College of Engineering - University of Wisconsin-Madison

INFORMS Kick-off Meeting
2025-09-12 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | 3127 Mechanical Engineering, Madison, 53717
Please join UW-Madison’s INFORMS student chapter for their fall kick-off meeting.

INFORMS is the largest professional association for the decision and data sciences. Come learn what INFORMS is all about, meet fellow students, and hear about upcoming events and opportunities. All are welcome!

BME Seminar Series: Allen Garner PhD
2025-09-15 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Electrical Manipulation of Biological Cells: Models and Applications

Allen Garner, PhD, PEProfessor, Graduate Program ChairSchool of Nuclear EngineeringPurdue University

Electric waveforms, including electric pulses (EPs) and alternating current (AC) fields, such as radiofrequency and high-power microwaves, can induce deleterious or beneficial effects that require additional characterization. We combine thermal models with the Smoluchowski equation to assess the interactions of EP and AC waveforms with biological cells. We further develop a computationally efficient model based on the asymptotic Smoluchowski to screen biological response over seven orders of magnitude of pulse duration with excellent agreement between simulated electroporation and experimental observations. Applications in microorganism inactivation, natural products for cancer therapy, platelet activation, and stem cell stimulation will be discussed.

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ECE Discovery Panel: Computer Systems & Architecture
2025-09-16 12:20 - 12:50 | 2317 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Engineering undergraduates! Join us in 2317 Engineering Hall as faculty members explore the technical area of Computer Systems and Architecture! All undergraduate students are welcome as Teaching Faculty Eric Hoffman, Associate Professor Joshua San Miguel, and Professor Azadeh Davoodi 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 growing ECE field.

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

Eric Hoffman

Joshua San Miguel

Azadeh Davoodi

UW-ISyE Welcome Back Picnic
2025-09-16 16:00 - 18:00 | 1602 Vilas Park Dr., 1602 Vilas Park Dr., Madison, 53715
All ISyE students are invited to stop by the Vilas Park to meet the faculty, staff and fellow students of the UW-ISyE Dept. Burgers, Chicken, and vegan options will be available and games will be provided. Free department swag for all attendees!

Rivos Tech Talk sponsored by IEEE-HKN
2025-09-16 17:00 - 18:00 | 4610 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Join us for an exciting tech talk with Rivos, a leader in RISC-V technology, as visiting members share insights into open instruction set architectures and their real-world applications. This event is tailored for students with a background in computer architecture who are eager to learn more about cutting-edge developments in the field.Don’t miss the opportunity to engage directly with industry experts and ask questions!

Pizza will be available for all attendees.

4610 Engineering Hall

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ISyE - IISE event: Boeing at UW-Madison
2025-09-17 17:00 - 19:00 | 1610 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Join IISE in welcoming reps from Boeing to campus.

Boeing is coming to UW-Madison! Join IISE for a chance to learn and hear from reps and employees of this aircraft industry leader. There will be food provided!The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support services.

NEEP Seminar Series: Brelon J. May, Idaho National Laboratory
2025-09-18 12:00 - 13:00
Thursday, September 1812:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Epitaxial Nitrides: Bringing Squares and Triangles TogetherThe world of nitride materials is vast; it is comprised of extremely stable materials and yet remains relatively underexplored. Individual nitride materials display exceptional properties and are used in a wide variety of structural, electrochemical, photochemical, and plasmonic applications. The hexagonal wurtzite-structured group III-Nitride materials are nearly ubiquitous in optoelectronic, photonic, and high-power devices due to many factors, including the large variation in bandgap spanning from the infrared to the deep ultraviolet. Recent research has pursued the combination of this well-established material system with other transition-metal nitrides for the creation of complex heterostructures which display interesting optical, electronic, and quantum effects. The metastable cubic zincblende phase of GaN provides an attractive alternative as a wide bandgap cubic material direct gap of 3.2 eV and the increased symmetry of cubic structures could resolve issues with internal polarization fields and simplify interfacing with other cubic materials. Transition metal, rare earth, and actinide nitrides often share a stable rocksalt structure, and many have been employed in applications requiring mechanical or thermal stability in harsh environments. Additionally, many of these materials have notable, magnetic, superconducting, or plasmonic properties, and precise integration could facilitate wide ranging investigations.

