Grainger College of Engineering Seminars & Speakers

Monday, November 3, 2025

Final Exam: Hieu Hoang

9:00 - 11:00 am

CSL 141
- Seminar/Symposium
Theory Seminar: Dr. Daniel Alabi, "Existence of Error-Correcting Codes Imply Privacy Lower Bounds."

10:00 - 11:00 am

3401 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Christopher Lee

11:00 am - 1:00 pm
- Seminar/Symposium
Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Seminar - Yves Kwan (Dallas), "Strongly-correlated topological phenomena in graphene multilayers"

12:00 - 1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Rajat Chakraborty

3:00 - 5:00 pm

MNTL 3005
- Seminar/Symposium
COLLOQUIUM: Sarah Lawsky, "Formalization and Rule-Intensive Law"

3:30 pm

HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
- Seminar/Symposium
Octree Discretizations, Neural Geometric Representations, and Immersed Approaches for Scalable PDE Solvers | Baskar Ganapathysubramanian | Structural Engineering Seminar Series

4:00 pm

1310 Yeh Student Center, 205 N Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Computing Startup Seminar Series: Dr. Mariana Silva, CEO, PrairieLearn

11:00 am - 12:15 pm

0216 Siebel Center (with refreshments!)
- Seminar/Symposium
IQUIST Seminar: "The Quantum Intranet", Wolfgang Pfaff, Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

11:00 - 11:50 am

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

Speaker: Wolfgang Pfaff, Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
- Seminar/Symposium
Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Special Seminar - Eytan Grosfeld (Ben Gurion University, Israel), "Shining Light on Bose-Hubbard Models: From Equilibrium Theory to Exotic Steady States"

12:00 - 1:00 pm

ESB Lab 3110
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Weiman Yan

1:00 - 3:00 pm

CSL 419
- Seminar/Symposium
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Prof. Daniel Andruczyk

4:00 - 4:50 pm

1306 Everitt Laboratory

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
Variational phase-field modeling of fracture: toward second-generation models

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Prelim Exam: Lin Le

9:00 - 11:00 am

ECEB 5070
- Seminar/Symposium
Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Isaac Legred (UIUC) "Connecting Compact Binaries to Dense Matter"

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
AICE Center, NLP Large Group Series: Sewoong Lee, "Sparse Autoencoders: Discoveries, Limitations, and the Bridge Between Experiement and Theory."

1:00 - 2:00 pm

2405 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
The Physics Colloquium "Quantum Voyages, Cosmic Journeys: Our Shared Stories" (2025 AIP Andrew Gemant Award)

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Loomis Lab 141
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, November 6, 2025

PhD Final Defense – Shiyu Shen

9:00 am

Newmark Quade Conference Room
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Andre Schreiber

9:00 - 11:00 am

CSL 301
- Seminar/Symposium
PhD Final Defense – Sagnik Paul

10:00 am

Newmark 3019
- Seminar/Symposium
Engineering in Residence Seminar (SE 290) - Jeff Mikulina

11:00 am

114 Transportation Building
- Lecture
Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar: Luca Delacrétaz (U.Chicago), "Quantum Nonlinear Bosonization of Fermi surfaces"

1:00 - 2:00 pm

Loomis 464
- Seminar/Symposium
Kent Seminar: Stefan Tongur, Electreon

2:00 - 3:00 pm

ICT, 1611 Titan Drive, Rantoul, IL 61866
- Seminar/Symposium
CS Compiler Seminar: Dr. Keshav Pingali, "A Graphical Model for Context-Free Grammar Parsing."

4:00 - 5:00 pm

3102 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Plasma Assisted Surface Modification of Cathode Materials for High Voltage Lithium-ion Batteries"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Structural characterization of interfacial liquid at Cu-aqueous electrolyte interfaces"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
The challenge of invasive fish in streams: some lessons from laboratory experiments

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, November 7, 2025

ISE Graduate Seminar Series- Carla Michini

10:00 - 10:50 am

1310 DCL - 1304 W Springfield Ave, Urbana IL 61801
- Seminar/Symposium
High Energy Physics Seminar - Reza Ebadi (University of Maryland) "Probing Ultralight Dark Matter with Rydberg Atoms and Electro-Optics"

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Professor Kunal Mukherjee, Stanford

11:00 am

HMNTL 1000
- Ceremony/Service
Condensed Matter Seminar - "Exploring Ultrafast Collective Dynamics of Emergent Materials"

1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
STC-QCB / Biological Physics Seminar: Jeff Nivala (University of Washington) “TBA”

