BME Bay Area Meetup
2026-01-15 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Steins Beer Garden & Restaurant, 895 Villa St, Mountain View, California, 94041, United States
We’re headed to the California Bay Area to kick off a new year of innovation. You and your guests are invited to join fellow Wisconsin BME alumni and friends for an alumni reception at Steins Beer Garden in Mountain View, CA.

RSVP

ECE Virtual Alumni Town Hall
2026-01-21 12:00 - 13:00
ECE alumni, we hope you will join us for this one-hour virtual event hosted by ECE Department Chair Susan Hagness. Our guest for this event will be College of Engineering Dean Devesh Ranjan. Hear Ranjan’s impressions of his first year as Dean, his vision for the college going forward, and other timely topics such as federal funding impacts. We welcome your questions for our panelists.

Alumni, please check your email for your invitation in January.

Susan Hagness

Devesh Ranjan

ISyE - GPU-Accelerated Linear Programming and Beyond
2026-01-21 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
The rapid progress in GPU computing has revolutionized many fields, yet its potential in mathematical programming, such as linear programming (LP), has only recently begun to be realized. This talk aims to provide an overview of recent advancements in GPU-based first-order methods for LP, with a particular focus on the design and development of cuPDLPx. The extensions to GPU-based optimization beyond LP, including convex quadratic programming and semidefinite programming, will also be discussed.

Bio: Jinwen Yang is a final-year Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, advised by Professor Haihao Lu. His research interests are in optimization, with a particular focus on optimization algorithms tailored to modern hardware (like GPUs) and intended for practical applications. He obtained B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Fudan University.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Jeff Tithof
2026-01-22 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 Jeff Tithof is a professor at the University of Minnesota.

Title: Coupled Blood–CSF Flow Dynamics Driving Waste Clearance in the Brain

Abstract: The last decade has seen a tremendous increase in research probing the role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation through the brain in health and disease. This circulation, known as the “glymphatic” (glial-lymphatic) system, is a novel transport pathway first described in 2012 which plays an important role in removing protein waste from the brain. Amyloid-beta is one such protein waste that is known to accumulate over decades, contributing to the development of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s. I will first give a brief history of this field, then discuss several important open questions, including what propels CSF circulation and why it decreases with aging. I will present recent numerical modeling from my research team that suggests CSF and blood flow work synergistically to amplify brain waste clearance. I will also show that by carefully calibrating our model against published in vivo measurements of amyloid-beta, we obtained critical waste production and clearance parameters not yet measured in experiments. In the last portion of the seminar, I will present preliminary results from in vivo mouse experiments demonstrating how neuromodulation (electrical stimulation of nerves) can be leveraged to enhance glymphatic transport in the brain, potentially leading to therapeutic approaches to prevent or slow progression of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Bio: Dr. Jeff Tithof is a Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Georgia Tech in 2016 and his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from University of Tennessee in 2010. From 2016 to 2020, Jeff was a postdoc then an Assistant Research Professor at University of Rochester. His research focuses on biological fluid dynamics, often involving complementary utilization of in vivo experiments and numerical simulations. Jeff has coauthored 35 peer-reviewed publications, including 20 involving brain mass transport. Jeff received the University of Minnesota Mechanical Engineering “Nugent Family Faculty Teaching Award” in 2025 and a “Career Award at the Scientific Interface” from Burroughs Wellcome Fund in 2019.

Mechanics Seminar: Professor Melissa Brindise
2026-01-23 12:00 - 13:00 | 1227 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
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 Melissa Brindise is a professor at Penn State University.

Title: Uncovering mechanical drivers of cerebral aneurysm growth and rupture

Abstract: Clinical evaluation of cerebral aneurysms requires a difficult decision of whether to treat or monitor the aneurysm. While hemodynamics and other objective physics-based factors are known to influence an aneurysm’s risk of growth and rupture, no robust and mechanics-based method currently exists to accurately assess an aneurysm’s risk. As a result, aneurysm treatment decisions are most often made using subjective evaluations by physicians.

In this talk, I will discuss my lab’s work towards addressing this issue. Specifically, I will detail our multi-modality investigations which aim to uncover how physiological conditions, vascular morphology, and flow instabilities, including turbulent features, shape aneurysmal hemodynamics, impose mechanical consequences, and individually and collectively influence aneurysm growth and rupture.