This work will discuss how molecular beam epitaxy is used to synthesize and dope hexagonal and cubic nitrides and integrate them into precise heterostructures. Reflection high energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy reveal the epitaxial quality of single layer films and superlattices. The electrical transport properties of superconducting, metallic, and insulating epitaxial cubic and hexagonal nitrides will be discussed. The properties show strong dependence on growth parameters, but similar growth windows were found for GaN and some metal nitrides, which allows for fabrication of metal-dielectric multilayers which could be used for optical metamaterials. These results provide new platforms for epitaxial superconductor-semiconductor-magnetic systems comprised of group-III, transition metal, rare earth, and actinide elements expanding possibilities of band engineering, spintronics, quantum science and heavy element systems.

Brelon J. MayBrelon May is an applied physicist at Idaho National Laboratory using molecular beam epitaxy to synthesize single-crystalline thin films based on actinides, lanthanides, and transition metals. His research aims to facilitate the understanding and enable utilization of the unique physics that arise in highly correlated materials and to leverage single crystals as platforms for investigating relationships between complex systems. His interests include superconductivity, magnetism, and epitaxial integration of dissimilar material systems for the creation of multi-functional hierarchical matter.

His fascination for thin film deposition started when he was at Clarkson University, where he received his bachelor’s in chemical engineering (2013) and helped with deposition of polycrystalline solar cells using a Crayola airbrush and a hotplate. He earned his doctorate at The Ohio State University in materials science and engineering where he received the Presidential Fellowship. There, he worked on the vacuum deposition of several material systems including wide bandgap oxides and 2D selenide-based materials, but his focus was on the growth of nitride nanowires and fabrication of ultraviolet LEDs. Before joining Idaho National Laboratory, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, where he developed a method to reduce the cost of high efficiency solar cells, through combining traditional III-V material deposition techniques with water soluble alkali halides.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Mike Molnar
2025-09-18 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. Michael Molnar (BSME ’85) is the founding director of the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at NIST.

Presentation Title: The Federal Role in Accelerating Technology and Manufacturing Innovation

Abstract: The development of critical and emerging technologies plays a key role in U.S. national and economic security. Since the founding of our nation the role of the federal government has been clear on national security but a matter of considerable debate on the broader economic security. Beginning with Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures through Vannevar Bush’s Science, the Endless Frontier, to today – the principles of an innovation policy are clear. What though is the federal role in industrial policy with a free market system?

Several successful models have emerged, all having elements of partnership to support industry and academia. Manufacturing USA is an example of industry-led public private partnerships. Established as a program just ten years ago as applied research institutes on emerging technologies, these institutes feature mass collaboration of industry and academia on projects of technology acceleration, supply chain and workforce development. Some 18 institutes are currently in the national network with a new institute on Artificial Intelligence for Resilient Manufacturing planned this year. The talk concludes with briefly contrasting other engagement models, such as Operation Warp Speed, for accelerating technology.

Bio: Mike is the founding director of the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, the interagency team responsible for the Manufacturing USA network of applied research manufacturing innovation institutes. He also leads the NIST Office of Advanced Manufacturing and serves as co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council, Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing – the White House team responsible for the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. Prior to joining federal service in 2011 Mike had a successful industry career, including 25 years leading manufacturing and technology development at Cummins, a U.S. based global company that designs and manufactures engines and power generation products. Mike is a proud Badger, with two of his degrees from the University of Wisconsin – a Mechanical Engineering B.S. and one of the first graduates of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Masters program.

CBE Seminar Series: Pramod Wangikar
2025-09-18 16:00 - 17:00
Seminar 9-10am at Union South Landmark Room

Pramod WangikarChair Professor for Green Chemistry and Industrial BiotechnologyDepartment of Chemical EngineeringIndian Institute of Technology BombayMumbai, India

Harnessing Metabolomics for Precision Medicine and Fermentation

Metabolomics is an emerging tool in bioengineering research, based on profiling hundreds of metabolites in biological systems to provide a detailed view of cellular metabolism. In this evolving field, success hinges on advanced data acquisition methods, particularly mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography (LC–MS) or gas chromatography (GC–MS). We present specific use cases from our research that demonstrate the transformative potential of metabolomics in understanding and manipulating biological systems for healthcare and industrial applications:

Biomarker Discovery in Metabolic Disorders: We used untargeted metabolomics to discover novel biomarkers for chronic metabolic disorders. In patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), we identified distinct panels of metabolites associated with the risk of kidney and cardiovascular complications. These biomarkers hold potential for diagnostic tools offering greater predictive power and clinical efficacy than the standard glucose test.

