Conrad Tucker

TUE. April 16th, 2019 at 4:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium, Stanford, CA 

Associate Professor in Engineering Design and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University.  Affiliate faculty in Computer Science and Engineering and Director of the Design Analysis Technology Advancement (D.A.T.A) Laboratory. 

Title: Machine Generation and Evaluation of Design Concepts Using Large-Scale, Publicly-Available Data 

 Abstract: 

The objective of this research is to develop machine learning methods that predictively improve the outcome of design solutions through the acquisition, fusion and mining of large-scale, publicly-available data. It has been reported that 70-80% of the manufacturing costs of a product are determined during the design phase. Towards enhancing the efficiency of the design process and creating personalized design solutions, our research focuses on three core thrusts: 

Research Thrust 1: Feature Discovery and Quantification: Develop machine learning algorithms that mine large scale, publicly-available data in order to identify and quantify relevant design features. 

Research Thrust 2: Scalable Generative Design: Develop machine learning models (currently based on Deep Neural Network principles) that result in the automatic, scalable generation of design concepts (both 2D sketches and 3D CAD models). 

Research Thrust 3: Scalable Design Evaluation: Develop design evaluation methods (currently based on Deep Reinforcement Learning principles) that result in the automatic evaluation of design concepts, based on computer-learned physics of an environment. 

The fundamental concepts of machine learning-driven design extend well beyond consumer products and include the design of more efficient manufacturing processes (e.g., machine learning models for improving the efficiency of additive manufacturing processes), healthcare systems (e.g., machine learning models for early detection, as well as long-term management of patients’ health-related abnormalities), and educational experiences (e.g., advancing personalized learning through adaptive machine learning models). 

 Bio: 

Dr. Conrad Tucker holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in Engineering Design and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also affiliate faculty in Computer Science and Engineering. Dr. Tucker is the director of the Design Analysis Technology Advancement (D.A.T.A) Laboratory. His research focuses on the design and optimization of systems through the acquisition, integration and mining of large scale, disparate data. Dr. Tucker recently accepted a faculty position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), with a Courtesy Appointment in the School of Computer Science’s Machine Learning Department and will be transitioning from Penn State to CMU in Fall 2019. 

Dr. Tucker has served as PI/Co-PI on federally/non-federally funded grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) through the NSF Center for e-Design, and most recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). He is currently serving as PI and Site Director of the NSF Center for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT), an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center at Penn State. In February 2016, he was invited by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) President Dr. Dan Mote, to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee for the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium. Dr. Tucker is the recipient of the American Society of the Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP) award and conducted research at the Air Force Institute of Technology at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base during Summer 2014 and Summer 2015. He received his Ph.D., M.S. (Industrial Engineering), and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Dr. Tucker is part of the inaugural class of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program, funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Steven Dubowsky

Tuesday, Feb 26, 2019, 4:30pm at Building 550, the Atrium, Stanford

Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lecture Title: Searching for Technically and FinanciallyFeasible Pathway to Providing Clean Water Using Clean Energy to Meet the Needs of People of the Developing World

Abstract

For nearly 45 years Professor Dubowsky, his colleagues and students in the MIT Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (The FSRL) has been addressing important engineering problems by combining control theory, system modeling, design algorithms, and experimental studies.  The problems addressed at the FSRL has included such subjects as: micro-fuel cell power supplies, MRI diagnostic methods, the design and control of very large space telescopes, polymer actuators, and control and planning algorithms for robots to explore the caves and surfaces of Mars.  Sponsors for this work has included government agencies and companies from the US and also abroad.  The goals of these research projects were largely set in consultation with the sponsors.  As with most university research projects, they gave the freedom for creative thinking and problem solving, funds for equipment and graduate students, and part of faculty salaries.  The also enabled the education of PhD students and writing scholarly and professional publications. 

About 10 years ago, an unconventional thing happened.  A prospective sponsor came to MIT with substantial funds for 7-year program, but without any technical objective in mind.   A group of faculty rose to the challenge and proposed to address the largely independent problems of clean energy and clean water.  My group (the FSRL) took of the problem optimally designing, controlling and operating the highly nonlinear problems of water purification powered by photovoltaics in uncertain conditions and environments.  In this talk the technical problem and its solutions will be briefly discussed.  