Aneurysm rupture ultimately is the result of mechanical failure of the aneurysm tissue wall. However, direct, non-invasive assessment of aneurysm tissue strength remains beyond current clinical capabilities. I will therefore also discuss our ongoing work to develop clinical tools for inferring aneurysm wall properties from standard clinical imaging. In the long-term, such a tool represents a critical step towards objective-physics-based aneurysm risk assessments and treatment decisions

Bio: Dr. Melissa Brindise is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. She received her B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering (2013) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2019) both from Purdue University. Prior to joining Penn State in 2021, she was a post-doctoral research associate at Purdue as part of the Eli Lilly-Purdue partnership. Her research combines experimental flow physics with image and signal processing to improve analysis methods and current clinical understanding of neuro- and cardiovascular disease, injury, function, and treatment. Broadly, her lab focuses on 1) advancing our understanding of the role of hemodynamics and vascular changes in the onset, progression, and efficacy of treatment of diseases and 2) developing objective, evidence-based methods to transform how we interpret patient data. Her current research interests include the application areas of cerebral aneurysms, Moyamoya disease, cognitive function, heart disease and arrhythmias, and transition to turbulence in unsteady flows.

ISyE - Game night!
2026-01-23 15:00 - 17:00 | 3127 Mechanical Engineering, Madison, 53717
3127 ME

The students of IISE are welcoming everyone new to our department to join them for a game night. Celebrate the first week of classes and meet your fellow students – and fight the cold with some hot chocolate! Everyone is welcome.

ECE Research Seminar Series: Dr. Jan Jeske, Quantum Sensing Group at Fraunhofer IAF
2026-01-26 11:00 - 12:00 | 2321 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Laser-enhanced magnetometry (and other quantum sensing) with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond

Abstract: By integrating NV centres into a laser cavity and combining it with a second gain medium, we have achieved 100% contrast and 16mW of signal power in optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) read out via a laser signal instead of fluorescence. This leads to an advantage in shot-noise-limited sensitivity and/or dynamic range (set by the ODMR linewidth) of a factor of 780 compared to the average of existing NV and vapour-cell sensors.

Dr. Jan Jeske

At Fraunhofer IAF in Germany we furthermore perform imaging magnetometry with a NV widefield magnetometry setup (microscale) and a single NV in the tip of an AFM (nanoscale) and apply this to materials research and fatigue, electronics and biosamples.

Bio: Dr. Jan Jeske has led the Quantum Sensing Group at Fraunhofer IAF in Freiburg Germany since 2018. Previously, he spent 4 years of postdoc in the group of Prof Andrew Greentree, where the idea of laser threshold magnetometry was developed theoretically. Jeske obtained his PhD at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in the group of Prof. Jared Cole. He obtained a master’s in physics from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

Dr. Jeske’s seminar is hosted by ECE Associate Professor Jennifer Choy.

ISyE - From Dyads to Teams: Modeling Human Trust Dynamics and Behaviors in Human-Autonomy Interactions
2026-01-26 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Technology is evolving rapidly, and human interaction with autonomous technologies is no longer confined to one-to-one decision-support settings. Intelligent agents are increasingly working alongside groups of people in diverse contexts such as defense, transportation, and manufacturing. Consequently, there is a growing need to design trust- and behavior-aware adaptive agents that allow humans and autonomous systems to leverage their complementary strengths, while promoting values unique to human society. To this end, our research focuses on modeling human trust and behavioral dynamics over time across various teaming scenarios. In this seminar, I will first introduce our work on classifying and predicting trust dynamics profiles using individuals’ personal characteristics, uncovering who exhibits which trust trajectory and why. I will then present a study examining individual variability in trust bias (contrast versus assimilation) and its effects on coordination and decision-making when humans collaborate with multiple autonomous agents simultaneously. This work further extends to understanding distinct perceptions and teamwork strategies in hierarchical mixed human-agent teams. Time permitting, I will also discuss our research on the design of AI-supported emergency navigation systems that promote human altruism and trust.

Bio: Hyesun Chung is a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. She was recently named a Barbour Fellow and received the Student Member with Honors Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES). Prior to joining the University of Michigan as a doctoral student, she earned three bachelor’s degrees in Industrial Engineering, Business, and Industrial Design, as well as an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, all from Seoul National University in South Korea. Building on her interdisciplinary background, she is a human factors engineer and human-computer interaction researcher who integrates computational and statistical methods with psychological theory to better understand and design human-AI interaction and teaming.

BME Seminar Series: Lennon Rogers, PhD
2026-01-26 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Prototyping with Purpose

Lennon Rodgers, PhDDirector, Grainger Engineering Design Innovation LabCollege of EngineeringUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstract:What do high-speed motorcycles, zoo animal feeders, spacecraft and medical supplies have in common? They are all challenges I’ve tackled using rapid prototyping as my primary engine for design and innovation. In this talk, I’ll take you behind the scenes of these diverse projects to show how I use prototyping tools to explore, learn, iterate, and ultimately deliver field-tested solutions.