Fermentation Optimization via Spent Media Analysis: Metabolomic analysis of spent culture media reveals critical insights into cellular metabolism in fermentation processes. By integrating these data with genome-scale metabolic models through constraint-based modeling, we optimized nutrient supplementation strategies, achieving substantial improvements in product yield with minimal experimental trials.

Handling large, complex datasets from untargeted metabolomics presents a significant challenge due to data complexity and noise. To streamline the analysis of such large metabolomics datasets, we developed MSOne, an AI-based platform that automates and accelerates data processing. Additionally, we leverage MetaMine, a repository derived from thousands of public-domain metabolomics studies that supports comparative analysis and meta-level insights. Together, these tools serve as essential resources for addressing challenges in large-scale metabolomics data handling and interpretation, reinforcing the promise of metabolomics in precision medicine and industrial biotechnology

Public Town Hall on National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing
2025-09-18 18:00 - 20:00
This town hall will gather information from the advanced manufacturing community in the Wisconsin area for the 2026 – 2030 National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing, which guides Federal efforts to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. The plan is revised every four years to provide new federal priorities in advanced manufacturing research and development, aiming to create jobs, boost economic growth across various sectors, and strengthen national security. This town hall session augments an online Request for Information (RFI), enabling participants to voice their views and help identify priority areas.

Mechanics Seminar: Professor Matthew Brake
2025-09-19 12:05 - 12:55 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, 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 Matthew Brake is an Associate Professor at Rice University.

Presentation Title: Videographic Modal Analysis

Abstract: Experimental modal analysis is a classical tool that has formed the basis of modern vibration testing and qualification. Despite this, the process of experimental modal analysis is largely reliant upon techniques from over 60 years ago. Typical experiments of large structures can take months of planning and setup, and require thousands of channels of accelerometer data. To lower the cost and time associated with vibration testing, Videographic Modal Analysis (VMA) combines recent advances in data science, image processing, and traditional modal analysis concepts. First, natural frequencies are identified from videos of an experiment using a deep learning algorithm. Once these frequencies are identified, optical flow, phase-based motion magnification, and edge detection techniques are automatically applied to quantitatively characterize the mode shapes of the structure. Without instrumentation, we can now identify mode shapes and natural frequencies of arbitrary structures in real-world settings (not just beams vibrating in labs!). This talk will present the science behind VMA and demonstrate its applicability.

Bio: Prof. Brake started at Rice University in 2016 after working at Sandia National Laboratories for nine years. Prior to Sandia, Prof. Brake graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007. Prof. Brake has been elected to several leadership positions, including as the director of the International Committee on Joint Mechanics, the chair of the Nonlinear Dynamics Technical Division of SEM, and the chair of the ASME Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound. He is a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the 2018 C.D. Mote Jr Early Career Award, and the National Science Foundation Career Award. His primary research interests are in data-driven experimentation, multi-scale and multi-physics modeling, vibration, tribology, uncertainty propagation, structural health monitoring, and nonlinear dynamics.

ISyE - Terrace Hangout!
2025-09-19 17:00 - 22:00 | Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706
Join the graduate student orgs from ISyE for a night on the Terrace.

Students from across ISyE are encouraged to join their peers from INFORMS, HFES and SME for an evening on the terrace. This is a chance to catch up, meet old and new faces, and simply relax by the lake.

ISyE - AI in Industrial Engineering
2025-09-22 00:00 - 23:59
Join IISE for a crash course on AI and how it relates to our major in the workforce.

More info to come soon!

BME Seminar Series: Marty Pagel, PhD
2025-09-22 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Molecular Imaging of the Tumor Microenvironment

Marty Pagel, PhDProfessorDepartment of Medical PhysicsDepartment of RadiologyUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstract:Tumor acidosis, hypoxia, and vascular perfusion are well-known characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. We have developed MRI, MR Fingerprinting, PET/MRI, electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI), and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) to quantitatively measure extracellular pH, oxygenation, and pharmacokinetic transport rates in solid tumors. We apply these molecular imaging methods to preclinical tumor models, and we have translated some of our methods to evaluate patients who have cancer. We are especially focused on employing molecular imaging to predict treatment effect before starting therapy, and to evaluate the early response to treatment, during evaluations of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. This presentation will discuss a variety of molecular imaging methods and research applications, and also discuss a value proposition for molecular imaging.

