Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. EEB dissertation defense: When does gene flow stop? A mechanistic approach to the formation of phylogeographic breaks in nature (February 17, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/72023 72023-17914210@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, February 17, 2020 1:00pm
Location: Biological Sciences Building
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Iris defends her doctoral dissertation

Image credit: Alison Davis Rabosky and Christian Cox

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Presentation Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:14:16 -0500 2020-02-17T13:00:00-05:00 2020-02-17T14:00:00-05:00 Biological Sciences Building Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Presentation Four sonora snakes curled up near each other, orange with black stripes, white with black stripes, a solid orange and a solid brown
BME Ph.D. Defense: Lauren L. Zimmerman (February 20, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/72566 72566-18018159@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 20, 2020 10:00am
Location: Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

Department of Biomedical Engineering Final Oral Examination

Lauren L. Zimmerman

Investigating Neuromodulation as a Treatment for Female Sexual Dysfunction

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) affects millions of women worldwide. FSD has a significant impact on quality of life and interpersonal relationships. The prevalence of at least one form of sexual dysfunction is 40-45% of adult women with 12% of women experiencing sexually related personal distress, yet there is no clear treatment option for a wide range of FSD deficits with high efficacy and low side effects.

Neuromodulation techniques using electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves have the potential to treat some forms of FSD. In clinical trials of sacral neuromodulation (SNM) and percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS) for bladder dysfunction, women have reported that their sexual dysfunction symptoms improved as well. Even though this effect has been observed clinically, very little research has been done to examine the mechanisms or the optimal method of treatment specifically for women with FSD. This thesis aims to bridge that gap by investigating neuromodulation as a treatment for FSD through both preclinical and clinical studies.

The first aim of this thesis is to investigate a possible mechanism of the improvement to sexual functioning in response to tibial nerve stimulation by evaluating vaginal blood flow responses in rats. In 16 ketamine-anesthetized female rats, the tibial nerve was stimulated for 30 minutes while vaginal blood perfusion was recorded with laser Doppler flowmetry. A novel signal analysis and quantification metric was developed for this analysis. I found that tibial nerve stimulation could drive prolonged increases in vaginal blood perfusion, typically after 20-30 minutes of stimulation. This result suggests that clinical neuromodulation may be improving FSD symptoms by increasing genital blood flow.

One question yet to be investigated by neuromodulation studies is whether tibial nerve stimulation could be an on-demand treatment for FSD, such as Viagra is for men, or is more appropriate as a long-term treatment with improvements over time, such as PTNS for bladder dysfunction. In this thesis I address this question by evaluating the sexual motivation and receptivity of female rats both immediately after a single stimulation session as well as after long-term, repeated stimulation sessions. I found that tibial nerve stimulation led to modest increases in sexual motivation in the short term, and larger increases in sexual receptivity in the long-term.

Lastly, this thesis evaluates a pilot clinical study of transcutaneous stimulation of the dorsal genital and posterior tibial nerves in nine women with FSD. The women received stimulation once a week for 12 weeks and their sexual functioning was measured using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) at baseline, after 6 weeks of stimulation, after 12 weeks of stimulation, and at 18 weeks (6 weeks after the last stimulation session). The average total FSFI score across all subjects significantly increased from baseline to each of the time points in the study. Significant FSFI increases were seen in the sub-domains of lubrication, arousal, and orgasm, each of which is related to genital arousal.

