Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. Biophysics Student Seminar (October 25, 2019 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/68668 68668-17130536@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 25, 2019 12:00pm
Location: Chemistry Dow Lab
Organized By: LSA Biophysics

Shiyuan Wang - Yang Lab
Talk title: Understanding the Mitotic Oscillations with a Droplet-based System: How Does ATP Level Affect Oscillation Characteristics?

Ryan Hayes - Brooks Lab
Talk Title: Towards Protein Design with Rigorous Alchemical Calculation of
Folding Free Energies

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 21 Oct 2019 15:42:14 -0400 2019-10-25T12:00:00-04:00 2019-10-25T13:00:00-04:00 Chemistry Dow Lab LSA Biophysics Workshop / Seminar Chemistry Dow Lab
Complex Systems Seminar | Stephanie Forrest 'The Biology of Software: Evolution, Robustness, Diversity' (October 29, 2019 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/68316 68316-17045998@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 29, 2019 11:30am
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

**Please note, if this room's capacity is exceeded, there will be a simulcast into the next room of talk slides and audio**

Stephanie Forrest is Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University, where she directs the Biodesign Center for Biocomputation, Security and Society. Her research focuses on the intersection of biology and computation, including cybersecurity, software engineering, and biological modeling.

Abstract:
Software today is a complex adaptive system. Although we think of computer programs as the products of intelligent design, they also evolve inadvertently through the actions of many individual programmers, often leading to unanticipated consequences. Similarly, economic and political incentives produce arms races between competitors and adversaries, which in turn have shaped the cyber landscape.

The talk will give examples of evolution, robustness and diversity in the context of software, describing how these concepts provide new insights and suggest new approaches to problems such as repairing software bugs and cybersecurity. It will present recent results on the mutational robustness of software and describe a new algorithm for bug repair that leverages neutral mutations.


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Prior to joining ASU in 2017, Professor Forrest was at the University of New Mexico and served as Dept. Chair 2006-2011. She is a member of the Santa Fe Institute External Faculty and 2013-2014 served at the U.S. Dept. of State as a Senior Science Advisor for cyberpolicy. She was educated at St. John's College (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science).

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:11:45 -0400 2019-10-29T11:30:00-04:00 2019-10-29T13:00:00-04:00 Weiser Hall The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar Stephanie Forrest
Complex Systems Seminar | Network reconstruction and community detection from dynamics (November 5, 2019 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/68329 68329-17046008@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 11:30am
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

The observed functional behavior of a wide variety large-scale systems is often the result of a network of pairwise interactions between individual elements. However, in many cases these interactions are hidden from us, either because they are impossible to be measured directly, or because their measurement can be done only at significant experimental cost. In such situations, we are required to infer the network of interactions from the observed functional behavior.

In this talk, I will present a scalable nonparametric Bayesian method to perform network reconstruction from observed functional behavior, that at the same time infers the modular structure (or "communities") present in the network. I will show how the joint reconstruction with community detection has a synergistic effect, where the edge correlations used to inform the existence of communities are also inherently used to improve the accuracy of the reconstruction which, in turn, can better inform the uncovering of communities. I will illustrate the use of the method with observations arising from epidemic models and the Ising model, both on synthetic and empirical networks, as well as on data containing only functional information.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:25:09 -0400 2019-11-05T11:30:00-05:00 2019-11-05T13:00:00-05:00 Weiser Hall The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar Tiago Peixoto
CSAAW Presents "Lunch with the Director" (November 6, 2019 12:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/69084 69084-17242645@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 12:30pm
Location:
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

If you're new to complex systems, this is a great chance to come ask questions about CSAAW, the Complex Systems Center, or what complexity science is and how complex systems might be relevant to you. Otherwise, this is a great chance to chat with us and eat a free lunch!

Please RSVP to csaaw-organizers@umich.edu by 5 pm on Monday November 4, and tell us your dietary restrictions, so that we can order lunch for everyone.

