ECE Tech Talk with Pankaj Patel
2025-11-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | 2317 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Pankaj Patel

Join us for pizza and a conversation with Nile Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Pankaj Patel. Patel will discuss his career path and share about his leadership in advancing next-generation network connectivity solutions and enterprise technology at Nile and, previously, Cisco Systems, Inc. This is a great opportunity to have your questions answered by a #BadgerEngineer. In recognition of his achievements throughout his career, Pankaj is receiving a College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

ME Engineers’ Day Luncheon & Lecture
2025-11-07 12:00 - 14:00 | Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, 330 North Orchard St., Madison, WI, 53715, United States
This free annual celebration gives Mechanical Engineering alumni an opportunity to meet with our current and emeritus faculty, members of our Industrial Advisory Board, department staff, and other friends.

The 2025 Engineers’ Day luncheon will begin at 12pm in the DeLuca Forum at the Discovery Center Building, include a brief program recognizing the 2025 honorees, and wrap up with a special ME150th Anniversary Lecture by Professor Emeritus Tim Osswald. Our 2025 honorees are Amir Mirzendehdel, Donald Wahlin, and 2024 honoree David Bierman.

Register Now! Contact cscott8@wisc.edu with any questions.

Fireside Chat: Barriers to New Nuclear (and How to Overcome Them)
2025-11-07 14:00 - 15:00
Friday, November 72:00 – 3:00 PMMorgridge Hall Room 2516

Join NEEP alumni Erik Nygaard and Kevin Nordt for a fireside chat as they discuss the barriers to new nuclear and their different perspectives on how to overcome those barriers to deploy next generation nuclear energy.

Kevin Nordt is the Executive Vice President-Chief Strategy Officer at Dairyland Power Cooperative, headquartered in La Crosse, WI. Nordt is an experienced energy executive, with more than thirty-five years of experience, in the power industry. At Dairyland Power, he is responsible for the overall corporate strategy, power supply portfolio management, resource development, and heads the coop’s advanced nuclear energy program. Over his career, Nordt has worked in both private and public power companies holding various engineering, finance, trading, and senior executive positions. He holds an MS in Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics, from UW-Madison, and BS in Mathematical Physics, from St. John’s University, NYC.

Erik Nygaard is the Acting President and Director of Product Development for BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT). Mr. Nygaard is responsible for the development of new products for Advanced Technologies, LLC, which includes commercial microreactors for terrestrial and maritime applications, data science solutions, and advanced manufacturing techniques.

Previously, he served as the director of Research and Engineering leading the organization’s design and technology development efforts for customers like NASA and the Department of Defense. He previously served as the Director of Isotope Research and Development, overseeing the company’s medical isotope technologies. Mr. Nygaard served various roles of increasing responsibility on BWXT’s small modular reactor project—mPower™. He began his career with BWXT as a nuclear analyst and acting chief engineer for MIPS—a solution reactor development program to produce medical radioisotopes. He holds three U.S. patents and two pending for propriety technologies associated with the medical isotope production. Mr. Nygaard holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a student operator of the University’s TRIGA reactor.

ISyE - Internship member panel
2025-11-10 18:00 - 19:00
A panel of IISE upperclassmen will share their internship experience for insight into the professional world!

Location TBD – Please check the IISE website for final details (linked below.)

Mechanical Engineering MS Overview & Career Outlook
2025-11-11 12:00 - 12:30
Program Overview & Career Outlook: Mechanical Engineering Programs

Join program staff to get more information about the Mechanical Engineering accelerated master’s programs and potential post-graduation career paths (domestic-focused).

RSVP here: https://uwmadison.tfaforms.net/5183433

ECE Discovery Panel: All about graduate school!
2025-11-11 12:20 - 12:50 | 2317 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Join us as ECE faculty share all sorts of great information about applying to graduate school. Learn about what types of programs might be right for you, how the application process works, and when to begin to prepare…from those who have been through it all!

Jimmy John’s sandwiches will be provided.

ECE Discovery Panel: All about graduate school!
2025-11-11 12:20 - 12:50 | 2317 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Is graduate school in your future? Join us in 2317 Engineering Hall where you can hear all about graduate programs from faculty in the know! All undergraduate students are welcome as Associate Teaching Professor Patrick Flannery, and Professors Parmesh Ramanathan (former Associate Dean for Graduate Education) and Hongrui Jiang (ECE Associate Chair for Graduate Studies) talk all about the research, accelerated, and online graduate programs available to you. Also, learn about the timeline and process for applying.

