Title: The Mathematics of Paper Abstract: I will not be talking about doing math problems on paper. I will not be talking about the economics of selling newspapers in the internet age. I will talk, instead, about how there is some profound mathematics behind our everyday trouble with wrapping oddly-shaped gifts and making maps. The solution? A cousin of origami called kirigami allows us to solve these problems and more.
About the speaker: Randall D. Kamien received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 1992. From 1992-1995 he was a Member in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was hired as a postdoc at Penn in 1995 and has stayed there since where he is now the Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Sciences. He uses geometry and topology to study the organization of soft materials. He is currently a Simons Investigator in Theoretical Physics.
9:15 - 10:00 am Origami robotics Cynthia Sung
Gabel Family Term Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~crsung
Title: Origami robotics
Origami is an ancient art that allows us to fold flat sheets into complex, three-dimensional structures. In the last few decades, we have developed the mathematics to design and analyze new fold patterns, transforming origami from a form of recreation into a powerful engineering tool. In this talk, I will discuss some of these models in the context of action origami, origami structures that can continue to move after folding. We will look at how we can model these fold patterns as linkage mechanisms and combine them into new origami robot designs that can self-assemble, walk, and transform.
About the speaker: Cynthia Sung is a Gabel Family Term Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research group focuses on computational methods for design automation of robotic systems with the aim of providing designers with intuitive computer-aided design tools for creating customized robots and behaviors. Their work involves developing techniques for representing, modeling, simulating, and fabricating these designs. Sung’s research lies at the intersection of computational geometry, data driven methods, and rapid fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and origami-inspired assembly. She received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2016 and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2011.
10:00 – 10:15 amBreak
10:15 - 11:00 am Tutorial:Analyzing Biological Structures for Advanced Materials Shu Yang
Title: Analyzing Biological Structures for Advanced Materials
Abstract: Bio-organisms with exquisite array of hierarchical organization with multiscale structures provides us fascinating examples with remarkable optical, mechanical, and surface effects as part of their evolved strategies to optimize water, heat, and light management in cope with their local habitat. Here, I will analyze several examples, including butterfly wings with dazzling iridescence and/or brilliant whiteness for camouflage and signaling depending on lighting, Cephalopod skins that change from transparency to red upon exposure to UV light for dynamic underwater camouflage, Tridacnid giant clams in the west Pacific presents the first geometric solution to utilize 100% of the solar energy for biofuel production, gecko foot hairs that can reversibly engage and release from a surface, and Namib desert beetle using bump shell for frog harvesting. Taking the cues from nature, I will discuss how materials scientists attempt to fabricate hierarchical structures via combination of top-down and bottom up approaches to mimic the functions observed from nature for advanced materials.
About the speaker: Shu Yang is a Professor in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at University of Pennsylvania, and Director of Center for Analyzing Evolved Structures as Optimized Products (AESOP): Science and Engineering for the Human Habitat. Her group is interested in synthesis, fabrication and assembly of polymers, liquid crystals, and colloids with precisely controlled size, shape, and geometry; investigating the dynamic tuning of their sizes and structures, and the resulting unique optical, mechanical and surface/interface properties. Yang received her BS degree from Fudan University, China in 1992, and Ph. D. degree from Cornell University in 1999. She worked at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies as a Member of Technical Staff before joining Penn in 2004. She received George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Penn Engineering (2015-2016). She is elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) (2017), Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (2014), and TR100 as one of the world’s top 100 young innovators under age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review (2004).
11:00 - 11:30 am Engineering Biointerface with Controlled Cell Adhesion towards Cancer Diagnostics Shutao Wang 王树涛
Professor and Director, Division of Science and Technology at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract: Learning from nature and based on lotus leaves and fish scale, we developed super-wettability system: superhydrophobic, superoleophobic, superhydrophilic, superoleophilic surfaces in air and superoleophobic, superareophobic, superoleophilic, superareophilic surfaces under water. Further, we fabricated artificial materials with smart switchable super-wettability. The smart super-wettability system has great applications in various fields, such as self-cleaning glasses, water/oil separation, anti-biofouling interfaces, and water collection system. Also, we discovered the spider silk’s and cactus's amazing water collection and transportation capability, and based on these nature systems, artificial water collection fibers and oil/water separation system have been designed successfully. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become an emerging “biomarker” for monitoring cancer metastasis and prognosis. We here proposed that nanoscaled local topographic interactions besides biomolecular recognitions inspired by natural immuno-recognizing system. This cooperative effect of physical and chemical issues between CTCs and substrate leads to increased binding of CTCs, which significantly enhance capture efficiency. We have also developed a 3D cell capture/release system triggered by enzyme, electrical potential and temperature as well as magnetic field, which is effective and of “free damage" to capture and release cancer cells. In addition, immune cells have also been employed as living template for greatly improving the limitation of traditional immunomagnetic beads. Therefore, these bio-inspired interfaces open up a light from cell-based disease diagnostics to subsequent safety treatment of biomedical waste.