This thesis provides evidence that peripheral neuromodulation can be an effective treatment for FSD. The stimulation is likely driving increases in genital blood flow, with greater effects observed when stimulation is repeatedly applied over time. This treatment has the potential to help millions of women worldwide.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 05 Feb 2020 15:00:05 -0500 2020-02-20T10:00:00-05:00 2020-02-20T11:00:00-05:00 Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
BME 500: Ruobo Zhou (March 5, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73399 73399-18214945@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 5, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Industrial and Operations Engineering Building
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

Biomolecular interactions are at the root of all biological processes and define the molecular mechanisms of how these processes are accomplished in both physiological and pathological conditions. Recent advances in single molecule detection and super-resolution fluorescence microcopy have uncovered previously unknown properties of biomolecular interactions, including multivalency, transiency, and heterogeneity, and revealed the organizational principles governing the compartmentalization of functional biomolecular interactions in cells and how such compartmentalization and organizations become dysregulated in diseases. In this talk, I will first discuss my postdoctoral work, where I used mass-spectrometry-based analysis and super-resolution imaging to dissect the protein-protein interactions at the plasma membrane of neurons, and discovered that a newly identified membrane-associated periodic skeleton (MPS) structure can function as a signaling platform that coordinates the interactions of signaling proteins at the plasma membrane of neurons. In response to extracellular stimuli, G-protein coupled receptors, cell-adhesion molecules, receptor tyrosine kinases can be recruited to the MPS to form signaling complexes at the plasma membrane, and such recruitment is required for downstream intracellular signaling. This work not only reveals an important, previously unknown function of the newly discovered MPS structure, but also provides novel mechanistic insights into signal transduction in neurons. I will then discuss my graduate work, where I developed a hybrid single molecule technique combining single molecule FRET and optical tweezers, and applied this technique to probe the sub-molecular dynamics of protein-DNA interactions in various biological systems involved in DNA replication, repair and recombination.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 28 Feb 2020 11:07:38 -0500 2020-03-05T16:00:00-05:00 2020-03-05T17:00:00-05:00 Industrial and Operations Engineering Building Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
Dissertation Defense: Ian Calloway (March 19, 2020 4:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73882 73882-18383966@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 19, 2020 4:30pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Graduate student Ian Calloway will defend his dissertation, "Perceptual Asymmetry and Sound Change: An Articulatory, Acoustic/Perceptual, and Computational Analysis," at 4:30 p.m. via BlueJeans.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 18 Mar 2020 15:32:58 -0400 2020-03-19T16:30:00-04:00 2020-03-19T18:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Livestream / Virtual
Language-Driven Video Understanding (March 23, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73904 73904-18393018@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, March 23, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

Abstract: Video understanding has advanced quite a long way in the past decade, accomplishing tasks including low-level segmentation and tracking that study objects as pixel-level segments or bounding boxes to more high-level activity recognition or classification tasks that classify a video scene to a categorical action label. Despite the progress that has been made, much of this work remains a proxy for an eventual task or application that requires a holistic view of the video, such as objects, actions, attributes, and other semantic components. In this defense, we argue that language could deliver the required holistic representation. It plays a significant role in video understanding by allowing machines to communicate with humans and to understand our requests, as shown in tasks such as text-to-video search engine, voice-guided robot manipulation, to name a few. Our language-driven video understanding focuses on two specific problems: video description and visual grounding. What marks our viewpoint different from prior literature is twofold. First, we propose a bottom-up structured learning scheme by decomposing long video into individual procedure steps and represent each one with a description. Second, we propose to have both explicit (i.e., supervised) and implicit (i.e., weakly-supervised and self-supervised) grounding between words and visual concepts which enables interpretable modeling of the two spaces.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 19 Mar 2020 14:49:03 -0400 2020-03-23T12:00:00-04:00 2020-03-23T13:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Robotics Livestream / Virtual color blocks
Ph.D. Defense: Tyler Gerhardson (March 26, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/73025 73025-18129601@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 26, 2020 10:00am
Location: Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

NOTICE: Will be held via BlueJeans.

Link: https://umich.bluejeans.com/924142541

Brain pathologies including stroke and cancer are a major cause of death and disability. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for roughly 12% of all strokes in the US with approximately 200,000 new cases per year. ICH is characterized by the rupture of vessels resulting in bleeding and clotting inside the brain. The presence of the clot causes immediate damage to surrounding brain tissue via mass effect with delayed toxic effects developing in the days following the hemorrhage. This leads ICH patients to high mortality with a 40% chance of death within 30 days of diagnosis and motivates the need to quickly evacuate the clot from the brain. Craniotomy surgery and other minimally invasive methods using thrombolytic drugs are common procedures to remove the clot but are limited by factors such as morbidity and high susceptibility to rebleeding, which ultimately result in poor clinical outcomes.