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CBE Seminar Series: David Schaffer
2025-09-23 16:00 - 17:00
David SchafferDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringUniversity of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA

Directed Evolution of New AAV Vectors for Clinical Gene Therapy

Gene therapy has experienced an increasing number of successful human clinical trials, leading to 6 FDA approved products using delivery vectors based on adeno-associated viruses (AAV). These successes were possible due to the identification of specific disease targets for which natural variants of AAV were sufficient. However, vectors face a number of barriers and shortcomings that preclude their extension to most human diseases, including limited delivery efficiency to target cells, pre-existing antibodies against AAVs, suboptimal biodistribution, limited spread within tissues, and/or an inability to target delivery to specific cells. These barriers are not surprising, since the parent viruses upon which vectors are based were not evolved by nature for our convenience to use as human therapeutics. Unfortunately, for most applications, there is insufficient mechanistic knowledge of underlying virus structure-function relationships to empower rational design improvements. As an alternative, for over two decades we have been implementing directed evolution–the iterative genetic diversification of the viral genome and functional selection for desired properties–to engineer highly optimized, next generation AAV variants for efficient and targeted delivery to any cell or tissue target. We have genetically diversified AAV using a broad range of approaches from fully random (e.g. error prone PCR) to computationally guided (e.g. by machine learning). The resulting large (~109) libraries are then functionally selected for substantially enhanced delivery, yielding AAVs capable of highly efficient therapeutic gene delivery. Our variants have been effective in both animal models and in 6 human clinical trials to date, and results from both will be discussed.

The Next Era: A Reception with Dean Ranjan
2025-09-24 18:00 - 20:00 | 300 N Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55401, 300 N Washington Ave,, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, 55401, United States
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You’re invited to join us for a special evening as we welcome Devesh Ranjan (MS ’05, PhD ’07), the new Grainger Dean of the College of Engineering, for a casual reception with fellow alumni in the Twin Cities area.

This is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the College, engage in meaningful conversations with Dean Ranjan, and network with fellow engineering alumni living and working in the region. Come celebrate the exciting future of the College of Engineering and be part of this growing community of innovators and leaders.Date: September 24, 2025Time: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (featuring brief remarks and Q+A)Location: The Hewing Hotel(300 N Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55401)

Heavy appetizers and refreshments will be served. Street parking available.

Register Here

We look forward to extending a warm Wisconsin welcome to Dean Ranjan and help shape the future of engineering—together.

This event is free to attend.

NEEP Seminar Series: Todd Allen, University of Michigan
2025-09-25 12:00 - 13:00
Thursday, September 2512:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Net zero economy: What’s Up With That (and Nuclear)?Transitioning to a net-zero economy is complex and involves developing new technologies (including nuclear energy), determining pathways to expand into wider use of these technologies, and determining the decision-making processes and policy choices to optimize success. This talk will frame this transition for nuclear energy within three concepts, Energy Technology Complexity, System-informed Decision-Making, and Community-appropriate Capacity Expansion, that are the key considerations through which optimal transitions can be made.

Todd AllenDr. Todd Allen is Professor at the University of Michigan and a Senior Fellow at Third Way, a DC base Think Tank, supporting their Climate & Energy Portfolio. He is the Founding Director of the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative, aimed at identifying the combined technologies and social acceptance that moves towards decarbonized systems. He is also the Co-Director of the University of Michigan’s hydrogen initiative, MI Hydrogen. He was the Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Idaho National Laboratory from January 2013 through January 2016. Prior to INL he was a Professor in the Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin, a position held from September 2003 through December 2012 and again from January 2016-December 2018. From March 2008-December 2012, he was concurrently the Scientific Director of the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility at INL. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin, he was a Nuclear Engineer at Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho Falls. His Doctoral Degree is in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan (1997) and his Bachelor’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering is from Northwestern University (1984). Prior to graduate work, he was an officer in the United States Navy Nuclear Power Program.

ME 150th Celebration: Distinguished Alumni, Jim Berbee
2025-09-25 16:00 - 17:00 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, Madison, 53711
To celebrate 150 years of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the Department of Mechanical Engineering will feature distinguished alumni in mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics who have made a lasting impact on the field. Jim Berbee, who received his bachelor’s (’85) and his master’s (’87) in mechanical engineering, started his career as an IBM system engineer and then founded Berbee Information Networks Corporation. After selling his company, Dr. Berbee earned his doctor of medicine and now serves as a clinical assistant professor at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. To learn more about Jim Berbee’s experience, please join us for this installment of our ME 903: Graduate Student Lecture series.

