the ir own weight. They can also undergo dramatic geometric transitions\, such as buckling\, snap-through\, and bistability. This combination of strengt h and geometric nonlinearity stems from the interplay between bending and stretching in thin geometries. As a result\, simulating shells is numerica lly demanding. Finite-element methods are the standard tool\, but thin she lls require high order elements that adds substantial formulation and impl ementation complexity. An alternative approach to address some of these pr oblems comes from the computer graphics community. Discrete differential g eometry methods discretize the shell on a triangulated mesh using only nod al positions as degrees of freedom. This sidesteps the need for high order elements in finite element analysis. However\, existing formulations are typically developed for visual realism rather than mechanical accuracy\, a nd lack the physically meaningful energy formulations required for enginee ring design.This thesis develops a discrete Kirchhoff-Love shell framework that combines a triangulated-mesh discretization with the mechanical rigo r required for engineering design. The formulation employs a Koiter energy with standard engineering material constants\, supports a spontaneous-cur vature field for active materials\, and provides analytic gradients and He ssians that enable Newton-Raphson equilibrium solving\, adjoint sensitivit y analysis\, and energy-landscape path-finding. The framework is verified against four canonical shell benchmarks.The framework is first applied to photoactive liquid crystal elastomer shells\, governed by a spontaneous-cu rvature evolution law that couples illumination intensity and direction to surface geometry. Simulations capture a flat sheet that bifurcates to a c ylindrical configuration under uniform illumination\, resulting from the G auss curvature coupling between bending and stretching. A second example s hows a thin active sheet that reorients to track a moving light source\, a nalogous to a sunflower.Tape springs are thin curved strips used as deploy able booms in spacecraft\; they fold compactly via snap-through buckling a nd recover a stiff deployed state on release. The framework is then applie d to simulate their forward bending response in opposite-sense and equal-s ense loading modes. The opposite-sense results match analytical prediction s for the propagation moment and localized fold geometry.Building on the t ape spring analysis\, a multi-equilibrium topology optimization method com putes adjoint sensitivities through the deployed and folded states simulta neously. A parameter sweep over volume fraction\, design region\, and fold ed-state moment threshold reveals non-intuitive topologies\, including hou rglass designs that single-state optimizers cannot access.Finally\, the nu dged elastic band method is applied within the discrete-shell framework to compute the minimum-energy path for the eversion of a bistable spherical cap. The path passes through a non-axisymmetric saddle\, illustrating the energetic favorability of asymmetric eversion\, which stems from the inter play between Gauss curvature and stretch.Together\, these applications est ablish the framework as a versatile\, mechanically grounded platform for s imulating the nonlinear mechanics of thin shells. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-44 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260530T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students@Sat May 30 08:00:00 202 6@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-for-seniors-and-g raduate-students-87954 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Te rm DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Term@W ed Jun 3 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-seniors -and-graduate-students-for-spring-term-87955 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260606T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates@Fri Jun 5 00:00:00 2026@mce.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for undergraduates for spring term and the last day to register for fall term without a $50 late fee URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-underg raduates-87956 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260606T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period for Undergraduates@Sat Jun 6 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions .caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-for-undergraduate s-87957 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Grad uate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260608T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260608T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Graduate Students@Mon Jun 8 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-for-seniors-and-graduate-students-87958 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260610T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term@Wed Jun 10 08:00 :00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-undergr aduates-for-spring-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Commencement DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Commencement@Fri Jun 12 10:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Update: Watch the recording of Caltech's 132nd Commencement.Ca ltech's 132nd Commencement exercises will take place on Friday\, June 12\, 2026\, at 10 a.m. on Beckman Mall.Kip Thorne (BS '62)—theoretical physi cist\, distinguished alumnus\, and Nobel laureate—will deliver the 2026 Commencement address.No tickets are required for our Commencement ceremony and guest seating is on a first-come\, first-served basis. Please note th at\, due to space constraints\, in the general guest seating area on Beckm an Mall there are approximately four guest seats available per graduating student. Guests are asked to be mindful of this limitation and courteous t o other guests. Saving seats is not permitted. For overflow guests without a seat on Beckman Mall or for those who prefer an air-conditioned option \, multiple indoor livestream viewing locations will be available on campu s.As the event approaches\, graduating students and their guests can refer to the Caltech Commencement website for timely news and information\, inc luding the graduating student checklist\, news and announcements\, the 202 6 events and activities schedule\, the visiting guest guide\, FAQ\, and mo re.Students eligible to participate in the 2026 Commencement event will be gin receiving regular email updates in January 2026 from commencement@calt ech.edu. Others who wish to receive regular email updates about Caltech's 2026 Commencement event\, may sign up to receive Commencement emails.Lives tream the CeremonyThe ceremony will be livestreamed on Caltech's Commencem ent website beginning shortly before 10:00 a.m. PST on commencement day. W ithin a day or so\, Caltech's commencement ceremony will be featured on ou r YouTube channel at youtube.com/caltech LOCATION:Beckman Mall URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/commencement-87960 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Summer Term begins DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260615T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260616T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Summer Term begins@Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/summer-term-begins-87964 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:George Haller: Modeling and Controlling Nonlinear Dynamics from Da ta (without Neural Networks) DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260616T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260616T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Special