Histotripsy is a non-thermal ultrasound ablation technique that uses short duration, high amplitude rarefactional pulses (>26 MPa) delivered via an extracorporeal transducer to generate targeted cavitation using the intrinsic gas nuclei existing in the target tissue. The rapid and energetic bubble expansion and collapse of cavitation create high stress and strain in tissue at the focus that fractionate it into an acellular homogenate. This dissertation presents the role of histotripsy as a novel ultrasound technology with potential to address the need for an effective transcranial therapy for ICH and other brain pathologies.

The first part of this work investigates the effects of ultrasound frequency and focal spacing on transcranial clot liquefaction using histotripsy. Histotripsy pulses were delivered using two 256-element hemispherical transducers of different frequency (250 and 500 kHz) with 30-cm aperture diameters. Liquefied clot was drained via catheter and syringe in the range of 6-59 mL in 0.9-42.4 min. The fastest rate was 16.6 mL/min. The best parameter combination was λ spacing at 500 kHz, which produced large liquefaction through 3 skullcaps (~30 mL) with fast rates (~2 mL/min). The temperature-rise through the 3 skullcaps remained below 4°C.

The second part addresses initial safety concerns for histotripsy ICH treatment through investigation in a porcine ICH model. 1.75-mL clots were formed in the frontal lobe of the brain. The centers of the clots were liquefied with histotripsy 48 h after formation, and the content was either evacuated or left within the brain. A control group was left untreated. Histotripsy was able to liquefy the core of clots without direct damage to the perihematomal brain tissue. An average volume of 0.9 ± 0.5 mL (~50%) was drained after histotripsy treatment. All groups showed mild ischemia and gliosis in the perihematomal region; however, there were no deaths or signs of neurological dysfunction in any groups.

The third part presents the development of a novel catheter hydrophone method for transcranial phase aberration correction and drainage of the clot liquefied with histotripsy. A prototype hydrophone was fabricated to fit within a ventriculostomy catheter. Improvements in focal pressure of up to 60% were achieved at the geometric focus and 27%-62% across a range of electronic steering locations. The sagittal and axial -6-dB beam widths decreased from 4.6 to 2.2 mm in the sagittal direction and 8 to 4.4 mm in the axial direction, compared to 1.5 and 3 mm in the absence of aberration. The cores of clots liquefied with histotripsy were readily drained via the catheter.

The fourth part focuses on the development of a preclinical system for translation to human cadaver ICH models. A 360-element, 700 kHz hemispherical array with a 30 cm aperture was designed and integrated with an optical tracker surgical navigation system. Calibrated simulations of the transducer suggest a therapeutic range between 48 – 105 mL through the human skull with the ability to apply therapy pulses at pulse-repetition-frequencies up to 200 Hz. The navigation system allows real-time targeting and placement of the catheter hydrophone via a pre-operative CT or MRI.

The fifth and final part of this work extends transcranial histotripsy therapy beyond ICH to the treatment of glioblastoma. This section presents results from an initial investigation into cancer immunomodulation using histotripsy in a mouse glioblastoma model. The results suggest histotripsy has some immunomodulatory capacity as evidenced by a 2-fold reduction in myeloid derived suppressor cells and large increases in interferon-γ concentrations (3500 pg/mL) within the brain tumors of mice treated with histotripsy.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 16 Mar 2020 13:26:52 -0400 2020-03-26T10:00:00-04:00 2020-03-26T11:00:00-04:00 Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
Master's Thesis Defense: Mingyang Wang (April 10, 2020 10:30am) https://events.umich.edu/event/73990 73990-18460430@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 10, 2020 10:30am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

NOTICE: This event will be held via Blue Jeans. It will be linked before.