An adventure started when field trials of prototypes in the jungles in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico showed the technical and economic potential.  Since it is beyond the scope of a university to produce systems for communities and people that needed them, the commercialization of the technology this seemed like a place for a startup.  Also at this time, venture funds and investors were promulgating the notion of “impact investing”- investing in enterprises with both a financial promise and with important social impact.   In response a startup, PV Pure Inc., was founded with the motto “Do Well by Doing Good.” The remainder of the talk will focus on this part of the adventure.

Speaker’s Biography

Professor Dubowsky spent the first 8 years of his career designing scientific instruments and optical systems in industry for the DOD while studying for his PhD from Columbia University.   He then joined the faculty at UCLA for 10 years until he moved MIT with a joint appointment in the Mechanical Engineering and of Aeronautics and Astronautics departments for the last 34 years of his academic career where he was the Director of the MIT Field and Space Robotics Laboratory.    Much of his teaching and research has focused on robotic systems and medical devices and systems. Professor Dubowsky authored, or co-authored, with his students, nearly 350 papers. His research contributions have included; the adaptive and optimal control of robots, modeling of flexible manipulators, autonomous control of high speed vehicle in rough terrain, fuel cell power for field robotic systems, energy/clean water systems for challenging field environments and medical robotic devices for the elderly, as surgery in closed bore MRIs, and for the treatment of Parkinson’s patents.  Dr. Dubowsky has served as an advisor and consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Science/Engineering, the Department of Energy, the US Army, NASA, ESA and industry.  He is a Life Fellow of both the ASME and IEEE.   Since retiring from MIT in 2015, Dr. Dubowsky has focused his energy on co-founding, and being the Chief Technical Officer of a startup company, PV Pure Inc. in Cambridge, MA.

Tahira Reid

Tuesday, Jan. 29th, 2019 at 4:30pm, Building 550, the Atrium (Stanford University)

Title: When Diversity andEngineering Intersect:  Adventures in the Research and Engineering andInterdisciplinary Design (REID) Lab

In this talk, Tahira will describe several research and engineering projects that were largely inspired by observations and personal experiences as a woman and a woman of color.  Although engineers are called upon to address numerous problems that are human-centered, there are some problems that are best addressed by members of the population most affected.  She will discuss several projects that demonstrate how the intersection of diversity, engineering, and design can help to frame novel problems and identify solutions.

Bio:

Tahira Reid is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and is the director of the Research in Engineering and Interdisciplinary Design (REID) Laboratory. Her research interests include integrating human considerations in engineering systems and the design process.  Her research program has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and other sources.  Some of her accomplishments have been featured in the National Geographic magazine, National Public Radio (NPR), Reuters, the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and other media outlets. Prior to arriving at Purdue in 2012, she completed a postdoctoral position in the Mechanical Engineering department at Iowa State working in the Interdisciplinary Research in Sustainable (IRIS) Design Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Erin MacDonald.  In 2010, she received her PhD from the University of Michigan in Design Science, with Mechanical Engineering and Psychology as her focus areas.  Dr. Reid received both her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2000 and 2004, respectively.

Jenny Sabin

Matter Design Computation:

Biosynthesis and New Paradigms of Making

Photo by Jesse Winter

Jenny Sabin

Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture

Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University

TUE. Nov 27, 2018 @ 4:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium

^Abstract:

^{This talk will present ongoing trans-disciplinary research and design spanning across the fields of cell biology, materials science, physics, fiber science, fashion, electrical and systems engineering, and architecture. Sabin’s collaborative research, teaching and design practice focus on the contextual, material and formal intersections between architecture, science and technology. Through the visualization and materialization of dynamic and complex datasets, Sabin has generated a body of speculative and applied design work that aligns crafts-based techniques with digital fabrication alongside questions related to the body and information mediation. The material world that this type of research interrogates reveals examples of nonlinear fabrication and self-assembly at the surface, and at a deeper structural level. In parallel, this work offers up novel possibilities that question and redefine architecture within the greater scope of generative design and fabrication. This talk will elucidate the research methods, prototypes and applications that Sabin and her collaborators have achieved, which include adaptive building skins, textile and ceramic assemblies, and architectural interventions that ultimately (re)configure their own performance based upon local criteria.}