Seminar@Tue Jun 16 15:00:00 2 026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:George Haller\, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mathem atics\, Institute for Mechanical Systems\, ETH Zürich\nTitle: "Modeling a nd Controlling Nonlinear Dynamics from Data (without Neural Networks)"Abst ract: The notion of data-driven modeling has become practically synonymous with the use of increasingly complex neural network architectures to expl ore physical systems. This modeling approach promises to learn the system dynamics purely from observed trajectory data\, returning an input-output relationship in the form of a convoluted network. This is to be contrasted with the conventional approach of applied science that seeks to understan d the governing principles and derive a compact\, interpretable representa tion of the core system behavior. Each approach claims benefits over the o ther\, but systematic and fair in-situ comparisons on physical systems are rare. In this talk\, I discuss how data-driven modeling and control based on contemporary nonlinear dynamical systems methods compare with contempo rary neural network-based methods in structural dynamics and soft robotics .Bio: George Haller is a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mathemati cs at ETH Zürich\, where he holds the Chair in Nonlinear Dynamics and hea ds the Institute for Mechanical Systems. His prior appointments include te nured faculty positions at Brown\, McGill\, and MIT. He also served as the inaugural director of Morgan Stanley's Fixed Income Modelling Center. Pro fessor Haller is a recipient of a Sloan Fellowship in mathematics\, the AS ME Thomas Hughes Young Investigator Award\, a School of Engineering Distin guished Professorship (McGill)\, the Stanley Corrsin Award of the APS and the Lyapunov Award of the ASME. He is an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences\, member of the Academia Europaea\, and elected fellow of SIAM\, APS and ASME. He serves as feature editor at Nonlinear Dynamics and senior editor at the Journal of Nonlinear Science. His research focus es on nonlinear dynamical systems with applications to mechanical vibratio ns\, coherent structures in turbulence\, and data- and equation-driven mod el reduction for physical systems. He has authored three monographs in the se areas. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-292 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260617T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260617T090100 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates@Wed J un 17 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-for-undergraduates-87963 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260624T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260624T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Wed Jun 24 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-87967 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Adeline Wihardja: Model Discovery in Mechanics: From Conventional to Data-Driven Methods DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260724T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260724T140000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Special Seminar@Fri Jul 24 13:00:00 2 026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Adeline Wihardja\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Caltech\nTitle: "Model Discovery in Mechanics: From Conventional to Data- Driven Methods"Abstract: The design of the next generation of multifunct ional and structural materials requires an understanding of their complex physics. Materials such as soft active polymers\, additively manufactured metals\, batteries\, and biomaterials are crucial for applications includi ng soft robotics\, protection\, energy storage\, and biomechanical implant s. Yet for most emerging functional materials\, the governing physics rema in only partially understood. We present two approaches to learn and devel op high-fidelity models for these complex materials.We first present a mor e traditional approach that combines experiments and continuum modelling t o study a class of multifunctional materials called Liquid Crystal Elastom ers (LCEs). Their behavior at large strains and high strain rate regime wa s characterized\, for the first time\, using a novel tensile drop-tower ex perimental setup. This new insight leads to the development of a complete \, high-fidelity engineering model that captures their behavior across mul tiple orders of strain rates while remaining consistent with their underly ing multiscale physics. We then present a second approach that addresses m odel discovery for new\, emerging materials\, where physics knowledge is o ften sparse or incomplete. Advances in imaging now provide rich\, full-fie ld experimental data\, but traditional inversion techniques fail to fully exploit this raw information. We introduce an image-to-constitutive model (I2C) method that directly infers models from raw experimental images and data\, leveraging all the underlying information in the raw data to obtain high-fidelity models. This method is well-posed (the laws of physics reg ularize the ill-posedness of the image correlation problem with no ad-hoc filters) and is amenable to any general form of constitutive relations und er large deformations\, non-pristine test conditions\, and complex loading s. This method has been demonstrated to successfully recover the constitut ive relation in rubber materials under large deformations.Finally\, beyond model discovery\, we present an optimal experimental design framework\, w here future experiments leverage current physics knowledge to maximize inf ormation gain\, leading to higher-fidelity experiments and inferred models . Together\, these approaches create a closed loop between modeling and ex perimentation for next-generation materials. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-special-seminar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:José Rodolfo Chreim: A Phase Change Framework for Compressible Ca vitating Flows DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260817T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260817T140000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Mon Aug 1 7 13:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:José Rodolfo Chreim\nAbstract: Compressible cavitating flows arise in physical configurations where rapid pressure variations can drive liquids into metastable states and trigger vapor formation. Simulating th ese flows is difficult because shock propagation\, moving material interfa ces\, metastable pure-fluid states\, and phase change. In addition\, cavit ation spans scales from unresolved microbubbles to large\, resolved vapor regions. A useful numerical framework must preserve conservation\, represe nt the relevant thermodynamic states\, allow for phase change\, and accomm odate the range of cavitation scales. Interface-capturing methods provide a practical route for such calculations\, but current formulations remain limited by remnant amounts of absent fluids that can suppress metastabilit y\, problem-dependent phase-change thresholds\, and required models common ly formulated for different systems of equations. The goal of this thesis is to present a unified framework in which thermodynamic relaxation\, subg rid bubble dynamics\, and physically based phase-change triggers are broug ht together consistently. The interface-capturing equations are first revi ewed from the parent formulation to the reduced 5- and 6-equation systems \, with relaxation