BlueJeans: https://bluejeans.com/315155702

Objectives
We have developed a novel anti-vascular technique, termed photo-mediated ultrasound therapy (PUT), which utilizes nanosecond duration laser pulses synchronized with ultrasound bursts to remove microvasculature through cavitation. The objective of the current study is to explore the potential of PUT in removing cutaneous microvessels.

Methods
The auricular blood vessels of two New Zealand white rabbits were treated by PUT with a peak negative ultrasound pressure of 0.45 MPa at 0.5 MHz, and a laser fluence of 0.056 J/cm2 at 1064 nm for 10 minutes. Blood perfusion in the treated area was measured by a commercial laser speckle imaging (LSI) system before and immediately after treatment, as well as at one hour, three days, two weeks, and four weeks post treatment. Perfusion rates of 38 individual vessels from 4 rabbit ears were tracked during this time period for longitudinal assessment.

Results
The measured perfusion rates of the vessels in the treated areas, as quantified by the relative change in perfusion rate (RCPR), showed a statistically significant decrease for all time points post treatment (p<0.001). The mean decrease in perfusion is 50.79% immediately after treatment and is 32.14% at four weeks post treatment. Immediately after treatment, the perfusion rate decreased rapidly. Following this, there was a partial recovery in perfusion rate up to 3 days post treatment, then followed by a plateau in the perfusion from 3 days to 4 weeks.

Conclusions
The study demonstrated that a single PUT treatment could significantly reduce blood perfusion by 32.14% in the skin for up to 4 weeks. With unique advantages such as low laser fluence as compared with photothermolysis and agent-free treatment as compared with PDT, PUT holds potential to be developed into a new tool for the treatment of microvessels in the skin.

Keywords: laser; ultrasound; anti-vascular treatment; skin microvessels; photo-mediated ultrasound therapy

Chair: Dr. Xueding Wang

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:53:59 -0400 2020-04-10T10:30:00-04:00 2020-04-10T11:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
PhD Defense: Joel Tan (April 14, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73953 73953-18443421@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, April 14, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

NOTICE: This PhD defense will be taking place via Blue Jeans. Link below.

Blue Jeans: https://bluejeans.com/304616213
Chair: Dr. Xueding Wang

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is an emerging biomedical imaging modality that combines optical and ultrasound imaging technologies. PA imaging relies on the absorption of electromagnetic energy (usually in the form of visible or near-infrared light) leading to the generation of acoustic waves by thermoelastic expansion, which can be detected with an ultrasound detector. PA imaging can be used to detect endogenous chromophores such as deoxyhemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin, or can be used together with external nanosensors for added functionality. The former is used to measure things like blood oxygenation, while the latter opens up many possibilities for PA imaging, limited only to the availability of optical nanosensors. In this dissertation, I employ the use of PA nanosensors for contrast enhancement and molecular imaging in in vivo small animal cancer models.

In the first section, I introduce a novel PA background reduction technique called the transient triplet differential (TTD) method. The TTD method exploits the fact that phosphorescent dyes possess a triplet state with a unique red-shifted absorption wavelength, distinct from its ordinary singlet state absorption profile. By pumping these dyes into the triplet state and comparing the signal to the unpumped dyes, a differential signal can be obtained which solely originates from these dyes. Since intrinsic chromophores of biological tissue are not able to undergo intersystem crossing and enter the triplet state, the TTD method can facilitate “true” background free molecular imaging by excluding the signals from every other chromophore outside the phosphorescent dye. Here, I demonstrate up to an order of magnitude better sensitivity of the TTD method compared to other existing contrast enhancement techniques in both in vitro experiments and in vivo cancer models.

In the second section, I explore the use of a nanoparticle formulation of a repurposed FDA-approved drug called clofazimine for diagnosis of prostate cancer. Clofazimine nanoparticles have a high optical absorbance at 495 nm and has been known to specifically accumulate in macrophages as they form stable crystal-like inclusions once they are uptaken by macrophages. Due to the presence of tumor associated macrophages, it is expected that clofazimine would accumulate in much higher quantities in the cancerous prostate compared to normal prostates. Here, I show that there was indeed a significantly higher accumulation of clofazimine nanoparticles in cancerous prostates compared to normal prostates in a transgenic mouse model, which was detectable both using histology and ex vivo PA imaging.

