Grainger College of Engineering Seminars & Speakers

Monday, April 27, 2026

Final Defense - PhD - Hannah Theriault

9:00 am

Institute for Genomic Biology, room 612
- Other
Biological Physics Seminar: Minsu Kim (Emory University) ""

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Lecture
Theory Seminar: Anakin Dey, "Debordering Closure Results in Determinantal and Pfaffian Ideals."

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

3401 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
The Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Special Theory Seminar, Vojtech Vlcek (University of California, SB), "Theoretical Spectroscopy for Driven Systems"

12:00 - 1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
Affordable Phased-Arrays and Reflect Arrays (RIS) for SATCOM, Radars and Terrestrial Communications (5G/6G) Using Silicon Beamformer ICs

2:00 pm

HMNTL 1000
- Ceremony/Service
AE 590 Seminar Speaker: Martin Lo

4:00 - 5:00 pm

CIF 2035
- Seminar/Symposium
Disaster-Resilient Housing Via Systems Change | Newmark Distinguished Lecture | Dr. Elizabeth Hausler

4:00 pm

1017 Civil and Environmental Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

IQUIST Seminar: "Surface Engineering for Electron-on-Neon Quantum Computing Platforms," Kater Murch, Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley

11:00 - 11:50 am

190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801

Speaker: Kater Murch, Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Priyam Mazumdar

12:00 - 2:00 pm

ECEB 5086
- Seminar/Symposium
Local Rules, Global Order: Emergent Pattern Formation in Active Cell Monolayers

4:00 pm

100 Material Science Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Senior Design Presentations

4:00 - 4:50 pm

4025 Campus Instructional Facility

Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Prelim Exam: Yan (Simon) Sun

8:30 - 10:30 am

ZOOM
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Iven Guzel

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

ECEB 5070
- Seminar/Symposium
Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Karolina Garcia (UIUC, CAPS Fellow) "Bridging Scales: Multiphase ISM Modeling in Cosmological Simulations"

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
BIOE Seminar Series: Graduate Students Minsung Kwon & Revathi Manoharaan

12:00 - 12:50 pm

Everitt 2310
- Seminar/Symposium
MatSE Special Seminar - "Flash-Sintering+: Anomalous Defect Concentrations and Rates of Solid-State Diffusion"

3:00 pm

1002 Materials Research Laboratory, 104 S Goodwin Ave
- Seminar/Symposium
MatSE Special Seminar - "Flash-Sintering+: Anomalous Defect Concentrations and Rates of Solid-State Diffusion"

3:00 pm

1002 Materials Research Laboratory, 104 S Goodwin Ave
- Seminar/Symposium
Human-Computer Interaction Talk Series: Dr. Calvin Liang, "Deconstructing the theory-practice gap in community based participatory research in HCI."

3:30 - 4:30 pm

0216 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
Kent Seminar Distinguished Lecture: Marsha Anderson Bomar, President, American Society of Civil Engineers

4:00 - 5:00 pm

1017 Civil and Environmental Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium
The Physics Colloquium: James Kakalios (University of Minnesota) “THE PHYSICS OF SUPERHEROES”

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Loomis Lab 141
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, April 30, 2026

SE 290 - Andy Williams

11:00 am

1310 DCL
- Lecture
Prelim Exam: Jiaxin Wan

2:00 - 4:00 pm

Remote via Zoom
- Seminar/Symposium
3DHI - A Means to Continue Moore's Law

4:00 - 5:00 pm

1002 Grainger Auditorium
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Atomically thin Carbon-Dots as an Interfacial Seeding Layer for High-κ Oxide Growth on 2D semiconductors"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Monolithic three-dimensional integration of single-crystalline silicon transistors"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 1, 2026

Final Exam: Zhongmin Zhu

8:00 - 10:00 am

ECEB 3002
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Defense - PhD - Brittany Payan

11:00 am

HMNTL 1000
- Other
High Energy Physics Seminar - Mike Schmitt (Northwestern University)

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Physics Careers Seminar: "Opportunities in Science Communication and Climate Science (Maddie's Version)"

12:30 pm

204 Loomis (Interaction Room)
- Lecture
Bioengineering Senior and M.Eng. Capstone Showcase

1:00 - 3:00 pm

Everitt Room 1302
- Ceremony/Service
Condensed Matter Seminar - "Imaging the Sub-Moiré Potential Landscape using an Atomic Single Electron Transistor"

1:00 pm

ESB 190TBA
- Seminar/Symposium
MiV Seminar: Robert Wood, Harvard University - "The Mechanical Side of Artificial Intelligence"

1:00 pm

zoom online only
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Raj Kiriti Velicheti