processes connecting the hierarchy through mechanical p \, thermal T\, and chemical-potential µ equilibrium. From this hierarchy \, the 5-equation system is selected as the common framework in which the required relaxation and subgrid models are incorporated for the cavitating flows considered in this work. The p- and pT-relaxations are applied to p ure and metastable states\, and a pTµ-relaxation is developed for liquid- -vapor phase change. The resulting algorithm can model pure liquid\, pure vapor\, their metastable extensions\, mass-depleted states\, and two-phase equilibrium mixtures without imposing artificial remnant fluids. The fram ework is tested on canonical problems and experimental configurations\, sh owing that the selected 5-equation implementation reproduces the correspon ding 6-equation results with the relaxation procedures in their original s etting. The simulations also show that artificial remnant phases can suppr ess metastable pure-fluid evolution and alter internal pressure-wave dynam ics\; consequently\, relaxation procedures must remain applicable in pure- fluid regions. Finally\, a one-way-coupled subgrid bubbly-flow model is ad apted to the unified framework and assessed as a physically based phase-ch ange trigger for the cylinder aerobreakup problem. Results show that\, alt hough the proposed trigger does not yet correctly capture the physics of c avitation for this problem\, it offers a promising path toward physically motivated cavitation onset models. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-47 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of summer term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260901T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260902T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of summer term@Tue Sep 1 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-summer-term-87965 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260917T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech@Thu Sep 17 08:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/international-student-orientat ion-ibegincaltech-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates@Sat Sep 19 10:00:00 2026@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-check-in-for-under graduates-87968 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260920T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260927T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 20 10:00:00 2026@mc e.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-orientation-for-un dergraduates-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-in for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T160000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Check-in for Graduates@Mon Sep 21 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-check-in-for-gradu ates-87969 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260925T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:New Student Orientation for Graduates@Mon Sep 21 12:00:00 2026@mce.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/new-student-orientation-for-gr aduates-87970 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260924T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260924T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Thu Sep 24 13:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-87973 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260928T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260929T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term@Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 2026@mce.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-fa ll-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Max Tepermeister: Building the Tools for a New Generation of Intel ligent Ionic Materials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261001T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261001T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 1 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Max Tepermeister\, Cecil and Sally Drinkward Postdoctoral Fell ow\, Mechanical and Civil Engineering\, California Institute of Technology \nTitle: "Building the Tools for a New Generation of Intelligent Ionic Mat erials"Abstract: Soft ionic circuitry\, formed from ions moving through ma terials\, promises to enable smart\, active materials that can sense\, pro cess\, and respond to their environment. Since the 1950s\, these circuits have evolved from individual components into an expanding library of senso rs\, actuators\, signal transmitters\, and processors. However\, integrati ng these components into complex\, multifunctional systems remains challen ging\, due to gaps in device understanding\, design\, and manufacturing. I n this talk\, we discuss work addressing each of these gaps in turn. First \, using a continuum model for ionic materials and charge transport\, we a nalyze the transient response of the simplest functional ionic device\, a diode\, identifying which material and geometrical properties govern its b ehavior and how that behavior contrasts with traditional semiconductors. S econd\, inspired by electronic circuit design tools\, we develop a lumped- element model that captures features specific to ionic charge carriers whi le preserving the hierarchical flexibility and computational efficiency of traditional circuit modeling. The model not only fits individual device b ehavior but predicts the behavior of larger circuits built from those devi ces. We apply it to design the control system for a soft robot and to expl ain the behavior of an experimental ionic haptic surface with dynamically tunable stiffness. Finally\, we develop a manufacturing technique that dir ectly writes ionic circuitry onto thermoelastomeric rubber\, yielding feat ure sizes of tens of microns while preserving the mechanical properties of the underlying substrate to create circuitry that is both stretchable and high-resolution.Bio: Max Tepermeister received a Bachelor of Science degr ee from Harvey Mudd College in 2020 and a PhD from Cornell University in 2 025. His worked has focused on forming novel devices from ionic polymers\, using machine learning to decipher biological and chemical systems\, and broadening the application of systems analysis tools to polyelectrolytes. He is particularly interested in how ionic polymers and gels can form the basis for a new class of robotic and medical devices\, and has worked on t hese problems from a variety of angles\, including lumped and continuum si mulations\, polymer synthesis and characterization\, and device design and fabrication. In his free time\, he plays boardgames\, participates in the AViEn ensemble\, and dances social swing and ballroom. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-293 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:EAS Trailblazers Symposium DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261006T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261006T130000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:EAS Trailblazers Symposium@Tue Oct 6 12:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Join us for the EAS Trailblazers Symposium! This event will fe ature outstanding young scientists and engineers from across the country p resenting on their pioneering research.Doors open: 11:50 amSymposium 12:00 pm – 1:00 pmWe look forward to seeing you there! LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/eas-trailblazers-symposium-202 6 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Noah Barnes: Autonomous Robotic Endovascular Navigation via Imitat ion Learning DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261007T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261007T110000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering: Trailblazer Seminar@Wed Oct 7 10:00 :00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Noah Barnes\, PhD Candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow\, Johns Hopkins University\, Department of Mechanical Engineering\, Johns H opkins University\n Mechanical and Civil Engineering Title: "Autonomous Ro botic Endovascular Navigation via Imitation Learning"Abstract: In endovasc ular surgery\, interventionists push a catheter\, guided by a thin wire\, to reach a treatment site inside the patient's blood vessels to treat vari ous conditions such as blood clots\, aneurysms\, and malformations. With s tandard non-robotic tools\, interventionists often encounter hazardous nav igation challenges. Robotic catheters enhance maneuverability\, but they i ncrease the complexity of tool control and the clinical workflow. Autonomo us robotic catheter navigation has the potential to overcome these challen ges and increase the precision and safety of these procedures. To this end \, we have implemented a goal-conditioned imitation learning framework ada pted to the unique challenges of endovascular surgery\, which include cont rolling highly underactuated tools through partial observability and varia ble anatomy. Preliminary results on the benchtop demonstrate the promise o f our technique\, outperforming state-of-the-art learning policies and cla ssical controllers\, while generalizing to unseen geometries. These insigh ts provide an important next step toward leveraging the benefits of end-to -end imitation learning to the benefit of patients and clinicians.Bio: I a m a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering and NSF Graduate Research Fell ow at Johns Hopkins University\, advised by Professors Axel Krieger and Je remy Brown. My research lies at the intersection of novel tool design\, co ntrol\, and AI-enabled autonomy for minimally invasive surgery. My focus i s developing soft and continuum robotic catheters as well as autonomous na vigation frameworks for the endovascular treatment of aneurysms\, blood cl ots\, and other vascular diseases. I obtained a MSE in Robotics from Johns Hopkins University in 2025\, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering with mino r in Control and Dynamical Systems from Caltech in 2022. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-294 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Samantha Daly: Bridging Scales in Mechanics: Integrating Data-Rich Experiments with Symmetry-Aware Scientific Machine Learning DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 15 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Samantha Daly\, Professor of Mechanical Engineering\, Departme nt of Mechanical Engineering\, University of California\, Santa Barbara\n \nTitle: "Bridging Scales in Mechanics: Integrating Data-Rich Experiments with Symmetry-Aware Scientific Machine Learning"Abstract: The hierarchica l and heterogeneous nature of materials drives their complex deformation a nd failure mechanisms across multiple length and time scales. Understandin g how the microstructural features of polycrystalline metals (e.g. grain o rientations\, texture evolution\, defect interactions) govern their macros copic mechanical response remains a key challenge in mechanics.Recent adva nces in experimental techniques\, such as those in scanning electron micro scopy (SEM) and in-situ characterization\, now generate massive\, high-res olution datasets that capture deformation processes as they unfold. Howeve r\, extracting meaningful physics from these unprecedented volumes of mult i-modal data requires more than traditional analysis. Conventional machine learning approaches often fail to capture the underlying physics and scal e-bridging relationships that are essential for reliable predictive modeli ng. This talk explores how scientific machine learning can bridge these sc ales when built on trustworthy foundations. We will discuss why enforcing known physical constraints\, particularly material symmetries ranging from crystallographic symmetries at the grain level to texture-induced anisotr opy at larger scales\, is essential for creating trustworthy models for sc ientific discovery. By embedding these intrinsic symmetries\, models becom e more interpretable\, data-efficient\, and physically consistent\, direct ly addressing critical limitations of black-box approaches. Through exampl es of scanning electron microscopy-based datasets\, this talk will demonst rate how integrating rich experimental data with physics-informed architec tures can enable trustworthy\, interpretable models that respect the funda mental principles governing material behavior and reveal new insights into multi-scale deformation mechanisms. Bio: Samantha (Sam) Daly is a Profes sor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Calif ornia\, Santa Barbara. She earned her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2007\, and subsequently joined the University of Michigan \, where she was on the faculty until 2016 prior to her move to UCSB. Her research interests lie at the intersection of experimental mechanics and s cientific artificial intelligence\, with the goal of advancing the underst anding of deformation and failure mechanisms in advanced metallic and comp osite materials. Professor Daly is a Fellow of ASME and currently serves a s Chair of the ASME Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) and on the Executive Boards of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) and the U.S. Nation al Alliance for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (US/NATAM). LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-295 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261016T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261017T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Oct 16 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Antoine Jerusalem: Mechanical design in the age of AI DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261022T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261022T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 22 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Antoine Jerusalem\, Professor of Mechanical Engineering/Fellow at St Hugh's College\, Department of Engineering Science\, University of Oxford\nTitle: "Mechanical design in the age of AI"Abstract: Complex mec hanical design endeavours often leverage computational methods to circumve nt costly experimental programmes. However\, the need to consider a wide r ange of conditions and system parameters often impedes the use of advanced computationally expensive simulations on a large scale. Instead\, in a se emingly ever-increasing number of cases\, AI has shown promises that seem to bypass the need altogether of mechanistic understanding. Unfortunately \, the sacrifice of causation for correlation comes at a price and – as we all know – AI is not without limitations. In this talk\, we propose a range of methods allowing for the consideration of complex expensive syst ems at scale\, while retaining mechanical insights. We first present the s o-called Galerkin Stochastic Finite Element method\, allowing for the simu ltaneous simulation of a range of systems. After highlighting the advantag es and drawbacks of this method\, we then turn our attention towards the u se of coupled mechanics/machine learning schemes in optimisation framework s to alleviate the cost of the underlying problem. We present these method s in a variety of design problems\; both in