Print PDF

ECE Discovery Panel: Energy Systems
2026-01-27 12:20 - 12:50 | 1610 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53706
Engineering undergraduates! Join us in 1610 Engineering Hall as faculty members explore the technical area of Energy Systems! All undergraduate students are welcome as Assistant Professor Mahima Gupta, Assistant Professor Manish Singh, and Professor Giri Venkataramanan talk about application ideas, advanced course electives in this area, and future job opportunities. It’s a great place to ask your questions about classes and career paths in this exciting ECE field.

Come for the insights, stay for the Jimmy John’s sandwiches!

Mahima Gupta

Manish Singh

Giri Venkataramanan

ISyE - Student information session, Douglas Dynamics
2026-01-27 18:00 - 19:00 | 1153 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 University Ave, Madison, 53706
1153 ME

Douglas Dynamics is coming to UW-Madison! Join us as we welcome UW-ISyE alumna and Senior VP of People and Culture, Shannan Vlieger, for a chance to learn about this great company based out of Milwaukee.

Discover ISyE
2026-01-28 16:00 - 18:00
Mechanical Engineering Atrium

Come and learn all about industrial and systems engineering in a casual, open-house environment. Alumni of all ages, from a variety of industries, will be available to speak with prospective students about the career possibilities with a degree from our department. We’ll also have upperclassmen, advisors, and faculty on hand to answer questions. Light snacks will be served.

This year’s alumni guests:

Jake Birrenkott, Senior Sales Engineer, Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing Co-op

Jodi Glunz, MS, CPE, Ergonomics Consultant

Brian Tennant, Healthcare operational leader, UW Health Care Direct

Jeff Roznowski, Telecomm executive (ret.), community advocate

James Sandine, Operations Management Leadership Program at GE Healthcare

Rachel Kayman, Operations Management Leadership Program at GE Healthcare

Zachary Rottier, Enterprise Data Science Director, American Family Insurance

Dan Robin, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Monarca Authentic Snacks

Paul Meyer, Chief Operation Officer (ret.), The Alliance

ISyE - Finding the needle in the haystack: How gradient descent converges to low-dimensional solutions in over-parameterized models.
2026-01-29 12:00 - 13:00 | 2188 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
In contemporary machine learning, realistic models exhibit increasing nonconvexity and overwhelming overparameterization. This nonconvex nature often leads to numerous undesirable or “spurious” local solutions, while overparameterization exacerbates the risk of overfitting. Yet, simple “short-sighted” algorithms, such as gradient descent (GD) or its variants, often find the needle in the haystack: they converge to the correct, low-dimensional solutions even when such structures are neither explicitly encoded in the model nor required by the algorithm. This talk delves into explaining this desirable performance of GD-based algorithms by studying their fine-grained trajectory on over-parameterized models, spanning from low-rank models to deep neural networks.

Bio: Salar Fattahi is an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Deans’ MLK Spirit Award. His research focuses on optimization and machine learning and has been recognized with multiple nominations and awards, including the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group Best Paper Award, the INFORMS Data Mining Best Paper Award, and the INFORMS Computing Society Best Student Paper Award. He currently serves as Vice Chair for Machine Learning in the INFORMS Optimization Society, as an Associate Editor for the INFORMS Journal on Data Science, and as an Area Chair for several premier conferences, including NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Matteo Bucci
2026-01-29 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 Matteo Bucci is a professor at MIT.

Title: FARAWAY, SO CLOSE: HIGH RESOLUTION INVESTIGATIONS OF BOILING HEAT TRANSFER, FROM CRYOGENIC FLUIDS TO HIGH-PRESSURE WATER

Abstract: In every field of science, the possibility of discovering and understanding new phenomena or testing new hypotheses is strongly related to and limited by the capability of observation. Here, we will discuss recent advances in experimental boiling heat transfer research made possible by unique experimental facilities and non-intrusive high-resolution optical diagnostics. We will analyze the capabilities and limitations of these techniques in supporting the understanding of fundamental two-phase heat transfer problems, with a focus on extreme boiling conditions such as the boiling of water at high pressure and temperature, close to nuclear reactor conditions, the boiling of dielectric fluids for electronic cooling applications, or the boiling of cryogenic fluids relevant to space propulsion and energy storage. The use of these diagnostics has been instrumental in providing answers to long-standing fundamental questions on the fluid dynamics and heat transfer nature of these processes.