^Bio:

^{Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer whose work is at the forefront of a new direction for 21st century architectural practice — one that investigates the intersections of architecture and science and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures. Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University where she established a new advanced research degree in Matter Design Computation. She is principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio based in Ithaca and Director of the Sabin Lab at Cornell AAP. Sabin holds degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a master of architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts 2010 and was named a USA Knight Fellow in Architecture. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious Architectural League Prize. Her work has been exhibited internationally including at the FRAC Centre, Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and most recently as part of Imprimer Le Monde at the Pompidou. Her book LabStudio: Design Research Between Architecture and Biology co-authored with Peter Lloyd Jones was published in 2017. Last year, Sabin won MoMA & MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program with her submission, Lumen.}

Stefanie Mueller

The Future of Personal Fabrication

Stefanie Mueller

X-Career Development Assistant Professor in the MIT EECS Department joint with MIT Mechanical Engineering & Head of the HCI Engineering Group at MIT CSAIL

TUE. Nov 06, 2018 @ 4:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium

Abstract:

Stefanie will discuss why personal fabrication and 3D printing is such a hype right now and will provide an answer to the question if it is here to stick. For this, she will draw a parallel to the history of personal computing and discuss what made computing available to everyone and what were the key developments that enabled everyday use. Different areas will be analyzed from processing speed, to device form factors, data transfer, and the interaction model. She will show that the same developments are happening right now in this new domain of personal fabrication. With examples of research projects from her group, she will show a range of fabrication systems that move us closer to a future in which everyone will be able to design and fabricate their own objects.

Bio:

Stefanie Mueller is the X-Career Development Assistant Professor in the MIT EECS department joint with MIT Mechanical Engineering and head of the HCI Engineering Group at MIT CSAIL. Stefanie is a Forbes 30 under 30 in ‘Science’ and has received several Best Paper and Honorable Mention Awards at the ACM CHI conferences for her work on personal fabrication. She is a Co-Founder and General Co-Chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computational Fabrication and the ACM SIGCHI Summer School on Computational Fabrication and Smart Matter. Stefanie has given more than 50 invited talks as an invited speaker at universities and research labs, such as MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, CMU, Cornell, ETH, Microsoft Research, Disney Research, and Adobe Research.

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio

Manipulating the Inanimate:

Sensor-Enabled Control of Soft Objects Using Robotic Skins

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Yale University

TUE. October 09, 2018 @ 4:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium

Abstract: Robots generally excel at specific tasks in structured environments, but lack the versatility and adaptability required to interact-with and locomote-within the natural world. To increase versatility in robot design, my research group is developing robotic skins that can wrap around arbitrary deformable objects to induce the desired motions and deformations. Robotic skins integrate actuation and sensing into a single conformable material, and may be applied-to, removed-from, and transferred-between different objects to create a multitude of controllable robots with different functions to accommodate the demands of different environments. We have shown that attaching the same robotic skin to a deformable object in different ways, or to different objects, leads to unique motions. Further, we have shown that combining multiple robotic skins enables complex motions and functions. During this talk, I will demonstrate the versatility of this soft robot design approach by showing robotic skins in a wide range of applications – including manipulation tasks, locomotion, and wearables – using the same 2D robotic skins reconfigured on the surface of various 3D soft, inanimate objects.

Bio: Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Yale University. She completed her B.S. at the Johns Hopkins University, M.S. at U.C. Berkeley, and Ph.D. at Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at Yale, she was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University for four years. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Soft Robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and IOPscience Multifunctional Materials. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the NASA Early Career Faculty Award, the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, the ONR Young Investigator Award, and was named to Forbes’ 2015 30 under 30 list.