About the speaker: Shutao Wang is currently a professor and director of Division of Science and Technology at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, and vice director of Key Lab of Bio-inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include the design and synthesis of bioinspired interfacial materials and devices with special adhesion and their applications. He received his PhD degree in 2007 from Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) under the supervision of Prof. Lei Jiang. Then he worked in the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology and California NanoSystem Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles as a postdoctoral researcher (2007–2010). He was appointed as a full Professor of Chemistry in 2010–2014 at ICCAS. He was elected as the Ministry of education of Yangtze River Scholar Professor (2016), Youth Science and Technology Innovation Leader (2016), the Top-Notch Young Talents Program of China (2014), National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2014). He received Youth Distinguished Awards of Chinese Chemical Society (2013). He is associate editor of NPG Asia Materials.
11:30 - 12:00 am Reconfigurable liquid crystalline elastomers for soft robots Yan Ji 吉岩
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University
Abstract: In contrast to traditional industry robots, soft robots employ deformable non-rigid materials to perform bending, twisting, extension, and other movements. Consequently, they offer safer human-robot interaction. The design of soft robots are often inspired by the behavior of animals including octopus arms, elephant trunks, etc. Despite of the rapid progress achieved in the past decade, none of the present soft robots is able to change their 3D structures, which can mimic the flexible morphing ofTerminator-1000 in the sci-fic movie Terminator 2&5. To achieve this, we believe that the first step is to achieve soft actuators which are able to change their shapes freely. In this talk, I will show our efforts towards the reconfigurable soft actuators built of liquid crystalline elastomers with dynamic covalent bonds.
About the speaker: Yan Ji is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, China. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Tianjin University (China) in 1998 and 2001 respectively. In 2006, she received her Ph.D. degree from Peking University (China). After 5 years in Cambridge University (UK) as a Research Associate, she joined Tsinghua University by the end of 2011. Her main research interests are polymers containing dynamic covalent bonds, stimuli-responsive polymers and polymeric nanocomposites.
Noon – 1:30 pmLunch
Session 2: Flexible electronics & Mechanics (Chair, Milin Zhang) 1:30 -2:15 pm Stretchable Electronics and Deterministic 3D Assembly Yonggang Huang
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University
Abstract:
Biology is soft, elastic, and curved; silicon wafers are not. An electronics technology that overcomes this fundamental mismatch in mechanics and form will enable applications that are impossible to achieve with hard, planar integrated circuits that exist today. Examples range from surgical and diagnostic implements that naturally integrate with the human body to provide advanced therapeutic capabilities, to cameras that use biologically inspired designs to achieve superior performance. Sensory skins for robotics, structural health monitors, wearable communication devices, and other systems that require lightweight, rugged construction in thin, conformal formats will also be possible. Establishing the foundations for this future in electronics represents an emerging direction for research, much different from the one dictated by the ongoing push toward smaller and faster devices that are still confined to the planar surfaces of silicon wafers.
Recent advances in mechanics and materials provide routes to integrated circuits that can offer the electrical properties of conventional, rigid wafer-based technologies but with the ability to be stretched, compressed, twisted, bent and deformed into arbitrary shapes. Inorganic electronic materials in micro/nanostructured forms, intimately integrated with elastomeric substrates offer particularly attractive characteristics in such systems, with realistic pathways to sophisticated embodiments. Mechanics plays a key role in this development of stretchable electronics by identifying the underlying mechanism and guiding design and fabrication. I will present our research on stretchable silicon [1] and its applications to stretchable and foldable circuits [2], electronic-eye camera [3,4], semi-transparent and flexible LED [5], epidermal electronics [6], dissolvable electronics [7,8], injectable, cellular-scale optoelectronics [9], and soft, microfluidic assemblies of sensors, circuits and radios [10]. Review of stretchable electronics has been published [11].