Bio: Matteo Bucci is the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research group studies two-phase heat transfer mechanisms in nuclear reactors and space systems, develops high-resolution non-intrusive diagnostics and surface engineering techniques to enhance two-phase heat transfer, and creates machine learning tools to accelerate data analysis and conduct autonomous heat transfer experiments. He has won several awards for his research and teaching, including the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching (2020), ANS/PAI Outstanding Faculty Award (2018 and 2023), the UIT-Fluent Award (2006), the European Nuclear Education Network Award (2010), and the 2012 ANS Thermal-Hydraulics Division Award. Matteo is the founding editor and deputy Editor-in-Chief of AI Thermal Fluids. He also serves as Editor of Applied Thermal Engineering, is the founder and coordinator of the NSF Thermal Transport Café and works as a consultant for the nuclear industry.

ISyE - Bowling & Billiards
2026-01-29 17:00 - 19:00 | Union South – The Sett, 1308 W Dayton St, Madison, Wisconsin, 53715
Stop by for IISE’s first social of spring semester! Come hang out, meet other members, and kick off the semester with some friendly competition. All students welcome – hope to see you there!

Mechanics Seminar: Professor Haneesh Kesari
2026-01-30 12:00 - 13:00 | 1227 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
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 Haneesh Kesari is a professor at Brown University.

ISyE - Advancement of Large-Scale 3D Printing
2026-01-30 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Most advances for the integration of 3D printing (3DP) into production settings have focused on small-scale 3DP with manufacturing of components such as aerospace fuel nozzles, aircraft’s hydraulic components, and military hardware to name a few. But when it comes to large-scale applications 3DP research has been minimally explored. Defining large-scale 3DP as additive manufacturing technologies aimed at applications such as remanufacturing of large components in aerospace, automotive, and agricultural industries, to construction and infrastructure, research in large-scale 3DP is nascent and needed. Alongside cost, establishment of 3DP technologies for large-scale applications has been hindered by the interdisciplinarity required to identify technological design needs, manufacturing, validation, and implementation of these technologies while securing safety standards. Therefore, this presentation will discuss outcomes of studies revolving around industrial and manufacturing engineering practices that can contribute to advancing 3DP technologies for large-scale 3DP applications. Concluding remarks will suggest to opportunities that can lead to identification of interdisciplinary research collaborations to further advance the field.

Bio: Dr. Iris V. Rivero is the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Chair and Department Chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida (UF). She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering from Penn State University. Her research group, iMED (Interdisciplinary Manufacturing Engineering and Design) laboratory, specializes in the design and validation of additive and hybrid manufacturing techniques for the processing of a wide array of material systems ranging from biopolymers, metal alloys, to concrete. She was a faculty fellow at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and NASA, to name a few. She has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and over 100 invited talks and peer-reviewed presentations. She is a fellow in the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and in SME (formerly the Society of Manufacturing Engineers).

BME Seminar Series: Salman R. Khetani
2026-02-02 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
From Engineering Predictive Human Tissue Platforms to Advancing the Impact of Wisconsin Biomedical Engineering

Salman R. Khetani, PhDProfessorAssociate Department HeadActing Associate Dean for Graduate StudiesDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Illinois Chicago

Abstract:The convergence of patient-specific human cell sources, microengineering, and data science is accelerating the adoption of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that reduce reliance on animal studies. Against this backdrop, my lab develops highly functional, long-lasting in vitro human tissue platforms for drug metabolism and toxicity testing, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine. We emphasize reproducibility, scalability, and ease of use to enable broad adoption by end users. We leverage these systems to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive major human diseases and to inform more effective therapeutics, including metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, alcohol-associated liver disease, hepatitis B viral infection, inflammatory bowel disease, lung fibrosis, and atrial fibrillation. We are further extending our platforms into reproductive and developmental health, where clinical guidance is often limited, and advancing vascularized, implantable human liver tissue surrogates as a bridge-to-transplantation strategy for patients with end-stage organ failure.