Jimmy John’s sandwiches will be served after the panel.

ECE Graduate Programs

Patrick Flannery

Hongrui Jiang

Parmesh Ramanathan

CBE Seminar Series: Jennifer Dunn
2025-11-11 16:00 - 17:00
Jennifer DunnNorthwestern UniversityEvanston, IL

Sustainability analysis of critical minerals supply chains: attributional and consequential life cycle assessment

By some estimates, more than three billion tons of minerals will be needed to manufacture the decarbonization technologies necessary to limit global warming to 2°C. This demand can be met through increasing production at existing mines, developing new mines, and recovering minerals through recycling of spent devices can also contribute. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a key analysis tool to evaluate and compare the environmental effects of producing minerals from different sources. This presentation will present recommendations for attributional LCA of minerals mining based on a literature review and apply them in the development of a perspective of a proposed mine in Minnesota. While attributional LCA aims to assign a unique environmental impact to a mineral product, consequential LCA aims to quantify the overall environmental effects from a change in mining activity. We present consequential LCA results that account for global carbon stock changes arising from the construction of new mines to meet mineral demand. Finally, we explore whether water demands for expanding lithium mining in the U.S. can be met, considering changes in water scarcity that climate change will cause, and what restrictions in water supply mean for the possibility of achieving a fully domestic lithium supply. Altogether, these different forms of sustainability analysis can address the advantages and disadvantages of expanding minerals production and help prioritize technologies and strategies that minimize adverse local environmental effects of mining while pursuing materials that are an important part of the solution to the global challenge of climate change. results from both will be discussed.

College of Engineering Head Shot Event
2025-11-12 16:00 - 18:00 | Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53706-1539, United States
Mechanical Engineering building

Are you in need of a professional headshot?

Curb magazine is offering a headshot session exclusively for the College of Engineering community. Anyone is welcome — students, faculty, staff, and friends and family. It costs $15 for three professional, edited shots. Cash or Venmo will be available on-site. Availability is first-come, first- serve. Sign up now!

College of Engineering headshot sign-up sheet

All of the money raised from the headshot event goes to produce Curb magazine, which is produced every fall and has won several national and regional awards in recent years.

MS&E Seminar Series: Dr. Saryu Fensin, Los Alamos National Laboratory
2025-11-13 13:00 - 14:00
UW-Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes Dr. Saryu Fensin. Her seminar, “SPARK: Accelerating Alloy Discovery with AI and Self-Driving Labs”, will take place on Thursday, November 13 from 1-2 p.m. in MSE 265.

Bio

Dr. Saryu J. Fensin is a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the Materials Physics and Applications Division. Her research career has been defined by advancing the understanding of deformation and failure in materials under extreme conditions, with particular emphasis on high strain rate phenomena relevant to national security and advanced manufacturing. She has led experimental and modeling efforts to uncover how microstructure, defects, and interfaces control mechanical response across a wide range of alloys and composites.

Building on this foundation, Dr. Fensin has recently expanded her portfolio to include AI- and automation-driven materials discovery, serving as Principal Investigator on several projects that integrate machine learning with high-throughput experiments and autonomous laboratories. Her group’s work explores the strengths and limitations of AI in predicting alloy performance and demonstrates how thin film screening, bulk validation, and automated synthesis can be connected in closed-loop workflows for accelerated discovery.

She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and has published widely on high-entropy alloys, shock physics, and automated approaches to alloy design. At LANL, she collaborates across disciplines to pioneer new paradigms for both fundamental understanding and rapid innovation in structural materials.

Abstract

The search for next-generation materials increasingly demands approaches that are faster and more predictive than trial-and-error. Our work began by exploring thin film deposition as a high-throughput method to screen refractory high-entropy alloys. Combinatorial sputtering allowed us to create entire libraries of compositions and rapidly probe phase stability and hardness trends. Thin films proved powerful for capturing intrinsic effects, such as the stability of single-phase BCC alloys, but direct comparisons with arc-melted bulk samples exposed their limits. Microstructural evolution—grain coarsening, segregation, and defect formation—often broke the simple link between film hardness and bulk yield strength. These insights motivated us to expand from thin films toward systematic bulk synthesis and validation.

To accelerate this process, we have coupled artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with experimental design. Our models predict yield strength and ductility across multi-principal element alloys, narrowing vast compositional spaces to promising candidates. Yet they also reveal their blind spots: defect-driven phenomena like segregation-induced embrittlement remain difficult to capture.