Presentation title: Is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

Bio: After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with degrees in mechanical engineering and business, Dr. Berbee started his career as an IBM system engineer where he specialized in system interoperability. He then founded Berbee Information Networks Corporation, which he sold to the public company CDW. He went on to earn his medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Berbee joined the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health after completing his emergency medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. He served as an attending physician at the UW, the VA and on MedFlight, the UW critical transport helicopter service. He also attended patients at the Rice Lake emergency department in northern Wisconsin.

Dr. Berbee serves as a Trustee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Association (WARF, known for the medication Warfarin) and is on the board of directors of Madison Gas and Electric (MGEE). He was the Chair of WARF from 2018-2024. He is an active venture investor in medicine and technology and holds patents related to digital otoscopy. He is the founder and chair of WiscMed, a company that designs and markets the Wispr digital otoscope.

He supports human health and welfare projects through the BerbeeWalsh Foundation. He is the event founder of the Berbee Derby Thanksgiving Day 10k RUN & 5k RUN/WALK whose proceeds support technology education. He holds an airline transport pilot (ATP) license, and type ratings in Cessna Citation jets. In addition, he has rotor and float plane endorsements.

His primary home is in British Columbia, Canada which he shares with Maple, his spaniel.

Optimization, ML and AI in Operations Management
2025-09-26 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
UW-ISyE looks forward to welcoming Dr. Georgia Perakis, Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Data-driven decision-making has garnered a growing interest due to the increase in data availability in recent years. With that growth many opportunities as well as challenges arise. Optimization, Machine Learning (ML) and more generally, AI play and can play even more an important role to address important challenges in a variety of Operations Management applications. In this talk, we will discuss some of these applications and will highlight the importance and challenges of integrating optimization with ML in data-driven decision-making. We will also discuss some concrete examples of these synergies in pricing and healthcare. As a result, we will also discuss how we can optimize over already trained objective functions that arise from neural network models in order to recommend better decisions.

Bio: Georgia Perakis is the William F. Pounds Professor and a Professor of Operations Management, Operations Research & Statistics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also serving as co-director of the Operations Research Center. On July 1 she started her sabbatical at Harvard Business School where she is spending the year as a Visiting Scholar. For the past year and a half, she served as the John C Head III Dean (Interim) at MIT Sloan and before that, she served as an Associate Dean for Social and Ethical Responsibility in Computing (SERC) in the Schwarzman College of Computing and MIT Sloan. Her research has received many awards and focuses on analytics/AI, in particular, in the intersection of optimization and machine learning with applications in pricing, revenue management, supply chain, sustainability and healthcare among others. She received the PECASE Award from the Office of the President on Science and Technology. In 2016, she was elected as an INFORMS Fellow, and in 2021 as Distinguished MSOM Fellow.

Perakis has passion for supervising PhD, masters, and undergraduate students, having graduated 34 PhD and 63 master’s students. She has received numerous awards for teaching including the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award (2002), the Samuel M. Seegal Award (2012), the Jamieson Prize for excellence in Teaching (2014), the Teacher of the Year Award (2017) and the Outstanding Teaching Award (2024) at MIT Sloan. Perakis is currently the Editor in Chief of the M&SOM journal and has served on the editorial board at a number of other journals. She holds a BS in mathematics from the University of Athens as well as an MS in applied mathematics and a PhD in applied mathematics from Brown University.

Midwest Mechanics Seminar: Professor Daniel Chung
2025-09-26 12:05 - 12:55 | 3M Auditorium, rm 1106 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Ave, 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 Daniel Chung is an Associate Professor at The University of Melbourne.

Presentation Title: Fluid mechanics of riblets drag reduction

Abstract: Riblets are a surface texture composed of tiny ribs applied on aircraft skin to reduce drag, which saves on fuel, increases the payload and extends the range. To the fast-moving turbulent air that flows over it, riblets turn out to be smoother, generating less skin friction, than a perfectly flat surface. However, riblet performance is highly sensitive to their cross-sectional shape and features, which is bad news because the micron-sized ribs, imperceptible to the naked eye and challenging to measure even with precision instruments, are impossible to manufacture and maintain perfectly. Thus, accurate tolerancing, not only for manufacture but also for lifetime wear planning and monitoring, is key to this technology, requiring predictive capability of the kind that derives from advances in basic understanding. In this regard, I will present some of the progress we have made in the last few years, building on decades of research, on the fluid mechanics of turbulence over riblet surfaces.

The support of the Australian Research Council, Cooperative Research Australia and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research FA2386-23-1-4071 is gratefully acknowledged.