Print PDF

ISyE - Interaction-Centered Design and Evaluation for Trustworthy Human-AI Work Systems
2026-02-02 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in work systems, questions of trust extend beyond whether people accept or rely on algorithms to how humans and AI jointly perform, adapt, and sustain trustworthy decisions over time. In this talk, I present research that frames trustworthiness as a system-level property built through the iterative design, evaluation, and integration of human-AI interactions. I argue that interaction—not the human or the AI alone—is the fundamental unit for designing and evaluating trustworthy work systems. I illustrate this perspective through empirical studies of AI-enabled decision support in safety- and mission-critical domains, including identity verification and intelligence analysis. Across these studies, I show how human and AI strengths and weaknesses depend on interaction design; why explainable AI designs can produce mismatches between perceptual and performance measures of system trustworthiness; and how interaction-centered design can concurrently translate theoretical and operational trustworthiness models into experimentally testable systems. This work advances foundations for building human-AI systems that are effective, efficient, ethical, and capable of sustaining human judgment over time.

Bio: Myke C. Cohen is a final-year Ph.D. student in Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and an Associate Scientist at Aptima, Inc. His work sits at the intersection of human factors engineering, complex adaptive systems, and applied cognitive science, with a focus on the design and evaluation of AI-enabled decision systems in safety- and mission-critical environments. He has led and contributed to projects sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DARPA, and the Department of Defense. Myke is a recipient of the HFES Student Member with Honors Award, and was named an Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Dean’s Fellow and the inaugural CHART Scholar at Arizona State University. Prior to his doctoral studies, he served as an Instructor of Industrial Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he earned his B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

NEEP Seminar Series: Carlo Fiorina, Texas A&M
2026-02-05 12:00 - 13:00
Thursday, February 512:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Selected Examples of Recent Modeling and Simulation Work in Fission and Fusion SystemsThis seminar will review some recent projects involving the modeling and simulation of fission and fusion systems, with an emphasis on the practical approaches used and the insights gained during the work. One example is the development of a full‑resolution model of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). This effort combines neutronics and thermal‑hydraulics to represent the experiment’s configuration in detail, providing a way to revisit historical data and gain additional understanding of MSRE behavior. A second example concerns inertial fusion energy (IFE), focusing on the response of the chamber to target pulses. The modeling examines gas dynamics, shock propagation, and interactions with chamber structures. The seminar will also touch on work related to heat‑pipe microreactors and nuclear thermal propulsion systems.

To conclude, the seminar will briefly introduce foamForNuclear, a fully open‑source multiphysics framework built on OpenFOAM that supports coupled simulations across multiple regions and physics models. The platform builds on developments such as GeN‑Foam and OFFBEAT to provide a modular structure that couples arbitrary physics across multiple regions and meshes without source code changes. It supports full‑core heterogeneous geometries, advanced thermal‑hydraulics, structural mechanics, neutronics, and materials behavior. The framework includes extensive documentation, several tutorials, and a comprehensive Python API. Through the Functional Mock‑up Interface (FMI), foamForNuclear connects with external tools for turbomachinery and control systems, enabling end‑to‑end simulation of nuclear reactors and fusion energy systems.

Carlo Fiorina is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University. He received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Prior to joining TAMU, he was an R&D Program Manager at EPFL, Switzerland, and a postdoctoral researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. In his current position, he teaches Nuclear Reactor Theory and conducts research on the modeling, design, and analysis of advanced reactors and fusion energy systems. Since 2015, he has been actively supporting and promoting open-source software development and has played a key role in establishing the IAEA ONCORE initiative. He has been the lead developer of the GeN-Foam multiphysics solver since 2014 and a co-developer of the OFFBEAT fuel behavior solver since 2017.

MS&E Seminar Series: Dr. Sam Zelinka, Materials Research Engineer at the UW Forest Service Forest Product Laboratory
2026-02-05 13:00 - 14:00
UW-Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes Dr. Sam Zelinka. His seminar, “More uncertain than you might think… What 24 laboratories from around the world got wrong (and right) measuring sorption isotherms in an interlaboratory study”, will take place on Thursday, February 5 from 1-2 p.m. in MS&E Room 265.

Samuel Zelinka, Supervisory Materials Engineer at the Forest Products Laboratory on February 5, 2025. USDA photo by Joshua Limbaugh.

Bio

For the past two decades, Dr. Sam Zelinka has worked at the US Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory where he has conducted research and led research teams that have explored how water and high temperatures (fire) modify the properties of wood, engineered wood composites and wood based materials. Dr. Zelinka’s work on the fire safety of wood buildings has been used to justify changes to the building code allowing the height and area limits of wood buildings in the United States to be increased from 6 stories to 18 stories. He also regularly partners with the wood industry in the United States to help new technologies meet fire safety requirements. Dr. Zelinka’s moisture research accomplishments have rewritten our understanding of many concepts in wood science including electrical conduction, diffusion through wood cell walls and the maximum amount of water that wood cell walls can hold (the “fiber saturation point”). In the past 10 years, Dr. Zelinka has shown that the previous sorption theories applied to wood were invalid and could not describe the physical changes the wood cell walls exhibit during absorption (often misunderstood as adsorption) of water vapor. He has further demonstrated that methods used to collection sorption data contain significant flaws and provided a new and robust framework to understand sorption kinetics. Dr. Zelinka is writing a book on wood moisture relations with an expected publication date of November, 2026 (Wood-Water Interactions, Elsevier).