Nadya Peek

Machine Agency: Making Machines that Make

Nadya Peek

Assistant professor at the University of Washington in the Human-Centered Design and Engineering department

TUE. May 22, 2018 @ 4:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium

Abstract:

How can we harness the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals? Digital fabrication tools promise quality production in low volume and are now accessible in maker spaces worldwide. However, the maker context is very different from the historical industrial settings in which digital fabrication was developed. Yet these differences have not led to many changes in contemporary tools. I argue that personal fabrication requires a rethinking of production infrastructure, and in this talk outline a research roadmap for machine agency.

Bio:

Nadya Peek develops unconventional digital fabrication tools, small scale automation, networked controls, and advanced manufacturing systems. Spanning electronics, firmware, software, and mechanics, her research focuses on harnessing the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals.

Nadya is an assistant professor at the University of Washington in the Human-Centered Design and Engineering department where she directs the Machine Agency. She is VP of the Open Source Hardware Association, half of the design studio James and the Giant Peek, and plays drum machines and synths in the band Construction. She completed her PhD on “Making Machines that Make” at MIT in 2016, advised by Neil Gershenfeld.

Steve Vassallo

The Past, Present, and Future of Design

Steve Vassallo

General Partner at Foundation Capital,

Author of “The Way to Design”

Steve holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (MSME 1986) from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford GSB.

WED. April 25, 2018 @ 5:30pm

Building 550, the Atrium

You ignore design at your peril. That’s what Steve Vassallo, general partner at Foundation Capital, believes. He’ll explain how, in recent years, the very concept of design has evolved and why it’s become indispensable to modern businesses. Drawing from his years as an IDEO product designer, entrepreneur, and startup investor, Vassallo also shares advice on how to go from a designer to a designer founder and how to build design-led organizations. For those who want to use the power of design to create positive change, Vassallo lights the way.

Amos Winter

Amos Winter, MIT
Liu Lecture, 11/7/2017, 4:30 – 5:30 Building 550 Atrium
Engineering Global Development: Using Emerging Markets’ Constraints to Drive the Innovation of High-Performance, Low-Cost, Global Technologies 

Bio:  Amos Winter is the Ratan N. Tata Career Development Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on machine and product design for developing and emerging markets. Prof. Winter earned a BS from Tufts University (2003) and an MS (2005) and PhD (2011) from MIT, all in mechanical engineering.  He received the 2010 Tufts University Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2012 ASME/Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, was named one of the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) for 2013, and received the MIT Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award and an NSF CAREER award in 2017. Prof. Winter is also the principal inventor of the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC) developing world wheelchair, which was a winner of a 2010 R&D 100 award, was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s top innovations in 2011, received a Patents for Humanity award from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2015, and was the subject of “Engineering Reverse Innovations”, winner of the 2015 McKinsey Award for the best article of the year in Harvard Business Review.

 

Abstract:  This presentation will demonstrate how the Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Lab at MIT characterizes the unique technical and socioeconomic constraints of emerging markets, then uses these insights with engineering science and product design to create high-performance, low-cost, globally-relevant technologies. The talk will focus on three areas of GEAR Lab’s research: high-performance, low-cost prosthetic feet; low-pressure, low-power drip irrigation, and solar-powered desalination. We have created a novel method of connecting the mechanical design of a foot to its biomechanical performance, which allows the stiffness and geometry to be optimized to induce able-bodied walking kinematics and kinetics. This theory has resulted in a single-part foot architecture that can be made of nylon to hit a $10 price point for developing countries, and which will be ruggedized and customizable for the US military/veteran population. By characterizing the coupled fluid/solid mechanics within drip irrigation emitters, we have designed new drippers that operate at 1/7^th the pressure of existing products. This technology can cut the overall pressure, pumping power, and energy usage of drip irrigation systems by approximately 50%, and lower the capital cost of off-grid systems by up to 40%. GEAR Lab elucidated a disruptive market opportunity in arid countries for photovoltaic-powered electrodialysis (PV-ED) desalination, which requires half the energy and reduces water wastage from 60% to <10% compared to reverse osmosis. These market insights have led to new ED architectures which substantially reduce capital cost, as well as co-optimized PV and ED systems that are 40% less expensive than current technology. The three projects that will be presented demonstrate how rigorous engineering theory combined with insights on emerging market constraints can yield high-value solutions relevant to poor and rich countries alike.