Mechanics also plays a key role in deterministic 3D assembly. Complex three-dimensional (3D) structures in biology (e.g., cytoskeletal webs, neural circuits, and vasculature networks) form naturally to provide essential functions in even the most basic forms of life. Compelling opportunities exist for analogous 3D architectures in human-made devices, but design options are constrained by existing capabilities in materials growth and assembly. I report routes to previously inaccessible classes of 3D constructs in advanced materials, including device-grade silicon [12]. The schemes involve geometric transformation of 2D micro/nanostructures into extended 3D layouts by compressive buckling. Demonstrations include experimental and theoretical studies of more than 40 representative geometries, from single and multiple helices, toroids, and conical spirals to structures that resemble spherical baskets, cuboid cages, starbursts, flowers, scaffolds, fences, and frameworks, each with single- and/or multiple-level configurations. References 1. Khang, D. Y., Jiang, H., Huang, Y., and Rogers, J. A. “A stretchable form of single-crystal silicon for high-performance electronics on rubber substrates,” Science, no. 311, 2006. 2. Kim, D. H., Ahn, J. H., Choi, W. M., Kim, H. S., Kim, T. H., Song, J., Huang, Y. Y., Liu, Z., Lu, C. and Rogers, J. A. “Stretchable and foldable silicon integrated circuits” Science, no. 320, 2008. 3. Ko, H. C., Stoykovich, M. P., Song, J., Malyarchuk, V., Choi, W. M., Yu, C. J., Geddes Iii, J. B., Xiao, J., Wang, S., Huang, Y. and Rogers, J. A. “A hemispherical electronic eye camera based on compressible silicon optoelectronics,” Nature, no. 454, 2008. 4. Song, Y. M., Xie, Y., Malyarchuk, V., Xiao, J., Jung, I., Choi, K. J., Liu, Z., Park, H., Lu, C., Kim, R. H. and Li, R. “Digital cameras with designs inspired by the arthropod eye,” Nature, no. 497, 2013. 5. Park, S. I., Xiong, Y., Kim, R. H., Elvikis, P., Meitl, M., Kim, D. H., Wu, J., Yoon, J., Yu, C. J., Liu, Z. and Huang, Y. “Printed assemblies of inorganic light-emitting diodes for deformable and semitransparent displays,” Science, no. 325, 2009. 6. Kim, D. H., Lu, N., Ma, R., Kim, Y. S., Kim, R. H., Wang, S., Wu, J., Won, S. M., Tao, H., Islam, A. and Yu, K. J. “Epidermal electronics,” Science, no. 333, 2011. 7. Hwang, S. W., Tao, H., Kim, D. H., Cheng, H., Song, J. K., Rill, E., Brenckle, M. A., Panilaitis, B., Won, S. M., Kim, Y. S. and Song, Y. M. “A physically transient form of silicon electronics,” Science, no. 337, 2012. 8. Kang, S. K., Murphy, R. K., Hwang, S. W., Lee, S. M., Harburg, D. V., Krueger, N. A., Shin, J., Gamble, P., Cheng, H., Yu, S. and Liu, Z. “Bioresorbable silicon electronic sensors for the brain,” Nature, no. 530, 2016. 9. Kim, T. I., McCall, J. G., Jung, Y. H., Huang, X., Siuda, E. R., Li, Y., Song, J., Song, Y. M., Pao, H. A., Kim, R. H. and Lu, C. “Injectable, cellular-scale optoelectronics with applications for wireless optogenetics,” Science, no. 340, 2013. 10. Xu, S., Zhang, Y., Jia, L., Mathewson, K. E., Jang, K. I., Kim, J., Fu, H., Huang, X., Chava, P., Wang, R. and Bhole, S. “Soft microfluidic assemblies of sensors, circuits, and radios for the skin,” Science, no. 344, 2014. 11. Rogers, J. A., Someya, T. and Huang, Y. “Materials and mechanics for stretchable electronics,” Science, no. 327, 2010. 12. Xu, S., Yan, Z., Jang, K. I., Huang, W., Fu, H., Kim, J., Wei, Z., Flavin, M., McCracken, J., Wang, R. and Badea, A. “Assembly of micro/nanomaterials into complex, three-dimensional architectures by compressive buckling,” Science, no. 347, 2015.