Abstract

Over the past decade, we have shown that commonly used protocols for using automated sorption balances (often called dynamic vapor sorption or DVS analyzers) for collecting water vapor sorption isotherms in wood lead to unacceptably high errors and uncertainties in the data. However, our suggested protocols for acquiring high quality DVS data are still often not used because they require a long hold time at each relative humidity step. Our previous work has shown that a systematic correction factor can be applied to data collected with the commonly used short hold times to improve data quality, although this was only tested on a small amount of data from one laboratory. In 2021, we began a worldwide interlaboratory investigation on automated sorption measurements. The goal of this study was to gather data on matched wood samples from many different types of sorption balances and many different laboratories to develop a systematic correction factor that could be applied to sorption data collected with short hold times. However, along the way, we have learned many lessons about how these instruments are often used in practice raising further questions about the temperature, mass and relative humidity stability of these instruments in real-world applications (even with simple calibration weights). While this lecture focuses on lessons we learned about water absorption, these same lessons can be applied to many modern instruments commonly used for materials characterization.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Marta Hatzell
2026-02-05 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 Marta Hatzell is a professor at Georgia Tech University.

Electrochemical Systems to Enable Circularity

Abstract: Electrochemical technologies are emerging as key enablers of circular chemical systems as electrochemical systems are modular and able to connect to stranded energy sources. In this context, I will highlight recent advances in electrochemical processes that address carbon capture and utilization, resource recovery from waste, and sustainable fertilizer production. Specifically, I will provide insights into how bipolar membrane (BPM) electrolysis could provide a promising avenue to integrate carbon capture systems with conversion systems. Second, I will examine how electrified separations processes may enable more effective nutrient management at agricultural and water treatment sites. Finally, I will discuss the prospects for fully decentralized fertilizer production and highlight the potential advantages and disadvantages of distributed chemical manufacturing.

Bio: Marta Hatzell the Woodruff Professor Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a joint appointment in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research group investigates sustainable catalysis and separations, with applications ranging from e-fuel production to resource recovery from waste. Dr. Hatzell’s honors include the NSF Early CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Inventor Fellow, Sloan Fellow in Chemistry, and the ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering Lectureship Award. Dr. Hatzell also serves as a Senior Editor for the Journal ACS Energy Letters.

Mechanics Seminar: Professor D. Emma Fan
2026-02-06 12:00 - 13:00 | 1227 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
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 D. Emma Fan is a professor at University of Texas – Austin.

Robotic Materials and Devices Across Scales for Biomedical Applications

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss our recent work in materials fabrication, manipulation, assembly, and manufacturing tailored towards biomedical applications. The focus is on active materials and robotic devices enabled by materials control across a wide range of length scales. At the nanoscale, I will discuss 3D electrokinetic tweezers, an ultra-precision tool developed in my lab, which can be used to manipulate nanowires in room-temperature aqueous solutions. With this technique, designed nanoparticles are maneuvered as untethered robotic tools for probing single biological cells; the precision reaches 20 nm in position and 0.5° in orientation in solution under a standard microscope. At a slightly larger, chip-scale, I will describe a recent innovation that permits the light-controlled patterning of soft actuators made of microbubbles, which assemble large arrays of nanoparticles in parallel. The co-assembly of nanosensor-cell hybrids can be further achieved that detect metabolites of bacterial cells. Finally, I will present a rational scheme for developing large-scale, hierarchically porous superstructures for applications in monitoring human health and public-health relevant water treatment.

Bio: Dr. D. Emma Fan is Harry L. Kent, Jr. Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, with affiliated appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Materials Science and Engineering Program, and the Texas Materials Institute.

Prof. Fan leads a research program focused on the fabrication, manipulation, and assembly of intelligent micro/nanoscale structures, 3D hierarchical porous materials, and stimulus-responsive systems.She is a recipient of two NSF awards: the NSF CAREER Award (2012) and the NSF Mid-Career Advancement Award (2022). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2021) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2024), where she was elected to the Board of Directors (2025) by a vote of over 2,000 Fellows. She was named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors in 2025 and has served as an Official Nominator for the Japan Prize since 2017. Dr, Fan was selected as the 2022 Ilene Busch-Vishniac Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University—an honor that celebrates outstanding women in engineering and aims to inspire the next generation.