Bio: Daniel is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer science from the University of Melbourne in 2003, and his PhD in aeronautics from Caltech in 2009. He was a postdoc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before joining the University of Melbourne in 2012. Daniel’s research uses computational fluid dynamics, where he tries to distil turbulent flows into simplified problems and to build physics-based models for prediction. Recently, he has been interested in understanding and controlling turbulent flow and thermal convection over rough surfaces, riblets and moving wavy surfaces.

College of Engineering Hackathon/Makerthon
2025-09-26 16:30 - 2025-09-27 18:00 | UW-Madison Design Innovation Lab, Wendt Commons, 215 N. Randall Ave, Madison, 53715
The inaugural IoT Hacker-and-Makerthon at UW–Madison is here! In just 24 hours, you and your team will tackle real-world challenges provided by industry partners Plexus and Accuray. Use your skills from class, connect with their engineers, and bring your creativity to life – whether it’s in IoT, robotics, or beyond. There are no limits to what you can build! Mentors will be available around the clock to support you.

In addition to developing your solution, you will also have the opportunity to sharpen your presentation skills. By the end of the event, you will be ready to showcase your project – and maybe even take home a cash prize!

And don’t worry about food or drinks: we’ve got you covered throughout the entire event. Come hungry, be curious, and stay inspired!

Brought to you by the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Laboratory.

ALL students are welcome and encouraged to participate!

Register Now!

FAQs

What does “around the clock” mean? Is this a 24-hour event?

The event space will close around 9pm and we will start around 9am in the morning. But you are free to work on the challenges throughout the night.

When is the deadline to sign up?

The deadline to sign up is Friday, Septebmer 26th, 10:00 am.

How many meals are served throughout the event?

There will be 4 meals: dinner on Friday, and breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday.

Who are the judges, and will they (or any other professional engineers for on hand throught the event for feedback?

Judges will be UW researchers as well as professional engineers from Accuray and Plexus, who will be available either on-site of remotely throughout the event.

Is the cash prize only for 1st place?

Cash prizes are avilable for up to 10 teams.

ISyE - Lakeshore Nature Preserve Volunteering
2025-09-28 12:30 - 14:30 | Lakeshore Nature Preserve, Frautcshi Point, Lake Mendota Drive, Madison, 53711
Come help clean up the Lakeshore Nature Preserve! This is a great chance to give back to your campus and local community, while bonding with fellow students. This event is being organized by the UW-Madison IISE student chapter.

More information:

Meet at the Frautschi Point parking lot on Lake Mendota Drive. It is on the free 80 bus route.

Volunteers are required to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. We highly recommend long-sleeve shirts, a hat, sunscreen, and insect repellent.

We will provide tools and work gloves.

Volunteers will assist in ecological restoration activities. We may weed, cut invasive plants, and/or collect native seeds.

Work will be performed off-trail on uneven ground and may require bending, stooping, and lifting.

Please visit https://www.iiseuwmadison.com to sign up via Flare.

BME Seminar Series: Hua Wang, PhD
2025-09-29 12:00 - 13:00 | 1003 (Tong Auditorium) Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Molecular to Systemic Engineering of Immune Cells for Robust Immunotherapy

Hua Wang, PhDAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract:Immunotherapy has achieved significant clinical progress for the treatment of cancer and other diseases over the past decade, but challenges, including low patient responses, off-target side effects, and poor efficacy against solid tumors and autoimmune disorders, remain. One of our research interests is to understand how immune cells (e.g., dendritic cells (DCs)) can be manipulated or engineered using chemistry, material, and chemical biology approaches, in order to develop effective therapies for cancer and other diseases. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts in molecular, systemic, and in situ engineering of DCs and further development of robust cancer vaccines. These include molecules and polymers that can interact with DC membrane and thus activate DCs, and macroporous materials that can actively recruit and program DCs in situ. I will then conclude my talk with several short stories along the line of metabolic glycan labeling, another key technology in my lab, regarding how we made it possible to precisely modulate cells that are historically challenging to engineer.

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ECE Discovery Panel: Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
2025-09-30 12:20 - 12:50 | 2317 Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, 53711
Engineering undergraduates! Join us in 2317 Engineering Hall as faculty members explore the technical area of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence! All undergraduate students are welcome as Associate Professor Kangwook Lee, Assistant Professor Grigorios Chrysos, and Assistant Professor Ramya Korlakai Vinayak 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 growing ECE field.