Materials Sciences with exampl es in metamaterials and composite materials\, and in Engineering applicati ons with examples in aeronautics and bioengineering designs.Bio: Profess or Antoine Jérusalem graduated in 2004 with a double degree from the Ecol e Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace with a Diplôme d'Ingénieur\, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a M aster of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2007\, he obtained hi s Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics of Materials from MIT\, where he stayed as a Postdoctoral Associate for an additional year.Professor Jérusalem w as the group leader of the Computational Mechanics of Materials Group in M adrid's Advanced Studies Institute of Materials (IMDEA Materials) from 200 8 to 2012\, after which he moved to the University of Oxford where he is c urrently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering.Professor Jérusalem's rese arch activities focus on the computational modelling of many types of mate rials and structures\, ranging from metals to composite materials with a m ajor interest in the multiphysics of neurons and brain with applications i n Ultrasound Neuromodulation and Traumatic Brain Injury\, and more recentl y Women's Health. His modelling activities involve the development and use of state-of-the-art advanced numerical techniques with a focus on novel d esign optimisation methods and AI-mechanical coupling. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-296 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:David Limp: An evening with Blue Origin: CEO Dave Limp and technic al leaders share their vision for building the road to space DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261027T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261027T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:An evening with Blue Origin: CEO Dave Limp and technical leaders share their vision for building the road to space@Tue Oct 27 16:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:David Limp\, CEO\, Blue Origin\nPROGRAM4:00 pm: Blue Origin ov erview (David Limp\, CEO\, Blue Origin)4:20 pm: Space Resources spotlight: how Blue Origin is approaching the use of space resources to support a su stained human presence beyond Earth (Vlada Stamenkovic\, VP\, Space Resour ces)4:30 pm: Advanced Concepts spotlight: physical AI and robotics for spa ce (Stefan Bieniawski\, Sr Director\, Advanced Concepts - Formulation)4:40 pm: Q&\;A (Sergio Pellegrino\, Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aeros pace and Civil Engineering\; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Sci entist\; Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace Leadership Chai r\, Executive Officer for Aerospace\; Co-Director\, Space-Based Solar Powe r Project) BIO: Dave Limp joined Blue Origin as CEO in December 2023. Blue Origin is a private space company founded by Jeff Bezos with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. T he company builds reusable rocket engines\, launch vehicles\, in-space sys tems\, and lunar landers.Previously\, Dave was Senior Vice President of Am azon Devices &\; Services\, where he oversaw the development\, retail s ales\, and operational aspects of Amazon's consumer electronic devices and the services behind them – including Alexa\, Echo\, Kindle\, Fire TV\, Fire tablets\, Ring\, eero\, Blink\, as well as other initiatives such as Leo and Zoox. Dave joined Amazon in March 2010.Dave started his career at Apple\, where he held various positions from 1987 to 1996\, the last of wh ich was Director of the North and South American PowerBook division. From 1997 to 2002\, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Of ficer of Liberate Technologies. Following that\, he served as Chief Strate gy Officer of Palm\, where he was responsible for corporate development\, business development\, and applications.Immediately prior to joining Amazo n\, Dave served as Venture Partner of Azure Capital Partners for four year s. Dave has B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Vanderbi lt University and a M.S. degree in Management from Stanford University\, G raduate School of Business. He serves on the board of directors of Prometh eus AI\, an AI startup for the physical economy\, and as board chair for B lue Origin's Club for the Future\, a nonprofit organization dedicated to i nspiring and mobilizing future generations to pursue careers in STEAM. In his spare time\, he enjoys reading\, cooking\, mountain biking\, and spend ing time with his family. LOCATION:Guggenheim 133 (Lees-Kubota Lecture Hall) URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/an-evening-with-blue-origin-ce o-dave-limp-and-technical-leaders-share-their-vision-for-building-the-road -to-space-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261028T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261103T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Marco Pavone: Reasoning Models for Physical AI DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261105T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261105T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Nov 5 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Marco Pavone\, Professor\, Department of Aeronautics and Astro nautics\, Stanford University and NVIDIA\nTitle: " Reasoning Models for Ph ysical AI"Abstract: Reasoning models for Physical AI aim to enable embodie d agents—such as robots and autonomous vehicles—to perceive\, understa nd\, and act in the real world through contextual and causal reasoning. In this talk\, I'll provide an overview of our recent research in reasoning- centric AI for physical systems\, highlighting the emergence of chain-of-t hought reasoning in autonomous driving models such as NVIDIA's Alpamayo fa mily\, which bridges human-like reasoning with trajectory planning to impr ove handling of complex scenarios. I will discuss model design principles \, training strategies that promote causal reasoning\, tools and datasets for development and evaluation\, and open challenges at the intersection o f physical reasoning\, safety\, and real-world deployment.Bio:Dr. Marco Pa vone is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University \, where he directs the Autonomous Systems Laboratory. He also leads auton omous systems and Physical AI research at NVIDIA. Prior to joining Stanfor d\, he was a Research Technologist in the Robotics Section at NASA's Jet P ropulsion Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautic s from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. His research foc uses on Physical AI—the development of intelligent systems grounded in p hysics\, perception\, and control that can operate safely and robustly in the real world. His work spans a broad range of applications\, including s elf-driving vehicles\, autonomous aerospace systems\, and general-purpose robots. He has received numerous honors for his research and contributions to the field\, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientis ts and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-297 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261109T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261110T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon Nov 9 09:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-grades-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:David Blunck: Identifying Source Terms of Firebrand Generation for Models of Fire Spread in Wilderness and Urban Areas DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261112T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261112T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Nov 