ECE Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series: Professor Shiwen Mao, Auburn University
2026-02-06 15:00 - 16:00 | 2305 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
2305 Engineering Hall

Diffusion-enabled 3D human pose tracking, data augmentation, completion, and acceleration

Abstract:In recent years, 3D human activity recognition and tracking has become an important topic in human-computer interaction. To preserve the privacy of users, there is considerable interest in techniques without using a video camera. In this talk, Mao first presents RFID-Pose, a vision-assisted 3D human pose estimation system based on deep learning (DL). The performance of DL models depends on the availability of sufficient high-quality radio frequency (RF) data, which is more difficult and expensive to collect than other types of data. To overcome this obstacle, in the second part of this talk, he presents generative AI approaches to generate labeled synthetic RF data for multiple wireless sensing platforms, such as WiFi, RFID, and mmWave radar, including a conditional Recurrent Generative Adversarial Network (R-GAN) approach and diffusion/latent diffusion based approaches. Next, he proposes a novel framework that leverages latent diffusion transformers to synthesize high quality RF data, as well as a latent diffusion transformer with cross-attention conditioning to accurately infer missing joints in skeletal poses, completing full 25-joint configurations from partial (i.e., 12-joint) inputs utilizing received RF sensory data. Finally, he presents recent work TF-Diff, a novel training-free diffusion framework for cross-domain radio frequency (RF)-based human activity recognition (HAR) system, which enables effective adaptation with minimal target-domain data.

Professor Shiwen Mao

Bio:Shiwen Mao is a Professor and Earle C. Williams Eminent Scholar and Director of the Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center at Auburn University. Dr. Mao’s research interest includes wireless networks, multimedia communications, RF sensing and IoT, smart health, and smart grid. He is the editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, a member-at-large on the Board of Governors of IEEE Communications Society, and Vice President of Technical Activities of IEEE Council on Radio Frequency Identification (CRFID). He is a co-recipient of several technical and service awards from the IEEE. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

ISyE - Bridging Machine Learning and Optimization for Human-Centered AI
2026-02-09 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
From healthcare delivery to resilient power grid management, predictive and prescriptive analytics tools have the potential to improve decision-making for some of today’s most pressing problems, yet their impact is often limited by the technical barriers required to access these tools and to interpret and trust their results. This talk will explore how the synthesis of machine learning and optimization can lower these barriers to advance human-centered artificial intelligence (AI). The first part of the talk will demonstrate how generative AI can broaden access to optimization tools through an interactive decision-support framework, developed in collaboration with Microsoft Outlook, that leverages large language models to translate natural-language user requests into underlying constraint programming models. The second part of the talk will focus on trust, showing how optimization can identify regions where machine learning models make fixed predictions that preclude individuals from changing their outcomes, such as a loan applicant who can never be approved regardless of their actions. We will conclude by outlining broader opportunities for integrating AI and optimization, moving toward a future in which advanced analytics tools are as accessible and trustworthy for managers at a local food bank as they are for applied scientists at Amazon.

Bio: Connor Lawless is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human- Centered Artificial Intelligence advised by Ellen Vitercik and Madeleine Udell. His research blends tools from optimization, machine learning, and human-computer interaction to make advanced analytics tools more accessible and trustworthy. He received his PhD in Operations Research from Cornell University where he was advised by Oktay Gunluk, and previously spent time at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, and the Royal Bank of Canada.

ECE Discovery Panel: Quantum, Optics & Photonics
2026-02-10 12:20 - 12:50 | 1610 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53706
Engineering undergraduates! Join us in 1610 Engineering Hall as faculty members explore the technical area of Quantum, Optics & Photonics! All undergraduate students are welcome as Associate Professor Jennifer Choy, Professor Mikhail Kats, and Assistant Professor Ying Wang talk about application ideas, advanced course electives, and future job opportunities in this area. It’s a great place to ask your questions about classes and career paths in this growing ECE field.

Come for the insights, stay for the Jimmy John’s sandwiches!

Jennifer Choy

Mikhail Kats

Ying Wang

ISyE - Info session with industry guest Plexus
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, United States
1163 ME

Plexus is coming to UW-Madison! Learn more about their company and career opportunities and take part in a case study. This event is sponsored by the IISE student org.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Dr. Edward Cole
2026-02-12 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. Dr. Edward Cole is a Research Director at Norsk Hydro.