I will also introduce our automated laboratory platforms, where alloy synthesis, property measurement, and characterization are integrated into closed-loop, “self-driving” workflows. These systems enable rapid iteration between AI predictions and experiment while building the rich datasets needed to improve future models.

Together, thin film screening, bulk validation, and AI-driven automation point toward a new paradigm in materials discovery—where human intuition, machine learning, and autonomous laboratories combine to design structural alloys with unprecedented speed and precision.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Katie Skinner
2025-11-13 16:00 - 17:00 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, Madison, 53711
The ME 903: Graduate Student Lecture Series features campus and visiting speakers who present on a variety of research topics in the field of mechanical engineering. Professor Katie Skinner is a professor at the University of Michigan.

Mechanics Seminar: Professor William Devenport
2025-11-14 12:05 - 12:55 | Engineering Hall, RM 1610, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
The Mechanics Seminar Series is a weekly seminar given by campus and visiting speakers on topics across the spectrum of mechanics research (solids, fluids, and dynamics). Professor William Devenport is a professor at Virginia Tech University.

BME Seminar Series: Sara McBride-Gagyi, PhD
2025-11-17 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Failing Fabulously: Vogue Challenging Niche Large-Scale Bone Repair Research Missteps into Broad Impact Innovations

Sara McBride-Gagyi, PhDAssistant ProfessorDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringThe Ohio State University

Abstract:Research rarely unfolds exactly as planned. Despite careful preparation and well-designed protocols, unexpected outcomes — and outright failures — are an inevitable part of experimental science and engineering. Yet these challenges are seldom shared publicly, leaving many trainees and early-career researchers feeling isolated or discouraged when things go awry.

In this talk, Dr. Sara McBride-Gagyi will share two recent projects from her lab related to her larger research on bone regeneration that faced significant, unforeseen setbacks — challenges that could easily have been dismissed as fatal failures that wasted valuable time and resources. Instead, through creative problem-solving and critical re-evaluation, her team turned these obstacles into opportunities, ultimately generating results and innovations more impactful than the original aims.

Dr. McBride-Gagyi will walk through each project chronologically, highlighting the engineering design pivots, decision-making processes, and lessons learned along the way. She will conclude with a discussion of how these experiences are being reframed for publication and dissemination — underscoring the value of transparency, adaptability, and perseverance in the scientific process.

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ISyE - AprilAire Info Session
2025-11-17 18:00 - 19:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
1163 Mechanical Engineering

AprilAire is coming to UW-Madison! Join the IISE student chapter to learn more about one of their sponsors and also participate in a case study competition.

CBE Seminar Series: Moon Jeong Park
2025-11-18 16:00 - 17:00
Moon Jeong ParkPohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)Korea

Polymer Chain-End Chemistry: Unlocking Next-Generation Functional Materials

End-group functionalization has become a powerful and versatile strategy in polymer science, enabling precise control over physical properties, nanoscale self-assembly, and interfacial functionality without modifying the polymer backbone. In our group’s research, we have investigated how tailored end groups affect intrinsic polymer characteristics such as thermal transitions, solubility, and crystallization behavior, and how end-group interactions direct polymer self-assembly, particularly by modulating chain packing, interfacial curvature, and phase behavior in block copolymer systems, including the formation of complex network morphologies. Our goal is to develop synthetic methodologies for polymers with rationally designed end-functional groups, allowing systematic study of their thermodynamic phase-transition behavior through precise control of molecular interactions. By identifying and tuning key variables, our work aims to deepen fundamental understanding of polymer science. These insights highlight the transformative potential of end-group chemistry for next-generation polymer materials and provide a foundation for designing functional nanomaterials for emerging applications, including solid-state battery electrolytes, mechanical metamaterials, and optical metamaterials.

ECE Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series: Professor Zetian Mi
2025-11-19 13:00 - 14:00 | 2305 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Nanoscale and Polarization Engineering: Unlocking New Frontiers with III-Nitrides

Abstract: Wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductors offer unprecedented opportunities to address some of the most critical challenges we face in the next decades: energy efficiency, clean energy, environmental sustainability, and quantum information. In this talk, I will present some recent advances of nanoscale and polarization engineering of (ultra)wide bandgap III-nitride semiconductors and their emerging applications in next-generation microelectronics and photonics. By exploiting the strong excitonic effect in extreme quantum-confined nanostructures, conventional low-efficiency AlGaN can be turned into high-brightness deep-ultraviolet emitters, which offer the only alternative technology to replace mercury lamps for water purification/disinfection. The strong excitonic effect can be further exploited to achieve ultrahigh efficiency nano-LEDs to power future virtual/augmented reality. I will also discuss the recent discovery of ferroelectricity in III-nitride semiconductors, which leads to dramatically enhanced linear and nonlinear optical properties, piezoelectric response, and reconfigurability, that are urgently needed for integrated quantum photonics for information processing, acousto-electronics for 5G/6G technologies, memory-in-computing in harsh environments, and light-driven artificial photosynthesis for clean energy.