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Workshop / Seminar Mon, 04 Nov 2019 11:54:04 -0500 2019-11-06T12:30:00-05:00 2019-11-06T13:30:00-05:00 The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar CSCS Director Charles Doering
Biophysics Talk Title: TBD (November 15, 2019 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/64282 64282-16274493@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 15, 2019 12:00pm
Location: Chemistry Dow Lab
Organized By: LSA Biophysics

Abstracts: TBD

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:29:18 -0400 2019-11-15T12:00:00-05:00 2019-11-15T13:00:00-05:00 Chemistry Dow Lab LSA Biophysics Workshop / Seminar Chemistry Dow Lab
Complex Systems Seminar | The competitive exclusion principle in stochastic environments (November 21, 2019 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/69158 69158-17254953@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 21, 2019 11:30am
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

Abstract: The competitive exclusion principle states that a number of species competing for a smaller number of resources cannot coexist. Even though this is a fundamental principle in ecology, it has been observed empirically that in some settings it will fail. One example is Hutchinson's `paradox of the plankton'. This is an instance where a large number of phytoplankton species coexist while competing for a very limited number of resources. Both experimental and theoretical studies have shown that in some instances (deterministic) temporal fluctuations of the environment can facilitate coexistence for competing species. Hutchinson conjectured that one can get coexistence because non-equilibrium conditions would make it possible for different species to be favored by the environment at different times. In this talk I will look at how environmental noise interacts with competitive exclusion. I will show that, contrary to Hutchinson's explanation, one can switch between two environments in which the same species is favored and still get coexistence.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 06 Nov 2019 09:09:33 -0500 2019-11-21T11:30:00-05:00 2019-11-21T13:00:00-05:00 Weiser Hall The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar Alex Hening
Being Human in STEM: An Experiment in Partnering with Students to Address Issues of Equity in STEM (January 16, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/69259 69259-17275351@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, January 16, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: LSA Biophysics

When student protesters occupied the Amherst College library for four days in November of 2015, the campus community was transfixed by the painful testimonials shared by marginalized students about their experiences at Amherst as individuals identifying as Black, brown, female, queer, trans, disabled, international, among others. In response to letters from a Black neuroscience major and a non-binary biochemistry and biophysics major, every STEM department wrote a letter of support, pledging to work with students to address their concerns. The following semester, Chemistry professor Sheila Jaswal collaborated with students to develop a project-based course, titled “Being Human in STEM” (HSTEM), to actively engage STEM students and departments in learning about and enhancing inclusion in STEM settings. Now in its sixth iteration, students drive the academic inquiry, investigating both the local experience and the literature on diversity in STEM. They then use that research to design tools and interventions to share with and enhance their own STEM community.  In this seminar, Professor Jaswal will describe how HSTEM course projects and activities have continued the conversation started by students during the Uprising, connected STEM inclusion efforts across the Amherst campus, and produced resources such as the “Inclusive Curricular Practices” handbook, that have been used by STEM educators from high schools, colleges, universities, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence institutions. She will present evidence on the impact of the HSTEM course and practices on students, faculty and staff at Amherst, and provide examples of how a growing network of institutions, including Yale, Brown, Williams, and the University of Utah, are adapting the HSTEM model to their own STEM community needs. 

Please visit website for more information on speaker: http://www.beinghumaninstem.com/sheila-jaswal.html

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 08 Jan 2020 12:58:03 -0500 2020-01-16T12:00:00-05:00 2020-01-16T14:00:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) LSA Biophysics Workshop / Seminar Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Complex Systems Seminar | Studying dynamics using computational polynomial optimization (February 25, 2020 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/72568 72568-18018165@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:30am
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