Bio: Edward Cole is a proud native of Nashville, TN and the fourth child of Lawrence & Delores Cole. Edward gained interest in engineering as a pre-teen while working in his father’s upholstery shop and by participating in a variety of home improvement projects. College prep courses and pivotal mentors led Edward to enroll as a Presidential Scholar at Tennessee State University (TSU) where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (2006). During his years at TSU, Edward interned with notable companies such as Nissan, Honeywell, Hospital Corporations of America, and Y-12 National Security Complex. These valuable experiences showed Edward that he wanted more out of his education. So, the following year he enrolled as a Graduate Engineering Research Scholar (GERS) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with emphasis on manufacturing processes.

While in Madison, Edward participated in the Allied Community Outreach Group as well as the National Society of Black Engineers – Wisconsin Black Engineering Students Society (NSBE-WBESS). During the summer, you could often find Edward teaching engineering concepts to high school students through the PEOPLE program at UW-Madison or as a guest speaker to young students interested in STEM fields. In May 2009, Edward successfully defended his Master’s thesis entitled Investigation of Weld Material and Process Parameter Influence on Required Forge Force in Friction Stir Welding. Shortly after finishing the Master’s thesis, Edward was accepted as a PhD candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UW-Madison. In December 2012 Edward defended his PhD dissertation entitled The Impact of Alloy and Tool Features on Friction Stir Welding Forces. The research focused on tool design, weld parameters and mechanical properties, all process characteristics to facilitate broader implementation of friction stir welding of aluminum.

Edward began his industrial career in 2013 as a Mechanical Engineer at Schlumberger in Houston, TX where he spent three years in downhole tool manufacturing. In 2016 Edward joined Sapa Extrusion in Troy, MI, responsible for process development and prototypes for a friction stir welded subframe for the Ford Edge. Success in welding and engineering projects led to a ~2yr expat opportunity in Finspång, Sweden. Edward returned to the US in 2019 as an R&D Manager with both personnel and strategy responsibility. Contributions continued and leadership competence grew. In 2025, Edward was named Director of Research, responsible for academic partnerships, prototype development, and intellectual property in North America.

Edward lives in Troy, MI with his wife Adrienne and two sons, Edward (6) and Ethan (3). He is an active member at Detroit Church and now has a special place in his heart for the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons and Detroit Redwings. Edward spends time in nature with golf clubs and enjoys vacations near water and mountains.

ISyE - Online Fault Detection for High-dimensional Data Streams under Resource Constraints
2026-02-13 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
With the rapid advances in sensing and communication technologies, most complex systems are continuously monitored by sensors that provide a variety of streaming data with rich information about the system’s performance. Monitoring such high-dimensional streaming data in real-time is critical to detect anomalies and system failures. Nonetheless, resource constraints on sensing, computation, and communication make traditional monitoring and anomaly detection methods impractical. This talk introduces a family of adaptive and active learning strategies for online fault detection that explicitly account for the limitations associated with resource constraints. By dynamically selecting which data to sample, process, or transmit, these methods achieve efficient monitoring without sacrificing statistical reliability. I will discuss applications in networked and partially observed systems, real-time anomaly detection with mobile sensors, and online batch fault diagnosis. The unifying theme is the integration of statistical learning, sequential decision-making, and uncertainty quantification to enable scalable, data-efficient online monitoring under resource constraints.

Bio: Ana Maria Estrada Gomez is an assistant professor at the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. She received a B.Sc. in industrial engineering and a B.Sc. in mathematics from la Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, in 2013 and 2015, respectively. She also holds a M.Sc. in industrial engineering from la Universidad de los Andes (2015), and a M.Sc. in statistics from Georgia Tech (2018). In 2021, she received her PhD in industrial engineering with a specialization in statistics from Georgia Tech. Her research interests lie in developing efficient methodologies and algorithms for modeling, monitoring, and diagnosing complex systems that collect high-dimensional data, using statistics and machine learning tools. She is the recipient of the SPES + Q&P Best Student Paper Award from ASA, the QSR Best Poster Award from INFORMS, and the IISE Doctoral Colloquium Best Poster Award. She has also been appointed as a Latina Trailblazer in Engineering Fellow by Purdue’s College of Engineering.

ISyE - Game night!
2026-02-13 15:00 - 17:00 | 3127 Mechanical Engineering, Madison, 53717
3127 Mechanical Engineering

Join IISE for their first freshman event of the spring semester! This is a great opportunity to meet other freshmen in industrial engineering as well as IISE board members! They’ll have hot chocolate and games. We hope to see you there!!