In the third and final section, I explore the use of a potassium (K+) nanosensor together with PA imaging in measuring the in vivo K+ distribution in the tumor microenvironment (TME). K+ is the most abundant ion in the body and has recently been shown to be at a significantly higher concentration in the tumor. The reported 5-10 fold elevation (25-50 mM compared to 5 mM) in the tumor has been shown to inhibit immune cell efficacy, and thus immunotherapy. Despite the abundance and importance of K+ in the body, few ways exist to measure it in vivo. In this study, a solvatochromic dye K+ nanoparticle (SDKNP) was used together with PA imaging to quantitatively measure the in vivo distribution of K+ in the TME. Significantly elevated K+ levels were found in the TME, with an average concentration of approximately 29 mM, matching the values found by the previous study. The results were then verified using mass spectrometry.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 25 Mar 2020 13:19:15 -0400 2020-04-14T14:00:00-04:00 2020-04-14T15:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
Deformable Object Manipulation: Learning While Doing (April 20, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/74263 74263-18609325@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 20, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

This dissertation is motivated by two research questions: (1) How can robots perform a broad range of useful tasks with deformable objects without a time consuming modelling or data collection phase? and (2) How can robots take advantage of information learned while manipulating deformable objects?

To address the first question, I propose a framework for deformable object manipulation that interleaves planning and control, enabling complex manipulation tasks without relying on high-fidelity modeling or simulation. Each part of the framework uses a different representation of the deformable object that is well suited for the specific requirements of each component. The key idea behind these techniques is that we do not need to explicitly model and control every part of the deformable object, instead relying on the object's natural compliance in many situations.

For the second question, I consider the two major components of my framework and examine what can cause failure in each. The goal then is to learn from experience gathered while performing tasks in order to avoid making the same mistake again and again. To this end I formulate the controller's task as a Multi-Armed Bandit problem, enabling the controller to chose models based on the current circumstances. For the planner, I present a method to learn when we can rely on the robot's model of the deformable object, enabling the planner to avoid generating plans that are infeasible.

This framework is demonstrated in simulation with free floating grippers as well as on a 16 DoF physical robot, where reachability and dual-arm constraints make the tasks more difficult.

Dale's research interest include machine learning, controls, and motion planning. He is currently working on applying ideas from these fields to deformable object manipulation and related topics. In particular Dale is interested in algorithms that enable robots to perform tasks such as folding clothes, or making a bed, that are easy for humans to master, but are extremely challenging for robots. Dale graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with both college and university honors, and is also the recipient of the Frank J. Marshall Scholar Award.

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 14 Apr 2020 15:29:14 -0400 2020-04-20T14:00:00-04:00 2020-04-20T15:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Robotics Livestream / Virtual robot folding cloth
Master's Defense: Xijia Quan (April 21, 2020 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/74183 74183-18559840@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 3:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

NOTICE: This event will be held via Blue Jeans. The link will be posted below.

Blue Jeans link: https://bluejeans.com/6788336326

We propose a novel optimization algorithm for radiofrequency (RF) pulse design in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), that regularizes the magnitude and phase of the target (desired) magnetization pattern separately. This approach may be useful across applications where the relative importance of achieving accurate magnitude or phase excitation varies; for example, saturation pulses "care" only about the magnitude excitation pattern. We apply our new design to the problem of spin "prephasing" in 3D functional MRI using blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast; spin prephasing pulses can mitigate the signal loss observed near air/tissue boundaries due to the presence of local susceptibility gradients. We show that our algorithm can improve the simulation performance and recover some signal in some regions with steep susceptibility gradients. In all cases, our algorithm shows better phase correction than a conventional design based on minimizing the complex difference between the target and realized patterns. The algorithm is open-source and the computation time is feasible for online applications. In addition, we evaluate the impact of the choice of (initial) excitation k-space trajectories, both in terms of trajectory type (SPINS vs extended KT points) and overall pulse duration.