12 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:David Blunck\, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs\, Coll ege of Engineering/Mechanical\, Industrial\, and Manufacturing Engineering \, Oregon State\nTitle: "Identifying Source Terms of Firebrand Generation for Models of Fire Spread in Wilderness and Urban Areas"Abstract: Better u nderstanding the formation of firebrands is critical to improving the abil ity to predict and ultimately mitigate risks associated with fire spread v ia spot fires. This talk reports findings about firebrand generation char acteristics and firebrand source terms\, across laboratory\, tree-\, and s tructure-scales. During laboratory-scale studies\, dowels and natural sam ples were burned in a vertical wind tunnel. The species\, moisture content \, diameter\, crossflow temperature\, and crossflow velocity were varied . A factorial study with the time to generate a firebrand as the dependen t variable showed that the diameter of the sample has the largest effect on the time required to generate a firebrand. It was observed that natural samples of Douglas-fir took roughly 50% longer to generate a firebrand t han corresponding dowel samples. During tree-scale studies\, over 100 roug hly 3 m tall trees were burned. Firebrands generated were collected in tra ys filled with water and on fire resistant fabrics. It was found that bo th the number of firebrands (collected in the water) and char marks (obser ved on the fabric) are significantly dependent on the fuel species. Dougl as-fir generated the most firebrands per kilogram of mass loss. More rece ntly\, entire structures have been burned and estimates of the total numbe rs of firebrands produced quantified. The composition of the siding has a notable impact on firebrand production and characteristics\, but the size of the structure has little effect. These "source terms" for firebrand p roduction are needed to inform physics-based models.Bio: Dr. David Blunck is the former Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University and is a Professor in the School of Mechanical\, Industrial\, and Manufacturing Engineering. He established t he Combustion\, Ignition\, Radiation and Energy (CIRE) Laboratory and co-f ounded the Propulsion Laboratory. His research focuses on combustion proce sses for wildfire and propulsion applications. As a result\, his research ranges from studying smoldering combustion (which burns at mm/s) to detona tions (which burn at 1 km/s). In 2026 he was named an Outstanding Mechanic al Engineering Graduate from Purdue University\, in 2015 he was named the AIAA Pacific Northwest Section Young Engineer of the Year and in 2016 he r eceived an ONR Young Investigator Award for combustion research. Prior to joining OSU (in 2013) he was the lead investigator in fundamental combusto r research at Air Force Research Laboratory (2010 – 2013) and a graduate research assistant at Purdue University (2005-2010). During his time at A FRL\, Dr. Blunck's was the recipient of a Simpson Team Award (2013) and wa s nominated for a Presidential Early Career Award from the Propulsion Dire ctorate (2011). At Purdue University\, Dr. Blunck conducted studies of inf rared radiation emissions from exhaust plumes and flames. He received a De partment of Homeland Security Fellowship (2007 – 2010)\, was named the O utstanding Graduate Student for the School of Mechanical Engineering (2010 ) and received the Graduate Student Excellence Award from the University ( 2010). He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young Univers ity in 2005. Dr. Blunck has authored over 140 peer-reviewed or conference publications\, 2 sections in books\, and has provided nearly 50 invited pr esentations. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-298 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261118T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261119T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Nov 18 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-24 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261119T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261204T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Winter Term@Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-winter-term-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Moh El-Naggar: "From Breathing Rocks to Sustainable Technologies: How Microbes Wire the Biotic-Abiotic Interface" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261119T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261119T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:David G. Goodwin Memorial Lecture@Thu Nov 19 16:00:00 2026@mce.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Moh El-Naggar\, Dean's Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Physics\, Biological Sciences\, and Chemistry\, USC Dornsife College of Letters\, Arts and Sciences\, University of Southern California \nTitle: "From Breathing Rocks to Sustainable Technologies: How Microbes W ire the Biotic-Abiotic Interface"Abstract: At its core\, life is an electr on transfer phenomenon governed by bioenergetics\, where every living orga nism harvests energy from the stepwise movement of electrons through reduc tion-oxidation (redox) chains. While many organisms rely on soluble oxidan ts that diffuse inside cells\, certain microbes have evolved intricate bio electronic solutions to access solid electron acceptors\, like minerals\, far beyond their cell walls. This extraordinary ability to "breathe rocks" not only drives global-scale environmental transformations but also provi des a blueprint for emerging energy technologies. In this talk\, we will e xplore the physical basis of these living electronic networks\, where meta lloprotein conduits link intracellular metabolism to extracellular surface s ranging from minerals and syntrophic cells to solid-state electrodes. By traversing multiple length scales\, from single molecule biophysics to th e electrophysiology of biofilms and centimeter-scale multicellular bacteri a\, we will uncover how microbes wire themselves to the world around them. Ultimately\, a fundamental understanding of these microbial communities r eveals how molecular mechanisms sustain ecosystems on a changing planet\, while opening new doors for bioelectrochemical devices and energy solution s.Bio: Moh El-Naggar is Director of the Division of Biosphere Sciences and Engineering at Carnegie Science and Dean's Professor of Physics\, Biologi cal Sciences\, and Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the University of Southern California (USC). From 2021 to 2024\, El-Naggar served as divisi onal dean in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division of the USC Dorn sife College. He also served as interim dean of the Dornsife College in 20 24-2025. In these leadership roles\, he oversaw strategic planning\, facul ty appointments\, and research advancement in a period of significant facu lty hiring\, fundraising\, and the founding of multiple new interdisciplin ary research initiatives across a wide range of scholarly disciplines.El-N aggar and his interdisciplinary group investigate biological electron tran sfer and bioenergetics with special emphasis on the interface between micr obes and the abiotic world. Their work\, which has important implications for fundamental microbial physiology\, geomicrobiology\, and renewable ene rgy technologies\, is also helping usher a new generation of ‘living ele ctronics' - an emerging field at the interface of synthetic biology and ex tracellular electron transfer.El-Naggar received a B.S. degree from Lehigh University (2001)\, followed by M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. (2006) degrees from the California Institute of Technology. He is an editor for the Journal o f Bacteriology and was elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiol ogy in 2024. El-Naggar was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for S cientists and Engineers by President Obama in 2014. In 2012\, he was named one of Popular Science's 'Brilliant 10'. In 2010\, El-Naggar received a D epartment of Defense Young Investigator Award\, from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Most important of all\, he is proud of cultivating scientific networks and nurturing careers. He actively mentored 17 postdo ctoral researchers\, 13 PhD students\, 20 undergraduate researchers\, and 6 high school students during his 16-year faculty career. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/david-g-goodwin-memorial-lectu re-5 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Thanksgiving (Institute holiday) DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261126T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261127T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Thanksgiving (Institute holiday)@Thu Nov 26 00:00:00 2026@mce.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/thanksgiving-institute-holiday -1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Fall Classes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261202T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261203T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Fall Classes@Wed Dec 2 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltec h.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-fall-classes-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Undergraduates (Fall) DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261203T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261206T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period for Undergraduates (Fall)@Thu Dec 3 00:00:00 2026@mce.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Koushil Sreenath: Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261203T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261203T120000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Dec 3 11:00:00 2026@mce. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Koushil Sreenath\, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineeri ng\, Department of Mechanical Engineering\, University of California\, Ber keley\nTitle:TBDAbstract:Bio: LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil-engineeri ng-seminar-299 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261207T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261211T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Fall Term@Mon Dec 7 00:00:00 2026@mce.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-fall-te rm-3 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261211T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261212T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Fall Term@Fri Dec 11 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-fall-term-87925 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Winter Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261214T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270103T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Winter Recess@Mon Dec 14 00:00:00 2026@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/winter-recess-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261216T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261217T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Wed Dec 16 09:00:00 2026 @mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270104T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270105T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term@Mon Jan 4 00:00:00 2027@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-wi nter-term-87930 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270105T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270106T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Jan 5 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Nancy Sottos: Theodore Y. Wu and Chin-Hua Wu Lecture DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270121T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270121T170000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Theodore Y. Wu and Chin-Hua Wu Lecture@Thu Jan 21 16:00:00 2027@mce.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nancy Sottos\, Swanlund Endowed Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor\, Materials Science and Engineering\, University of Illino is Urbana Champaign\n LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/david-g-goodwin-memorial-lectu re-6 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270122T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270123T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Jan 22 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-52 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270203T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270209T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Feb 3 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-52 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270216T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270217T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Tue Feb 16 09:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-grades-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270224T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Feb 24 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-25 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270310T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Spring Term@Thu Feb 25 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-spring-term-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270310T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270311T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term@Wed Mar 10 00:00:00 2027@mce.divis ions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for winter term and the last d ay to register for spring term without a $50 late fee URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-winter -term-87937 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period (Winter) DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270311T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270314T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period (Winter)@Thu Mar 11 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.e du CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-87941 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270315T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270319T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Winter Term@Mon Mar 15 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-winter- term-87938 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270319T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Winter Term@Fri Mar 19 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-winter-term-87940 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Spring Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270328T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Spring Recess@Sat Mar 20 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/spring-recess-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270323T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270324T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Tue Mar 23 09:00:00 2027 @mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-15 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270329T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270330T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term@Mon Mar 29 00:00:00 2027@mce.