Professor Zetian Mi

Bio: Zetian Mi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Pallab K. Bhattacharya Collegiate Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of semiconductor nanotechnology, optoelectronics, and photonics. He is a recipient of Optica’s Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award (2025), AVS NSTD Nanotechnology Recognition Award (2025), ISCS Quantum Devices Award (2024), Science and Engineering Award from W. M. Keck Foundation (2020), IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award (2021), and IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer Award (2020). At the University of Michigan, he received the David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award (2021), Rexford E. Hall Innovation Excellence Award (2024), and Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World (2025). He is a fellow of IEEE, APS, Optica, and SPIE. He is a co-founder of NS Nanotech Inc. and NX Fuels Inc.

ISyE- Letters of Love
2025-11-19 19:30 - 20:45 | Mechanical Engineering Building, Room 1163, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, United States
1163 Mechanical Engineering

Be a part of this wonderful outreach event! Back by popular demand, the students of IISE will be making hand-crafted cards for children battling serious illnesses. These cards will be sent to hospitals around the Madison area to provide emotional support to these youngest of patients.

NEEP Seminar Series: Guanyu Su, University of California, Berkeley
2025-11-20 12:00 - 13:00
“

Thursday, November 2012:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Efficient Tritium Extractor Design Enabled by High-Fidelity Simulation Tritium is the essential fuel in D-T fusion reactions, which underpin both inertial confinement and magnetic confinement fusion concepts. Given the extremely limited natural supply, in-situ breeding is the only viable pathway to sustain commercial fusion power. Liquid blankets containing ⁶Li, such as molten salts FLiBe and FLiNaK, are particularly promising because they enable both tritium breeding and efficient thermal management. Molten fluoride salts are especially attractive as coolants due to their excellent thermal and neutronic properties, as well as their inherently low tritium solubility. While significant research has been devoted to breeding mechanisms, tritium extraction remains relatively understudied, which creates a critical bottleneck in the D-T fuel cycle.

In this talk, I will present two ongoing efforts to design efficient tritium extractor concepts, i.e., both permeator against vacuum (PAV) and gas-liquid contactor (GLC), using high-fidelity simulations. I will demonstrate that advanced extractor design requires resolving a coupled multidimensional, multiphase transport problem. High-fidelity modeling provides detailed insights into local transport phenomena that are otherwise difficult to probe experimentally. With the added transport physics incorporated into existing CFD tools, we are well-positioned to perform refined parametric studies and optimize extractor geometries to advance tritium management strategies for fusion systems.

Guanyu Su is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT. At Berkeley, Dr. Su’s research focuses on addressing critical scientific and engineering challenges in nuclear thermal-hydraulics and clean energy systems. His interests span four main areas: (1) heat and mass transfer in high-temperature molten salt technologies, (2) advanced diagnostic tool development for fission and fusion systems, (3) high-temperature thermal storage for advanced energy systems, and (4) applications of machine learning in nuclear reactor simulation, experimentation, and maintenance. He also serves as the faculty lead for the Master of Engineering program in the Nuclear Engineering Department.

MS&E Seminar Series: Professor Zetian Mi, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2025-11-20 13:00 - 14:00
UW-Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes Professor Zetian Mi. His seminar, “The Soft Side of Hard Materials: Ferroelectricity in (Ultra)wide-Bandgap Nitrides”, will take place on Thursday, November 20 from 1-2 p.m. in MSE 265.

Bio

Zetian Mi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of semiconductor nanotechnology, optoelectronics, and photonics. He is a recipient of the Optica’s Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award (2025), the AVS NSTD Nanotechnology Recognition Award (2025), the ISCS Quantum Devices Award (2024), the Science and Engineering Award from W. M. Keck Foundation (2020), the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award (2021), the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer Award (2020), and the David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award (2021), the Rexford E. Hall Innovation Excellence Award (2024), and the Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World (2025) from the University of Michigan. He is a fellow of IEEE, APS, Optica, and SPIE. He is a co-founder of NS Nanotech Inc. and NX Fuels Inc.