2:00 pm

3269 Beckman Institute (3rd floor tower room).
- Seminar/Symposium

Monday, November 10, 2025

Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Seminar - Olexei Motrunich (CalTech)

12:00 - 1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Defense: Thompson, Gunnar - " Advancing Techniques for Engineered Tissue Models of the Bone Marrow"

1:00 - 1:50 pm

157 Noyes Lab
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Zhongweiyang Xu

2:00 - 4:00 pm

CSL 239
- Seminar/Symposium
COLLOQUIUM: Nihar Shah, "Despicable Science? Autonomous AI Scientists and Lotteries for Funding"

3:30 pm

HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
- Seminar/Symposium
AE 590 seminar speaker: Romar Frazier - Introduction to the Blended Wing Body Aircraft and the Propulsion Design Concept Decisions

4:00 - 5:00 pm

CIF 2035
- Seminar/Symposium
Hassel and Marianne Ledbetter MatSE Colloquium

4:00 pm

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

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Final Exam: Mohamed Younis

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

CSL B02
- Seminar/Symposium
IQUIST Seminar: "Hidden time-reversal symmetry in dissipative quantum systems: from exact solutions to engineering many-body entanglement," Aashish Clerk, Professor of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

11:00 - 11:50 am

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

Speaker: Aashish Clerk, Professor of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
- Seminar/Symposium
CHBE 565-International Paper Co Seminar-Prof. Justin Notestein, Northwestern University, (co-hosts: Chris Rao, Paul Kenis) "Selective Oxidations and Oxygenate Production over Nanostructured and Well-Defined Oxide Catalysts"

2:00 pm

116 Roger Adams Lab
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Anuj Keshava Nayak

2:00 - 4:00 pm

CSL 114
- Seminar/Symposium
Decoding the Cellular Mechanisms Responsible for Traumatic Brain Injury

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium
Soft Materials Seminar

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Soft Materials Seminar - "Decoding Collective Dynamics and Complexity in Nanoparticle Assemblies via Graph Theory"

4:00 pm

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

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Alex Drlica Wagner (U. Chicago/FNAL)

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Neeraj Gangwar

2:00 - 4:00 pm

CSL 238
- Seminar/Symposium
Professor Alexandra Boltasseva and Professor Vladimir M. Shalaev

2:00 pm

HMNTL 1000
- Ceremony/Service
COLLOQUIUM: Rachel Adler, "Designing Accessible Health Technologies for Cancer Survivors with Disabilities"

3:30 pm

HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
- Seminar/Symposium
The Physics Colloquium "Gravitational Wave Detection in Space"

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Loomis Lab 141
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Final Exam: Qi Jian Lim

8:00 - 10:00 am
- Seminar/Symposium
PhD Defense – Faisal Qadri

9:30 am

Yeh center 3350, Newmark Laboratory Building
- Seminar/Symposium
Engineering in Residence Seminar (SE 290) - Vicki L. VanBlaricum

11:00 am

114 Transportation Building
- Lecture
FGI Webinar: Carbon Emissions Quantification and Sustainability Aspects of Landfill Final Cover Systems

12:00 - 1:00 pm

A detailed quantification and comparative analysis of carbon emissions for three landfill final cover systems: (i) soil-only cover; (ii) soil-geosynthetic cover; and (iii) an engineered turf cover are presented. 1.0 PDH
- Professional Development
Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar: Sarah Geller (UC Santa Cruz)

1:00 - 2:00 pm

Loomis 464
- Seminar/Symposium
CHBE 565-International Paper Co Seminar-Prof. Jovan Kamcev, University of Michigan (host: Xiao Su) "Controlling the Selectivity of Charged Polymer Membranes"

2:00 pm

116 Roger Adams Lab
- Seminar/Symposium
Kent Seminar: David Nguyen, Jacobs Industries

2:00 - 3:00 pm

ICT, 1611 Titan Drive, Rantoul, IL 61866
- Seminar/Symposium
PhD Final Defense — Yingqi Jia

3:00 pm

Newmark 2310
- Seminar/Symposium
Data-driven polymeric constitutive equations: Can GENERIC help machine-learning discover?

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Mesoscale Study on Hydrogen Embrittlement in Additively Manufactured Stainless Steel"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Towards Understanding Photo-ionic Effects in SrTi1-xCoxO3-δ: Bridging STC Modeling and UV Response"

4:00 pm

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

Friday, November 14, 2025

ISE Graduate Seminar Series- Raghu Bollapragada

10:00 - 10:50 am

1310 DCL - 1304 W Springfield Ave, Urbana IL 61801
- Seminar/Symposium
High Energy Physics Seminar - Grace Cummings (Fermilab) "When they go low, we go lower: extending the reach of collider experiments with low-level detector information"

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Defense Jiankai Ge "Kinetic Modeling Frameworks for the Chemical Recycling of Polyolefins"

12:00 pm

116 Roger Adams Lab
- Seminar/Symposium
Condensed Matter Seminar - James McIver, Columbia University

1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Akhil Bhimaraju

2:00 - 4:00 pm

TBD
- Seminar/Symposium
STC-QCB / Biological Physics Seminar: Rohit Pappu (Washington University) "Complex phase behaviors of RNA binding proteins."

2:00 pm

3269 Beckman Institute (3rd floor tower room).
- Seminar/Symposium
PhD Final Defense – Omar Sallam

3:00 pm
- Seminar/Symposium

Monday, November 17, 2025

Theory Seminar: Dr. Thomas Rothvoss, "The Subspace Flatness Conjecture and Faster Integer Programming."."

10:00 - 11:00 am

3401 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium
Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Seminar - Tyler Ellison (Purdue), "Universal quantum computation with group surface codes"

12:00 - 1:00 pm

ESB 190
- Seminar/Symposium
COLLOQUIUM: Dave Zhao, "Representation Learning in Computational Genomics"

3:30 pm

HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
- Seminar/Symposium
AE 590 Seminar Speaker: Maruthi Akella - Learning and Coordination for Aerospace Autonomy

4:00 - 5:00 pm

CIF 2035
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Prelim Exam: Ram Krishna

8:30 - 10:30 am

CSL 419
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Mahmoud Khalil

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

CSL - B02
- Seminar/Symposium
IQUIST Seminar: "Quantum Computing Enhanced Sensing," Soonwon Choi, Assistant Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

11:00 - 11:50 am

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

Speaker: Soonwon Choi, Assistant Professor of Physics, MIT
- Seminar/Symposium
Living knots and noisy flocks: physics of unruly active matter

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Prof. Raymond Cao

4:00 - 4:50 pm

1306 Everitt Laboratory

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

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

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Prelim Exam: Pusong Li

9:00 - 11:00 am

ECEB
- Seminar/Symposium
Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Richard Feder (University of California, Berkeley)

11:00 am

Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
- Seminar/Symposium
Prelim Exam: Siyuan Wang

2:00 - 4:00 pm

MNTL 1000
- Seminar/Symposium
The Physics Colloquium McMillan Award: Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effects in Rhombohedral Graphene.

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Loomis Lab 141
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, November 20, 2025

PhD Final Defense – Jiangting Liu

10:00 am

CEEB 2012
- Seminar/Symposium
Engineering in Residence Seminar (SE 290) - Jason Lee - Presentation & Communication Skills Discussion

11:00 am

114 Transportation Building
- Lecture
Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar: Andrea Dei (U.Chicago)

1:10 - 2:00 pm

Loomis 464
- Seminar/Symposium
CHBE 565-International Paper Co Seminar-Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic, University of Pennsylvania (host: Alex Mironenko)

2:00 pm

116 Roger Adams Lab
- Seminar/Symposium
Kent Seminar: Dominik Karbowski, Argonne National Laboratory

2:00 - 3:00 pm

ICT, 1611 Titan Drive, Rantoul, IL 61866
- Seminar/Symposium
Final Exam: Shengyan Liu

3:00 - 5:00 pm

MNTL 2003
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Hard Materials Seminar - "Assessing Mediated Electron Transfer Processes in Energy Storage Materials for Redox-Flow Batteries via Automated Electrochemistry Platform"

4:00 pm

100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
- Seminar/Symposium
Intercellular Communication: Can It Be Mediated by Electromagnetics?

4:00 - 5:00 pm

1002 Grainger Auditorium
- Seminar/Symposium
The continuum physics of polymer solutions: chaos, instabilities, and recent progress

4:00 pm

4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, November 21, 2025

ISE Graduate Seminar Series- Sarah Cen

10:00 - 10:50 am

1310 DCL - 1304 W Springfield Ave, Urbana IL 61801
- Seminar/Symposium
Cunjiang Yu, University of Illinois

4:00 pm

2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science
- Seminar/Symposium
Systems Research Seminar Series: Siddhant Ray, "METIS: Fast Quality-Aware RAG Systems with Configuration Adaptation."

4:00 - 5:00 pm

1214 Siebel Center
- Seminar/Symposium