{ "137880-21880970": { "datetime_modified":"20250821T100218", "datetime_start":"20260227T100000", "datetime_end":"20260227T120000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-02-27", "date_end":"2026-02-27", "time_start":"10:00:00", "time_end":"12:00:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Write with ME!", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Write with ME!", "event_subtitle":"", "event_type":"Social \/ Informal Gathering", "event_type_id":"19", "description":"Working on an abstract? Polishing up your resume? Writing a paper or dissertation?\r\n\r\nJoin us for our new Mechanical Engineering Department writing group, \u201cWrite with ME!\u201d\r\n\r\nAll ME undergrads, grads, postdocs, faculty, and staff are welcome to join us for any of their writing needs.\r\n\r\nCommunity & support\r\nConnect with peers, share your writing, exchange feedback, and brainstorm solutions to writing challenges.\r\n\r\nAccountability & consistency\r\nSharpen your writing skills and develop positive, consistent writing routines. Learn from other members of the ME department!\r\n\r\nFood & flexibility\r\nNo need to attend every week! Drop in at any time, and leave at any time. Light snacks, coffee, and tea will be available.\r\n\r\nWeekly on Fridays, starting September 12\r\n2636 G.G.B\r\n10 am \u2013 12 pm", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"137880-21880970@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/137880", "building_id":"1000407", "building_name":"GG Brown Laboratory", "campus_maps_id":"21", "room":"2636", "location_name":"GG Brown Laboratory", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Faculty","Graduate Students","Mechanical Engineering","Postdoctoral Research Fellows","Staff","Undergraduate Students","Writing"], "website":"", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Mechanical Engineering", "group_id":"4323", "website":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MechanicalEngineeringUniversityOfMichigan\/" } ], "image_url":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_large_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "group_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "group_thumb_square":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb_square\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "group_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "group_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_large_crop":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_crop\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_list":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_list_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_grid":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_grid_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_feature_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png", "event_feature_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/08\/event_137880_original-1.png" }, "occurrence_count":32, "first_occurrence":21880946 } , "145860-21897963": { "datetime_modified":"20260224T094518", "datetime_start":"20260227T101500", "datetime_end":"20260227T121500", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-02-27", "date_end":"2026-02-27", "time_start":"10:15:00", "time_end":"12:15:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Joint Deformation and Contact Reasoning for Robotic Manipulation", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Joint Deformation and Contact Reasoning for Robotic Manipulation: PhD Defense, Mark Van der Merwe", "event_subtitle":"PhD Defense, Mark Van der Merwe", "event_type":"Presentation", "event_type_id":"16", "description":"Co-Chairs: Nima Fazeli and Dmitry Berenson\n\nAbstract:\nCentral to the success of many dexterous manipulation tasks is contact. Humans can intuitively reason about and control contacts to cook, clean, push, build and complete many, many more tasks. Our goal in designing autonomous robotic manipulators is ultimately to design robotic systems capable of ubiquitous reasoning and control of contact. In this thesis, we focus on contact-rich manipulation on systems exhibiting elastic deformation, either in the manipulator or the objects being manipulated. This compliance yields exciting opportunities, such as robust compliant contact interfaces, gradual force buildup and dissipation, and the potential for observability of contact via the deformation. Even with compliance in the system, contacts are rarely directly observable, forcing reliance on indirect, local, and noisy sensing. Additionally, the compliance in conjunction with contact introduces high-dimensional states and complex dynamics.\n\nIn this thesis, we explore methodologies to provide robots a sense of contact. We investigate data-driven methodologies for overcoming the complex, partially observable nature of contact. In particular, we look to exploit the tight relationship between deformation and contact, as elucidated by multi-modal sensory feedback. With our sense of contact in hand, we then explore downstream reasoning and behaviors in a variety of manipulation settings, such as tool use, non-prehensile and prehensile manipulation, and multi-task visuomotor policies.", "occurrence_notes":"and on Zoom", "guid":"145860-21897963@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/145860", "building_id":"1005418", "building_name":"Ford Robotics Building", "campus_maps_id":"647", "room":"4000", "location_name":"Ford Robotics Building", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Michigan Robotics","Robotics"], "website":"https:\/\/umich.zoom.us\/j\/97128248332", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Michigan Robotics", "group_id":"3998", "website":"" } ], "image_url":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/event_145860_original-1.png", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_large_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "group_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "group_thumb_square":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb_square\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "group_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "group_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_large_crop":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_crop\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_list":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_list_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_grid":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_grid_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_feature_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png", "event_feature_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/02\/crop-event_145860_original-1.png" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21897963 } }