Many complex systems are governed by nonlinear ODEs or PDEs that cannot be solved exactly. Various properties of such solutions can be inferred by constructing auxiliary functions that satisfying suitable inequalities. The most familiar example is the construction of Lyapunov functions to infer stability of particular states, but similar approaches can produce many other types of mathematical statements, including for systems with chaotic or otherwise complicated behavior. Such statements include estimates of time-averaged quantities and extreme transient behavior, approximation of nonlinear stability properties, and design of controls. In many cases, the search for the auxiliary function that implies the strongest mathematical statement can be posed as a convex optimization problem. Such problems can be studied analytically or computationally, but in most cases computation is needed to find solutions that are close to optimal. Of particular use are computational methods of polynomial optimization, where the optimization constraints include polynomial inequalities. This talk will provide an overview of different ways in which auxiliary functions can be used to study nonlinear ODEs and PDEs, as well as how polynomial optimization can be used to implement these methods computationally. Methods will be illustrated using applications to various complex systems.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:00:00 -0500 2020-02-25T11:30:00-05:00 2020-02-25T13:00:00-05:00 Weiser Hall The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar David Goluskin
Complex Systems Seminar | Principles of Pattern Formation for Confined Elastic Shells (February 27, 2020 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/72576 72576-18018177@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 27, 2020 11:30am
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

Dried fruits wrinkle for the same reason that leaves and flowers do — mechanical instabilities arising due to a naturally occurring mismatch in lengths. Can such geometric incompatibilities be used for the rational design and control of wrinkle patterns at will? In this talk, we discuss the possibility of designing wrinkle patterns "in the large" using a recently derived effective or coarse-grained model for wrinkles arising in the vanishing thickness limit. After explaining the basic mechanics involved, we show how the model predicts the patterns in various experiments and simulations of thin and ultrathin confined elastic shells. More generally, we derive a classification scheme for wrinkle patterns into three basic types, as well as a Plateau-like principle predicting the arrangement of wrinkles in the negatively-curved (saddle-shaped) case. Such rules open the way towards the principled design of wrinkle patterns, with potential applications ranging from flexible electronics to synthetic skins.

This is joint work with Yousra Timounay and Eleni Katifori (UPenn), and Desislava Todorova and Joseph D. Paulsen (Syracuse).

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 05 Feb 2020 17:12:15 -0500 2020-02-27T11:30:00-05:00 2020-02-27T13:00:00-05:00 Weiser Hall The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Workshop / Seminar Ian Tobasco
Annual Symposium in Biophysics (March 13, 2020 8:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/69839 69839-17472589@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, March 13, 2020 8:00am
Location: Michigan Union
Organized By: LSA Biophysics

TBD

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Conference / Symposium Mon, 02 Dec 2019 08:43:25 -0500 2020-03-13T08:00:00-04:00 2020-03-13T17:00:00-04:00 Michigan Union LSA Biophysics Conference / Symposium Michigan Union
Biophysics Talk Title: TBD (April 17, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/64278 64278-16274488@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 17, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Chemistry Dow Lab
Organized By: LSA Biophysics

Abstract: TBD

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 10 Jul 2019 09:42:41 -0400 2020-04-17T12:00:00-04:00 2020-04-17T13:00:00-04:00 Chemistry Dow Lab LSA Biophysics Workshop / Seminar Chemistry Dow Lab
Complex Systems Seminar | A Simple Model for a Complex System: Legged Locomotion as an Oscillator (October 6, 2020 11:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/77060 77060-19790568@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 11:30am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: The Center for the Study of Complex Systems

VIRTUAL SEMINAR LINK: myumi.ch/v2ZYv

The neuromechanical control and dynamics of legged locomotion are of great interest for biomedical and robotics applications, as well as being an aspect of functional morphology with large ecological implications. Most biomechanists take a "reductionist" approach that attempts to model animal motion by modeling the parts of the organism and their interconnections, thereby combining them into what are sometimes staggeringly complex models. We will discuss a complementary "essentialist" approach, where multi-legged locomotion is viewed as a limit cycle oscillation comprising the body, nervous system, and environment. Through a combination of theoretical mathematical advances, new numerical algorithms, and experimental work on both animals and robots, this approach has revealed new ways to non-invasively inspect neuromechanical feedback pathways, control and coordinate legs, and model complex multi-contact collisions. Talk will be non-technical and suitable for a broad sciences audience.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 30 Sep 2020 11:43:45 -0400 2020-10-06T11:30:00-04:00 2020-10-06T13:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location The Center for the Study of Complex Systems Livestream / Virtual Headshot Shai Revzen