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/beginning-of-instruction-of-sp ring-term-3 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270330T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270331T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Mar 30 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-55 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270416T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270417T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Apr 16 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-courses-an d-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-53 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270428T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270504T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Apr 28 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/midterm-examination-period-53 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270510T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270511T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes@Mon May 10 0 0:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-seniors-to-remove -conditions-and-incompletes-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270510T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270511T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon May 10 09:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm-grades-3 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of S cience and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270514T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270515T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of Scien ce and Engineer@Fri May 14 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-admission-to-cand idacy-for-the-degrees-of-master-of-science-and-engineer-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270514T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270515T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degrees of Doctor of Phil osophy and Engineer@Fri May 14 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-scheduling-examin ations-for-the-degrees-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270519T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270520T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed May 19 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping-courses- exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-26 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Re search DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270520T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270604T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Resear ch@Thu May 20 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/registration-for-fall-term-and -registration-for-summer-graduate-research-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philos ophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270526T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270527T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer@Wed May 26 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-for-presenting-theses -for-the-degrees-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270526T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270527T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students@Wed May 26 00:00 :00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-senior s-and-graduate-students-87953 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270527T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270531T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students@Thu May 27 00:00:00 202 7@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-for-seniors-and-g raduate-students-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Te rm DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270601T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270604T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Term@T ue Jun 1 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-seniors -and-graduate-students-for-spring-term-87956 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270602T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270603T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates@Wed Jun 2 00:00:00 2027@mce.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-for-winter -term-87938 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period (Spring) DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270603T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270606T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Study Period (Spring)@Thu Jun 3 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.e du CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/study-period-87942 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270607T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270611T235900 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term@Mon Jun 7 00:00 :00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/final-examinations-for-undergr aduates-for-spring-term-3 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Grad uate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270607T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270608T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Graduate Students@Mon Jun 7 09:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-for-seniors-and-graduate-students-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Commencement DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270611T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270612T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Commencement@Fri Jun 11 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/commencement-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270611T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270612T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Spring Term@Fri Jun 11 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-spring-term-87961 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Summer Term Begins DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270614T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270615T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Summer Term Begins@Mon Jun 14 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/summer-term-begins-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270616T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270617T090000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates@Wed J un 16 09:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/due-date-for-instructors-final -grade-reports-for-undergraduates-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270623T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270624T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Wed Jun 23 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/undergraduate-academic-standar ds-and-honors-committee-meeting-56 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Summer Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270901T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270902T000000 DTSTAMP:20261103T090406Z UID:End of Summer Term@Wed Sep 1 00:00:00 2027@mce.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://mce.caltech.edu/events/seminars/end-of-summer-term-1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR