Grainger College of Engineering Seminars & Speakers

Monday, April 28, 2025

- 11:00 am
- Siebel 3401
THEORY SEMINAR: Zhengcheng Huang, "Faster Algorithms for Reverse Shortest Path in Unit-Disk Graphs and Related Geometric Optimization Problems: Improving the Shrink-and-Bifurcate Technique"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 12:00 pm
- ESB 190
Special Condensed Matter Special Seminar - "Tracing light: on Linear and Nonlinear Terahertz Polaritonics in Quantum Paraelectrics"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 1:00 - 3:00 pm
- Loomis 464
Special Biological Physics Seminar- "Chaotic worms: from the dynamics of animal behavior towards a physics of complex, evolved systems"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 3:30 pm
- HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
COLLOQUIUM: Umang Mathur, “ Equivalences for Causal Concurrency”
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 - 5:00 pm
- CIF 2035
AE 590 Seminar Speaker Mykel Kochenderfer: Automated Decision Making for Safety Critical Applications
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 1310 Newmark
Current Trends in Performance Based Wind and Seismic Design for Tall Buildings | Jeff Dragovich | Structural Engineering Seminar Series
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
Hassel and Marianne Ledbetter MatSE Colloquium - "From large to small: Nanoscale Processes in Energy Storage Systems"
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

- 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- CSL 141
Prelim Exam: Rakibul Islam
- Seminar/Symposium
- 11:00 - 11:50 am
- 190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
IQUIST Seminar: "Below Threshold Quantum Error Correction", Alexandre Bourassa, Google Quantum AI

Speaker: Alexandre Bourassa, Senior Research Scientist, Google Quantum AI
- Seminar/Symposium
- 12:30 - 2:30 pm
- ECEB 5070
Prelim Exam: Gabriel Muniz Negron
- Seminar/Symposium
- 1:00 pm
- ESB 190
Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Seminar - Subroto Mukherjee (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore), Electron hydrodynamics: "Strong violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law and vortical effects"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
A Soft Material Paradigm To Address Energy-Water Nexus Challenges
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 - 4:50 pm
- 2035 Campus Instructional Facility
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Senior Design Presentations

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
- 4:00 pm
- 119 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
Soft Materials Seminar - "MatSE Community Town Hall"
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

- 12:00 pm
- Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236
Astrophysics, Relativity, and Cosmology Seminar - Lizhong Zhang (Flatiron Institute) "Modeling Black Hole Accretion with Radiation GRMHD: A Parameter Survey and Connection to Observations"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- Loomis Lab 141 and via Zoom
Physics Colloquium: Fahad Mahmood (UIUC), "Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand, and Eternity in a Picosecond – Urbana style!"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 5:00 - 7:00 pm
- CSL 141
Prelim Exam: Abhi Kamboj
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, May 1, 2025

- 9:00 - 11:00 am
- ECEB TBA
Prelim Exam: Zhongmin Zhu
- Seminar/Symposium
- 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- ECEB 5086
Prelim Exam: Sangrui Luo
- Seminar/Symposium
- 11:00 am
- 1310 DCL
SE 290 - Aakrit Vaish
- Lecture
- 4:00 - 5:00 pm
- 1002 ECEB - Grainger Auditorium
Architectures and Topologies for High-Frequency, High-Density Power Conversion
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
Hard Materials Seminar - no seminar
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 4100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building
Harnessing Fluid Mechanics for Single-Cell Manipulation in Personalized Medicine
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 - 6:00 pm
- HMNTL 2003
Prelim Exam: He Lin Zhao
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 2, 2025

- 8:30 am - 6:00 pm
- Illini Union- Room 103 and 104
2nd Annual ISE Student Conference
- Conference/Workshop
- 10:00 - 10:50 am
- 2311 NCEL - Yeh Center
Innovative Mineral–Hydrogel Composites for Effective Nutrient Removal to Reduce Harmful Algal Blooms and to Upcycle Nutrients

Harmful algal blooms pose significant threats to industries such as fisheries and tourism and also impact public health through the production of cyanobacterial toxins. To address the escalating concerns associated with HABs, we have developed novel calcium alginate hydrogel composites seeded with various minerals to effectively remove and recover phosphorus and nitrogen.
- Seminar/Symposium
- 12:00 pm
- 2005 MEL John Deere Pavilion
Physics-Guided Machine Learning for Acoustic and Spectral Imaging
- Seminar/Symposium
- 12:30 pm
- 204 Loomis (Interaction Room)
Physics Careers Seminar: "The Start of a Career at a National Lab"
- Lecture
- 1:00 pm
- ESB 190
Condensed Matter Seminar - "Bonds and Bands"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science
MiV Seminar: Ki Yun Lee and Saeduur Rahman - "Characterization of in vitro neuron behavior for biological computing"
- Seminar/Symposium

Monday, May 5, 2025

- 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- CSL 301
Prelim Exam: Kaiwen Cao
- Seminar/Symposium
- 10:00 am
Special Seminar: Sarah Sterman, "Designing for Ways and Whys: Transforming Process into a Material for Creative Reflection"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 11:00 am
- Siebel 3401
Theory Seminar: Euiwoong Lee, "Theory and applications of complete Min-CSPs: A case study in Correlation Clustering"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 12:30 pm
- HYBRID: 2124 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
COLLOQUIUM: Halil Kilicoglu, "Enhancing Rigor and Integrity of Biomedical Research using Natural Language Processing"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 3:30 pm
- HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
COLLOQUIUM: Preslav Nakov, “ Towards Truly Open, Language-Specific, Safe, Factual, and Specialized Large Language Models”
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 pm
- 100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
Hassel and Marianne Ledbetter MatSE Colloquium - Racheff student awardees
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

- 9:00 am
- 1306 Everitt Laboratory
FINAL DEFENSE, Kyle Benjamin Timmer, "Development of Multicompartment Biomaterials to Modulate Cellular Environments for Improved Tendon-to-Bone Rotator Cuff Repair"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 10:30 am
- Siebel Center 201 N Goodwin Ave- Room 3401
Chengpeng Wang- Title: Neuro-Symbolic Static Analysis for Reliable Software Systems
- Lecture
- 11:00 - 11:50 am
- 190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
IQUIST Seminar: "Overview of learning and Testing Stabilizer States", Srinivasan Arunachalam, IBM

Speaker: Srinivasan Arunachalam, IBM
- Seminar/Symposium
- 2:00 pm
- 116 Roger Adams Lab
CHBE 565-International Paper Co Seminar-Prof. Emily Davidson, Princeton University, (host: Ying Diao)
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 - 4:50 pm
- 2035 Campus Instructional Facility
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Senior Design Presentations

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
- 4:00 pm
- 119 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street
Soft Materials Seminar - Electrical actuation and control of soft fluidic robots: towards wearable and implantable soft robotic systems for daily purposes
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

- 10:00 am
Special Seminar: Fengyuan Zhu, "Navigating the Future of Extended Reality: Overcoming Barriers and Unleashing Potential in Cross-Device Integration"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 2:00 pm
- ESB 190
Condensed Matter Special Seminar - "Quantum Computation using Majorana-Based Topological Qubits"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 3:30 pm
- HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
COLLOQUIUM: Ilan Shomorony, "An Information Theory for Out-of-Order Information: Applications in DNA Data Storage and Genomics"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 3:30 pm
- Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science SC 0216
Haoqi Zhang "Computational Ecosystems: Tech-enabled Communities to Advance Human Values"
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, May 8, 2025

- 3:00 pm
Special Seminar: Noman Bashir, "Rethinking Systems Design for Reliable and Sustainable Computing in a Constrained World"
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 9, 2025

- 1:00 pm
- Supercon 1002
Condensed Matter Special Seminar - Michael Manley (Oak Ridge), "Phason Dominated Thermal Conductivity in an Incommensurate Crystal""
- Seminar/Symposium
- 1:00 - 3:00 pm
- NCSA-2000
Prelim Exam: Tingkai Liu
- Seminar/Symposium
- 4:00 - 8:00 pm
- Analog Wind Library, 129 N Race St. Urbana, IL
Mind in Vitro featured in Art of Science show: "Aerenchyma"
- Exhibition

Monday, May 12, 2025

- 8:00 am
- CEEB 3019
PhD Final Defense – Aravind Ramakrishnan
- Seminar/Symposium
- 10:00 am
- 161 Noyes Lab
FINAL DEFENSE, Anaira Roman Santiago, "Understanding Molecular Level Interactions and Design of Selective Electrochemical Processes for Wastewater Treatment"
- Seminar/Symposium
- 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- MNTL 2003
Prelim Exam: Erin Raftery
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

- 12:00 - 1:00 pm
FGI Webinar: Geomembranes for Produced Water and Brine Containment

This FGI webinar will focus on the applications of geomembranes for containment of produced water and brine liquids in earth lined ponds, pits, reservoirs, and above ground tanks. Key topics will include today’s best practices in subgrade preparation, geomembrane selection, geomembrane installations, including thermal wedge and extrusion welding, and CQA.
- Professional Development
- 12:00 - 2:00 pm
- 3169 Beckman Institute
Final Exam: Mahir Morshed
- Seminar/Symposium

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

- 3:30 pm
- HYBRID: 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science or online
COLLOQUIUM: Masooda Bashir, "Privacy, Security, and Trust: Aligning Computing Solutions with Human Needs"
- Seminar/Symposium

Thursday, May 15, 2025

- 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- NCSA 4101
Prelim Exam: Boyuan Tian
- Seminar/Symposium
- 11:00 - 11:50 am
- 190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
IQUIST Seminar: "Ultralong-lived spins in silicon carbide", Cyrus Zeledon, University of Chicago

Speaker: Cyrus Zeledon, University of Chicago
- Seminar/Symposium

Friday, May 16, 2025

- 4:00 pm
- 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science
MiV Seminar: Hyegi Min - "Neuromuscular junction with a mechanical output"
- Seminar/Symposium

Sunday, May 18, 2025

- 9:30 - 11:00 am
- Krannert in Tryon Festival Theatre
ChBE 2025 Spring Convocation Ceremony
- Ceremony/Service
- 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
- Illini Union - room ABC
ChBE 2025 Spring Convocation Reception
- Reception/Open House

Monday, May 19, 2025

- 11:00 am
- Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory Room 1311
PhD Final Defense – Ayush Pandey
- Seminar/Symposium

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

- 3:00 - 4:00 pm
- 2100 Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building, 206 W Green St, Urbana, IL 61801
NPRE Special Seminar Series - Alan Durif

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