Chair: Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 09 Apr 2020 14:11:30 -0400 2020-04-21T15:00:00-04:00 2020-04-21T16:00:00-04:00 Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
Learning for Humanoid Multi-Contact Navigation Planning (April 29, 2020 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/74351 74351-18664212@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 3:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

Humanoids' abilities to navigate uneven terrain make them well-suited for disaster response efforts, but humanoid motion planning in unstructured environments remains a challenging problem. In this thesis we focus on planning contact sequences for a humanoid robot navigating in large unstructured environments using multi-contact motion, including both foot and palm contacts. In particular, we address the two following questions: (1) How do we efficiently generate a feasible contact sequence? and (2) How do we generate contact sequences which lead to dynamically-robust motions?

For the first question, we propose a library-based method that retrieves motion plans from a library constructed offline, and adapts them with local trajectory optimization to generate the full motion plan from the start to the goal. This approach outperforms a conventional graph search contact planner when it is difficult to decide which contact is preferable with a simplified robot model and local environment information. We also propose a learning approach to estimate the difficulty to traverse a certain region based on the environment features. By integrating the two approaches, we propose a planning framework that uses graph search planner to find contact sequences around easy regions. When it is necessary to go through a difficult region, the framework switches to use the library-based method around the region to find a feasible contact sequence faster.

For the second question, we consider dynamic motions in contact planning. Most humanoid motion generators do not optimize the dynamic robustness of a contact sequence. By querying a learned model to predict the dynamic feasibility and robustness of each contact transition from a centroidal dynamics optimizer, the proposed planner efficiently finds contact sequences which lead to dynamically-robust motions. We also propose a learning-based footstep planner which takes external disturbances into account. The planner considers not only the poses of the planned contact sequence, but also alternative contacts near the planned contact sequence that can be used to recover from external disturbances. Neural networks are trained to efficiently predict multi-contact zero-step and one-step capturability, which allows the planner to generate contact sequences robust to external disturbances efficiently.

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:36:37 -0400 2020-04-29T15:00:00-04:00 2020-04-29T17:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Robotics Livestream / Virtual robot planning on uneven terrain
EEB dissertation defense: Range expansion since the 20th Century – ecology and population genetics of the Virginia opossum (May 4, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/74028 74028-18491690@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, May 4, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Lisa presents her doctoral dissertation

Possum image credit: Maury Walsh. Image composition: John Megahan

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Presentation Mon, 27 Apr 2020 17:08:39 -0400 2020-05-04T14:00:00-04:00 2020-05-04T15:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Presentation opossum image superimposed on a map of the United States showing their distribution
EEB dissertation defense: Testing the proximate mechanisms of character displacement in the evolution of root traits (May 19, 2020 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73544 73544-18258846@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, May 19, 2020 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Sara defends her doctoral dissertation

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 11 May 2020 13:25:36 -0400 2020-05-19T14:00:00-04:00 2020-05-19T15:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Livestream / Virtual hand holding up a small green plant and roots with tag, black background
EEB dissertation defense: Frog trophic and morphological diversity: phylogenetic and spatial patterns (August 10, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/74419 74419-18690319@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, August 10, 2020 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Joanna defends her dissertation

Joanna's favorite frog, Sphaenorhynchus lacteus. Image credit: Consuelo Alarcon Rodriguez.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 30 Jul 2020 10:48:30 -0400 2020-08-10T13:00:00-04:00 2020-08-10T14:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Livestream / Virtual Joanna's favorite frog: Sphaenorhynchus lacteus. Photo credit: Consuelo Alarcon Rodriguez
EEB dissertation defense: The diversity of mycoviruses in early-diverging fungi, and their evolutionary implications (August 13, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75206 75206-19332297@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, August 13, 2020 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Jill presents her dissertation

watercolor image inspired by one of Jill's study organisms, Allomyces, painted by her Mom