3:00 - 5:00 pm

CSL 301
- Seminar/Symposium

Monday, May 4, 2026

Prelim Exam: Hong-Ming Chiu

1:00 - 3:00 pm

ECEB 5070
- Seminar/Symposium
AE 590 Seminar Speaker: Behcet Acikmese - Optimization-based Planning and Control for Dynamical Systems

4:00 - 5:00 pm

CIF 2035
- Ceremony/Service
Hassel and Marianne Ledbetter MatSE Colloquium - Racheff Student Awardees

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Final Exam: Bing-Ze Lin

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Beckman Institute Room 4169
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Timur Javid

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

ECEB 5086
- Seminar/Symposium
IQUIST Seminar: "Exploring Interacting Spin Physics with Molecular Tweezer Arrays," Lawrence Cheuk, Assistant Professor of Physics, Princeton University

11:00 - 11:50 am

190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801

Speaker: Lawrence Cheuk, Assistant Professor of Physics, Princeton University
- Seminar/Symposium
FGI Webinar: Geomembrane Baffle Curtains to Enhance Water and Wastewater Treatment

12:00 - 1:00 pm

This webinar will explore the various geomembrane materials used in baffle curtain fabrication, along with common baffle curtain design configurations for ponds, reservoirs, underground clearwells, and above‑ground storage tanks. It will also provide an overview of manufacturing and installation methods.
- Professional Development
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Senior Design Presentations

4:00 - 4:50 pm

4025 Campus Instructional Facility

Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
- Seminar/Symposium
Soft Materials Seminar

4:00 pm

119 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Soft Materials Seminar - "Rational design of immune-cell-homing macroporous hydrogels for enhanced dendritic cell recruitment and cancer vaccination"

4:00 pm

119 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Domenica Garzon and Carlos Nikolas Cruz Camacho (UIUC, ICASU Fellows))

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Erkan Bayram

1:00 - 3:00 pm

ECEB 5070
- Seminar/Symposium
Human-Computer Interaction Talk Series: Qianou (Christina) Ma, "Future-Proof Developers: Optimizing and Training for Human-AI Collaboration in Programming."

3:30 - 4:30 pm

0216 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
The Physics Colloquium: The Hans Frauenfelder Colloquium - Peter Wolynes (Rice University) "Energy Landscapes FromGlasses to the Intelligence of Biomolecules"

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Loomis Lab 141
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 8, 2026

PhD Final Defense – Yicen Liu

9:00 am

CEEB 3017
- Seminar/Symposium
Computer Vision Seminar Series: Shuyang (Kevin) Sun, "D4RT: Teaching AI to see the world in four dimensions."

4:00 - 5:00 pm
- Seminar/Symposium
MiV Seminar: Andrea Liu, University of Pennsylvania - "Tunable matter—a unifying paradigm for complex collective biological function"

4:15 pm

4100 LuMEB
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Prelim Exam: Hyungyo Kim

8:30 - 10:30 am

Online
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Mosbah Aouad

9:00 - 11:00 am

CSL 239
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Josh Akin

12:00 - 2:00 pm

HMNTL 1000
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Aditya Ravi

2:00 - 4:00 pm

CSL 301
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Final Defense of Haisu Kang, TBA

10:00 am 03/06/2026

TBA
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Ameya Anjarlekar

1:00 - 3:00 pm

CSL 141
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Milind Vaddiraju

2:00 - 4:00 pm

ECEB 5086
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 15, 2026

Prelim Exam: Mohamed Selim

12:00 - 2:00 pm

CSL B02
- Seminar/Symposium

Sunday, May 17, 2026

CHBE 2026 Spring Convocation Ceremony

9:30 11:00 am

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Tryon Festival Theatre, 500 S Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
- Ceremony/Service
ChBE 2026 Spring Convocation Reception

11:00 1:00 p.m.

Illini Union - room ABC, 1401 W Green St, Urbana, IL 61801
- Reception/Open House

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Final Exam: Neeloy Chakraborty

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

CSL 301
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Final Defense - PhD - Eliot Bethke

11:00 am

Everitt 1103 and via zoom
- Other

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Final Defense - PhD - James Evans

10:00 am

Beckman 3169 and zoom
- Other
Final Defense - PhD - Neeraj Wagh

10:00 am

Via Zoom
- Other

Monday, June 29, 2026

Final Exam: Yicong Dong

9:00 - 11:00 am

Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab 3005
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, August 28, 2026

Orit Peleg, University of Colorado Boulder

4:15 pm

4100 LuMEB
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, October 2, 2026

Abhishek Battacharjee, Yale University

4:15 pm

4100 LuMEB
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, October 16, 2026

Jason MacLean, University of Chicago

4:15 pm

4100 LuMEB
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, October 23, 2026

Rhonda Dzakpasu, Georgetown

4:15 pm
- Seminar/Symposium