2:15 - 2:45 pm Bioinspired Sensors Milin Zhang
Assistant Professor, Department of EE, Tsinghua University
About the speaker: Milin Zhang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in the Electronic and Computer Engineering Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong. After finishing her doctoral studies, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). She joined Tsinghua University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering in 2016. Her research interests include designing of traditional and various non-traditional imaging sensors, such as polarization imaging sensors and focal-plane compressive acquisition image sensors. She is also interested in brain-machine-interface (BMI) and relative biomedical sensing applications and new sensor designs. She has received the Best Paper Award of the BioCAS Track of the 2014 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), and the Best Paper Award (1st place) of the 2015 Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS). She received the Thousand Youth Talents Award in 2016.
2:45 - 3:15 pm Bio-3D printing — Design and Fabrication of Living Constructs with 3D Printing Techniques Ting Zhang
Associate Professor, Biomanufacturing Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University
Abstract: As an emerging field, various approaches have been established to create three-dimensional (3D) living constructs, which closely mimic native organs and tissues, for further biological applications. Rapid-prototyping techniques, also named 3D printing, which are capable of fabricating individualized, complex 3D construct, have become the most potential technique in this interdisciplinary field. The macro-, micro-, and gradient architecture of the scaffolds/constructs, as well as micro/macro environment, greatly influence cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation, and are also capable of directing functional tissue formation. Here, I will report some newly developed approaches for the design and fabrication of living constructs with our self-developed indirect/direct bio-3D printing techniques, with the application of tissue engineering and tissue-on-chips. Challenges, opportunities and future trend of the techniques will also be shared at the end of presentation.
About the speaker: Ting ZHANG is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University, and Vice Director of Bio-manufacturing Center. Her group is interested in developing manufacturing techniques for the fabrication of three-dimensional living constructs or living systems with complex structure and functions, with the application to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, biology and disease pathogeneses study, drug testing and tissue/organ-on-chips. ZHANG received her BS degree from Tsinghua University, China in 2004, Engineer Diploma (M.S.) from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France in 2004 and Ph. D. degree from Tsinghua University in 2009. She worked as a visiting scholar in the laboratory for stem cells and tissue engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University (2008). She is now a core member of Biomanufacturing and Rapid Forming Technology Key Laboratory in Beijing, and 111 “Biomanufacturing and Engineering Living Systems”Innovation International Talents Base in China.
8:30 am Clocks and Inner Oscillators: Re-examing the Role of Feedforward and Feedback Gait Generators Dan Koditscheck
Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
9:15 am Event-based Vision for Challenging Speeds and Illuminations Kostas Daniilidis
Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
10:00 – 10:30 am Brief group introduction & tea/coffee break
10:30 am Frank(Shaojie) Shen
Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
11:00 am Adaptive Human Robot Interaction and open research platform Yiming Zhang
Intel Lab
Abstract: Personal robots have become a highlight in both research community and industry. To support important usages like elderly care, emotional caring etc., we believe that robots need to learn continuously and adapt/develop their capabilities based on their long-term interaction with users. In this talk we will introduce some of our work in this direction, also an open research platform that will facilitate research community to do research in related areas.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Poster Spotlight
12:00 – 1:30 pm Lunch & Poster Presentation
Sensors 1:30 pm Feiyue Wang
Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2:00 pm Autonomous driving: how to overcome the technical and commercial challenges Gansha Wu
CEO, Uisee Technology
2:30 - 3:00 pm 3D Scene Perception and Multi-Modal Learning Huimin Ma
Professor, Tsinghua University
3:00 - 4:00 pm Coffee Break & Poster Presentation
4:00 - 4:30 pm 无人驾驶智能车辆的发展现状和关键技术 Yi Han 韩毅
长安大学副教授
4:30 - 5:00 pm Round Table Discussion and Q & A
Day 3 June 30
Computer Vision & Machine Learning
8:30 am Moving Camera, Living Images: Visual Learning from First Person Video Jianbo Shi
Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract: A computer has a complete photographical memory. It creates massive but isolated sensory moments. Unlike such fragmented photographic memory, human memories are highly connected through episodes that allow us to relate past experiences and predict future actions. How to computationally model a human like episodic memory system that connects photographically accurate sensory moments? Our insight is that an active interaction is a key to link between episodes because sensory moments are fundamentally centered on an active person-self. Our experiences are created by and shared through our social and physical interactions, i.e., we connect episodes driven by similar actions and, in turn, recall these past connected episodes to take a future actions. Therefore, connecting the dotted moments to create an episodic memory requires understanding the purposeful interaction between human (person-self) and world. In this talk we focus on our work in 1) visual attention, 2) action prediction, 3) visual control and 4) skill assessment.