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

Kangwook Lee

Grigorios Chrysos

Ramya Korlakai Vinayak

CBE Seminar Series: Hal Alper
2025-09-30 16:00 - 17:00
Hal S. AlperProfessor & Cockrell Family Regents Chair in EngineeringDepartment of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of Texas-AustinAustin, TX

Beyond the test-tube: metabolic engineering for next-generation applications

Advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can enable microbes to produce nearly any organic molecule of interest—from biofuels to biopolymers to pharmaceuticals. While this approach has fueled the industrial biotechnology, new challenges arise for microbe engineering when considering non-conventional settings. This talk will highlight several unique application areas for metabolic engineering. First, the use of engineered biology for the degradation of waste products (including plastics and other hydrophobic substrates) will be discussed considering the unique challenges required to consume these non-carbohydrate substrates. Second, the use of a printable hydrogel system for encapsulating cells will be discussed as a means for both portable cultivation of engineered microbial systems as well as for responsive theranostics. Third, the engineering of microbial factories for space environments will be discussed. Robust “space-ready” organisms require an understanding of how cells respond to the unique challenges and stressors of space including microgravity, radiation, and desiccation. Together, these efforts demonstrate how to deploy metabolically engineered cells outside of traditional sugar-based bioreactor settings.

Grad School Virtual Info Session
2025-10-01 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

Exact Sciences Information Session
2025-10-01 16:30 - 17:15
Curious about what it takes to land an internship at Exact Sciences? Join this exclusive insider session where their University Relations and Recruiting team will share practical tips and insights to help you stand out as a candidate.

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NEEP Seminar Series: David Andersson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
2025-10-02 12:00 - 13:00
Thursday, October 212:00 – 1:00pm106 Engineering Research BuildingPlease contact office@neep.wisc.edu for assistance with remote participation.

Overview of the DOE NEAMS program and review of multi-scale simulations to inform nuclear fuel performance modelsThis presentation will first introduce the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, which develops predictive modeling and simulation tools to support the design, development, licensing, and operation of nuclear reactors. NEAMS activities span Light Water Reactors (LWRs), new LWR concepts, and next-generation systems such as High Temperature Gas Reactors, Fluoride Salt-cooled Reactors, Liquid Metal Fast Reactors, Molten Salt Reactors, and Micro-Reactors. Research is organized into five Technical Areas: Fuel Performance, Thermal Fluids, Reactor Physics, Structural Materials & Chemistry, and Multiphysics Applications. Selected accomplishments from each area will be highlighted.

The second part of the talk will focus on multi-scale simulations for nuclear fuel performance, with examples for uranium oxide in LWRs and, if time permits, other fuel types. A key element is understanding the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of point defects, which strongly influence creep, fission gas release, swelling, densification, and thermal conductivity. Density functional theory (DFT) enables prediction of defect properties and provides a foundation for mechanism-based, engineering-scale fuel performance codes.

Current applications of DFT to UO2 will be presented, including methods that incorporate dispersion corrections, spin–orbit interactions, and noncollinear magnetism. A point defect model informed by DFT energies and vibrational entropies predicts defect concentrations in UO2±x, validated against experimental data for deviation from stoichiometry and self-diffusion coefficients. The cluster dynamics code Centipede further connects defect behavior to in-reactor performance by modeling production, interactions, clustering, and kinetics under irradiation, with implications for fission gas behavior, fuel fragmentation and creep. The importance of these properties in extending fuel burnup limits and the role of uncertainty quantification in achieving qualification will be discussed. Similar approaches for other nuclear fuels, including UN, TRISO, and molten salts, will also be briefly mentioned.

David Andersson, Los Alamos National LaboratoryDavid Andersson is the National Technical Director (NTD) of the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program and the Deputy Group Leader of MST-8: Materials Science in Radiation and Dynamics Extremes. He joined LANL in 2007 as a Glenn T. Seaborg postdoc and was converted to technical staff member in 2009. Through the years he has made contributions to research on nuclear fuels (solids as well as molten salts) for NEAMS and other nuclear energy projects. Before becoming the NEAMS NTD in 2024, he was the Deputy National Technical Director for the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) program. David received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. He was awarded the American Nuclear Society Mishima Award in 2023 for advancing understanding of nuclear fuel performance through fundamental studies of defect properties and their integration in performance models.

ME 903 Graduate Seminar: Professor Suo Yang
2025-10-02 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 Suo Yang is a professor at the University of Minnesota.

Presentation title: Multi-Physics Modeling for Future Aerospace Propulsion and Energy

Abstract: In the development of future aerospace propulsion and energy systems, the pursuit of high efficiency, high speed, low emission, and low noise is pushing the systems to operate at extreme conditions. These conditions and associated emerging technologies often introduce complicated multi-scale physics, bringing new challenges to modeling and simulation in terms of both fidelity and computational cost. In this presentation, I will mainly talk about two examples of such multi-physics modeling from our works: (1) Plasma assisted combustion (PAC) is a promising technology to enable ultra-fast ignition and stable combustion using low-reactivity fuels (e.g., ammonia for decarbonization, and low-cetane sustainable/synthetic aviation fuels) or at extreme conditions (e.g., high-speed flows in scramjets for hypersonic propulsion). We developed a series of 0D-3D PAC models with unprecedented predictivity, unraveled the mechanisms of simultaneous ignition acceleration and NOx emission reduction by non-equilibrium plasma in ammonia combustion, and investigated the influence of discharge pulsing frequency, plasma streamer evolution, inter-electrode gap distance, igniter placement, and turbulence on ignition performance. (2) Advanced liquid-fueled rocket and gas-turbine jet engines (based on deflagration or detonation) operate at high pressures to achieve high efficiency and high energy density. At such conditions, the supercritical liquid-like fuel often goes through transcritical multi-component phase transition upon mixing with the oxidizer stream or colliding with detonation/shock waves. We developed a series of computationally efficient and robust multiphase flow models based on the first-principled real-fluid vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) theory to predict high-pressure multi-component phase transition, and investigated its interactions with mixing, combustion, detonation, (hypersonic) shocks, and expansion waves.

Bio: Dr. Suo Yang is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. During 2017-2018, He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. Dr. Yang received his Ph.D. (2017) and M.S. (2014) degrees in Aerospace Engineering, and another M.S. degree in Computational Science & Engineering (2015), all from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a B.S. degree in Mathematics & Applied Mathematics from Zhejiang University in 2011. Dr. Yang’s research focuses on the modeling and simulation of turbulent reacting & multiphase flows, including combustion, non-equilibrium plasma, particulate & multiphase flows, and hypersonics, with applications in aerospace propulsion & energy systems. He is an awardee of the 2021 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), 2022 ONR Young Investigator (YIP) Award, 2023 DARPA Director’s Fellowship Award, and 2024 AFOSR Young Investigator (YIP) Award. Dr. Yang has authored nearly 100 journal articles and refereed conference papers, in which he received 5 Editor’s Pick or Featured Article awards from Physics of Fluids and Combustion and Flame. Dr. Yang is a Senior Member of AIAA and a member of 3 AIAA Technical Committees. He has served as a Technical Discipline Chair or Deputy Chair 5 times for AIAA SciTech Forums. He also actively serves as a reviewer for many top-tier journals for which he received 4 Outstanding Reviewer Awards.

Strong duals for mixed integer programs.
2025-10-03 12:00 - 13:00 | 1163 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 Engineering Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
UW-ISyE looks forward to welcoming Dr. Santanu Dey, Professor at H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

We develop two general-purpose strong dual formulations for binary MINLPs, motivated by sensitivity analysis and distributed computation. For mixed binary quadratic programs (MBQPs), we show that the copositive dual of Burer’s completely positive reformulation has no duality gap when the feasible region is bounded or the objective is convex. Since the right-hand side of the original MBQP appears only in the dual’s objective, this formulation enables sensitivity analysis. For nearly decomposable nonlinear mixed binary programs, we propose a hierarchy of relaxations that preserve decomposability. The first level coincides with the classical Lagrangian relaxation, while higher levels yield progressively tighter bounds, culminating in a strong dual. We analyze the quality of these bounds for various types of MILPs. This is joint work with Diego Cifuentes and Jingye Xu.

Bio: Santanu S. Dey is an Anderson-Interface professor and director of doctorial recruiting and admissions in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Dey’s research interests are in the area of non-convex optimization, and in particular mixed integer linear and nonlinear programming. His research is partly motivated by applications of non-convex optimization problems arising in areas such as electrical power engineering, process engineering, civil engineering, logistics, and statistics. He currently serves on the editorial board of Mathematical Programming A, Mathematics of Operations Research and SIAM Journal on Optimization. He has previously served as an area editor for Mathematical Programming C and associate editor of INFORMS Journal on Computing. He has won the INFORMS Nicholson student paper competition, IBM Faculty Award, the Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow at Georgia Tech, the NSF CAREER award, the INFORMS Energy Natural Resources and Environment best paper award, and the INFORMS optimization society Balas Prize.