Abstract

Since the first discovery of ferroelectricity by Joseph Valasek in 1920, the field of ferroelectrics has been largely focused on oxide-based materials and devices. Recently, it has been shown that, the incorporation of group IIIB elements, e.g., Sc and Y, can transform conventional III-nitride semiconductors to be ferroelectric, with significantly enhanced electrical, dielectric, piezoelectric, catalytic, and linear and nonlinear optical properties. As such, ferroelectric nitride semiconductors have garnered significant attention for a wide range of applications in high power, high frequency, and high temperature electronics, optoelectronics, ferroelectrics, acoustoelectric, photocatalysis, and quantum photonic devices and systems. In this presentation, I will discuss the underlying physics and mechanisms of significantly enhanced piezoelectric response, ferroelectric switching, domain wall kinetics, and polarization dynamics. Additionally, the obstacles currently faced by nitride ferroelectrics in practical applications will be presented, followed by in-depth discussions of potential solutions, future research directions, and the prospects for further developments in this emerging field.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Sherif Mohamed
2025-11-20 16:00 - 17:00 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, Madison, 53711
The ME 903: Graduate Student Lecture Series features campus and visiting speakers who present on a variety of research topics in the field of mechanical engineering. Sherif Mohamed (PhD ’03) is the Executive Leader for Decarbonization Technologies at GE.

UW-Madison CEE Alumni Night in Minnesota
2025-11-20 17:00 - 19:00 | Mortenson HQ, 700 Meadow Ln N, Golden Valley, MN, 55422, United States
Badger engineers are gathering and you are invited!

Catch up with local civil, environmental, and geological engineering alumni during our first alumni night in Minnesota.

Register now

Have a colleague or friend who might be interested? Feel free to bring a plus one.

Greg Harrington, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, will share news and updates at 6:00 pm, and appetizers and refreshments will be provided by Mortenson. There is no cost to attend and free parking is available onsite. Come join us!

Thank you to our event sponsor!

Closing the Loop on Machine Learning: A Perturbation Analysis Approach to Decision-Dependent Distribution Shift
2025-11-21 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
UW-ISyE looks forward to welcoming Roy Dong Assistant Professor in the Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Roy Dong – research assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering

As data-driven methods are deployed in real-world settings, the processes that generate the observed data will often react to the decisions of the learner. For example, a data source may have some incentive for the algorithm to provide a particular label (e.g. approve a bank loan), and manipulate their features accordingly. In this talk, I will present our recent work on analyzing this decision-dependent distribution shift through the lens of perturbation analysis in control theory. This framework allows us to consider settings with multiple equilibria and characterize the regions of attraction for each equilibrium, which is observed in practice: learning algorithms can settle into echo chambers, and characterizes the set of initial conditions which leads to each ultimate outcome. Additionally, I will discuss how these methods can be computationally calculated using integral quadratic constraints, how they can be made distributionally robust, and how it can be used for trajectory predictions for robotic crowd navigation.

Bio: Roy Dong is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a BS Honors in Computer Engineering and a BS Honors in Economics from Michigan State University in 2010. He received a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 2017, where he was funded in part by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Prior to his current position, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Berkeley Energy & Climate Institute, a visiting lecturer in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research department at UC Berkeley, and a Research Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research uses tools from control theory, economics, statistics, and optimization to understand the closed-loop effects of machine learning, with applications in cyber-physical systems such as the smart grid, modern transportation networks, and autonomous vehicles.

Mechanics Seminar: Professor Wayne Chen
2025-11-21 12:05 - 12:55 | Engineering Hall, RM 1610, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
The Mechanics Seminar Series is a weekly seminar given by campus and visiting speakers on topics across the spectrum of mechanics research (solids, fluids, and dynamics). Professor Wayne Chen is a professor at Iowa State University.

ISyE - Coffee and donuts with HFES
2025-11-24 09:00 - 11:00 | 3210 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, 53706
Before heading off for Thanksgiving, swing by for some coffee & donuts with the students of HFES. All are welcome.

BME Seminar Series: Julien Berro, PhD
2025-11-24 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Fantastic forces and where to find them

Julien Berro, PhDAssociate Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and of Cell BiologySchool of MedicineYale University

Abstract:Mechanical forces are central to countless biological processes in health and disease. However, despite their ubiquity and importance in cellular processes, our understanding of biomechanical forces lags far behind our understanding of the underlying biochemistry. Studying forces within cells is difficult because tools and approaches to directly probe forces at the molecular level are scarce, difficult to use or have limited applications. In this seminar, I will present approaches based on quantitative microscopy, mathematical modeling and molecular force sensor engineering that my lab has developed to readily measure biophysical quantities so far impossible or difficult to measure in vivo. Using clathrin-mediated endocytosis as a model system, I will show how these methods have uncovered new molecular mechanisms of force production, force transmission and force sensing by the actin cytoskeleton.