9:15 am Computer Vision, Edge Computing and IoT Hai Tao
CEO, ViON Technology
10:00 - 10:30 am Brief group introduction & tea/coffee break
10:30 am First-Order Optimization Methods in Machine Learning Zhouchen Lin
Professor, Peking University
Abstract: Optimization is a key component in machine learning. When problems scale up, normally only first-order optimization methods can be used in practice. In this talk I will briefly review some advances in the first-order optimization methods in machine learning.
About the speaker: Zhouchen Lin is currently a professor with the Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University. His research interests include computer vision, image processing, machine learning, pattern recognition, and numerical optimization. He is an area chair of CVPR 2014/2016, ICCV 2015, and NIPS 2015, and a senior program committee member of AAAI 2016/2017/2018 and IJCAI 2016. He is an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and the International Journal of Computer Vision. He is an IAPR Fellow.
11:00 am CNN Architecture Design: from Deeper to Wide Jingtong Wang
Microsoft Research Asia
Abstract: In this talk, I will present two methods on deep convolutional neural network architecture design. The first work is to improve ResNets by assembling residual branches in parallel with merge and run mappings, which results in less deep but wider networks. In the second work following the path of going wider, I will introduce primal-dual group convolutions, which is a drop-in replacement of regular convolutions and more efficient in using parameters and computation than regular convolutions. The proposed two networks are evaluated on image classification.
11:30 am -12:00 pm Poster Spotlight
Noon -1:30 pm Lunch & Poster Presentation
1:30 pm AI at Baidu Research Yuanqing Lin
Head of Vision Research, Baidu
2:00 pm Giving VR/AR Eyes and Brain Andy(Jingyi) Yu
Professor, Shanghai Tech University
Abstract: The real world presents extremely high-dimensional data: it composes of geometry, lighting, surface reflectance, etc. The human visual system relies on a variety of cues to perceive these properties where the most important ones are binocular, defocus, and motion cues. Faithful reproduction of these cues is essential for producing immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences. In this talk, I first present the latest technologies from my group and my colleagues that employ light fields to give V/AR "eyes". On the acquisition front, I introduce the latest light field capture solutions for producing ultra-realistic environments. On the processing front, I show how to exploit ray geometric structures and sampling patterns of light fields for reliable 3D reconstruction, dynamic refocusing, and interaction. On the display front, I show how light field head-mounted displays (LF-HMD) can provide unprecedented refocusing capability analogous to the human eyes to significantly enhance visual realism. Finally, I will present our latest approaches that employ deep learning techniques on light fields to accelerate modeling and rendering solutions as well as improve their accuracy, i.e., to ultimately give V/AR both eye and brain.
About the speaker: Prof. Jingyi Yu is Director of Virtual Reality and Visual Computing Center in the School of Information Science and Technology at ShanghaiTech University. He received B.S. from Caltech in 2000 and Ph.D. from MIT in 2005. He is also a full professor at the University of Delaware. His research interests span a range of topics in computer vision and computer graphics, especially on computational photography and non-conventional optics and camera designs. He has published over 100 papers at highly refereed conferences and journals including over 50 papers at the premiere conferences and journals CVPR/ICCV/ECCV/TPAMI. He has been granted 10 US patents. His research has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the AFOSR YIP Award, and the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at the University of Delaware. He has previously served as general chair, program chair, and area chair of many international conferences such as ICCV, ICCP and NIPS. He is currently an Associate Editor of IEEE TPAMI, Elsevier CVIU, Springer TVCJ and Springer MVA.