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BME Seminar Series: Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson
2025-12-01 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
The Sound of Science: Engaging the Public with Big Ideas

Anne Strainchamps and Steve PaulsonCreators and Hosts of “To the Best of Our Knowledge”Wisconsin Public Radio

Abstract:Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson have spent decades fostering curiosity and conversation in a rapidly changing world. Currently, they are collaborating with the “Island of Knowledge” think tank in Tuscany to produce a series of interviews with leading international biologists, physicists and philosophers. Their recent radio shows have covered topics ranging from astrobiology and neuroplasticity to whale communication.

This talk offers a behind-the-scenes look at the art of using dialogue and the power of story to illuminate complex thinking across multiple scientific disciplines. Anne and Steve will discuss some of the methods they use to help scientists and engineers connect their work with broader audiences. They will also share some of the common traits and abilities they have discovered in scientists who are also prolific scientific communicators.

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CBE Seminar Series: Julian Cooper
2025-12-02 16:00 - 17:00
Julian CooperDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

“Straining” for New Function in Macromolecular Systems

In this seminar, I will show how molecular strain can be an enabling tool to access new macroscopic capabilities in materials. First, I will discuss how applied strain can address end-of-life management challenges of real-world thermosetting materials. Polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) based thermosets made by frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) can be reprocessed and recycled repeatedly by leveraging both the embedded catalyst used to make this material and compressive strain applied to the material. The subsequent generations of pDCPD display near-identical properties compared to the original material, demonstrating successful circularization of the material lifecycle.

Next, I will showcase some of the enabling capabilities that can be attained with what we’ve learned from reprocessing polyolefin thermosets and highlight some of the exciting directions the Cooper group is heading. In connecting molecular features to macroscopic behavior, we aim to tackle pressing materials challenges and identify new areas of collaboration between CBE and Chemistry here at UW-Madison.

Grad School Virtual Info Session
2025-12-03 09:00 - 10:00
Join us to learn more about graduate school with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Madison! We will be hosting virtual sessions on the first Wednesday of every month from June through December from 9:00-10:00am CST. Please RSVP here.

Those who attend will learn more about:

Mechanical Engineering Department programs overview (including department research overview)

Research MS and PhD program information

Professional (course-only) based MS program information

Admissions Information

Faculty & Graduate Student Panel

Q&A

Much More!

Questions? Email us at dept@me.engr.wisc.edu

NEEP Seminar Series: Saya Lee, Penn State
2025-12-04 12:00 - 13:00
Thursday, December 412:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Experimental Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics: Experimental techniques and applications in advanced reactorsNuclear Engineering requires an understanding of fundamental thermal-fluid phenomena and the application of those phenomena to complex nuclear systems. In conventional light water reactors and water-cooled small modular reactors, two-phase boiling heat transfer has been one of the main research targets for both efficiency and safety. In non-water-cooled reactors such as gas-cooled reactors, liquid-metal reactors, and molten-salt reactors, the importance of turbulent flow needs to be emphasized as their primary system operates in a single-phase condition. Interestingly, heat-pipe microreactors use liquid metal phase change. This seminar will cover experimental techniques that Dr. Saya Lee has been working on to contribute to nuclear thermal hydraulics and their applications from fundamental phenomena to various reactor designs.

Dr. Saya Lee is an Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University, with a research focus on nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics. He earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.S. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Handong University in South Korea. He has extensive experience in diverse nuclear thermal-fluid applications to maintain the safety and operability of the current LWR fleet and to support the design and development of advanced reactors, including a SMR heat exchanger, a VHTR upper plenum, a SFR wire-wrapped fuel rod bundle, and a pebble bed HTGR. Also, he has expertise in the development and use of advanced measurement techniques. Recently, Dr. Lee has been actively working on heat-pipe-cooled microreactors.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Leora Dresslhaus-Marais
2025-12-04 16:00 - 17:00 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, Madison, 53711
The ME 903: Graduate Student Lecture Series features campus and visiting speakers who present on a variety of research topics in the field of mechanical engineering. Professor Leora Dresslhaus-Marais is a professor at Stanford University.