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 11 Aug 2020 10:42:52 -0400 2020-08-13T10:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13T11:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Livestream / Virtual watercolor image inspired by one of Jill's study organisms, Allomyces, painted by her Mom
EEB dissertation defense: Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of complex host-parasite communities (August 13, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/75352 75352-19442256@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, August 13, 2020 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Camden presents his dissertation

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 11 Aug 2020 10:43:08 -0400 2020-08-13T13:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13T14:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Livestream / Virtual infected Daphnia
EEB dissertation defense: Past, present, and future: fungal community responses to disturbances in north temperate forests (September 11, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/76106 76106-19663520@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 11, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Buck defends his dissertation

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:57:34 -0400 2020-09-11T16:00:00-04:00 2020-09-11T17:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Livestream / Virtual Forest control burn
Write-Togethers (September 14, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615881@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, September 14, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-09-14T09:00:00-04:00 2020-09-14T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Dissertation Defense (September 18, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77366 77366-19846043@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 18, 2020 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Linguistics graduate candidate Emily Rae Sabo will defend her dissertation, titled "Social factors in the production, perception and processing of contact language varieties: Evidence from bilingual corpora, evaluations of perceived nativeness, and real-time processing (EEG) of Spanish-accented English" on Friday, September 18.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 17 Sep 2020 12:38:14 -0400 2020-09-18T13:00:00-04:00 2020-09-18T15:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Livestream / Virtual
Write-Togethers (September 21, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615882@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, September 21, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-09-21T09:00:00-04:00 2020-09-21T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (September 28, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615883@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, September 28, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-09-28T09:00:00-04:00 2020-09-28T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Black Students in Aerospace [BSA] Movie Event (September 29, 2020 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77826 77826-19941591@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 29, 2020 5:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Aerospace Engineering

The Black Students in Aerospace (BSA), a new student organization within the Department of Aerospace engineering, would like to invite you to attend our upcoming movie night event.

Over the course of this summer, there has been a resurgence of support, activism, and protests for Black Lives Matter and other human rights issues that have cast a spotlight on the systemic racism present in society. Our organization felt it was important to tie these issues back to the department in order to continue the discourse as well as to bring visibility to the ways their peers are affected.

Because of this, we decided to host a viewing of the documentary I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin. The movie will be followed by a guided discussion with a panel of Black engineering students, alumni, and professors from U-M including Alec D. Gallimore, Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. 

Friday October 2nd
Movie: 6:00pm - 7:30pm (Eastern Time)
Panel: 7:30pm - 8:30pm (Eastern Time)

Please RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/bsa-movie-night

***It is important to note that the film includes brief moments of graphic images, specifically images of lynchings and police brutality.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 30 Sep 2020 12:22:25 -0400 2020-09-29T17:00:00-04:00 2020-09-29T18:00:00-04:00 Aerospace Engineering Lecture / Discussion [BSA] Upcoming Movie Event Flyer
Black Students in Aerospace [BSA] Movie Event (October 2, 2020 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77826 77826-19933615@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 2, 2020 6:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Aerospace Engineering

The Black Students in Aerospace (BSA), a new student organization within the Department of Aerospace engineering, would like to invite you to attend our upcoming movie night event.

Over the course of this summer, there has been a resurgence of support, activism, and protests for Black Lives Matter and other human rights issues that have cast a spotlight on the systemic racism present in society. Our organization felt it was important to tie these issues back to the department in order to continue the discourse as well as to bring visibility to the ways their peers are affected.

Because of this, we decided to host a viewing of the documentary I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin. The movie will be followed by a guided discussion with a panel of Black engineering students, alumni, and professors from U-M including Alec D. Gallimore, Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. 

Friday October 2nd
Movie: 6:00pm - 7:30pm (Eastern Time)
Panel: 7:30pm - 8:30pm (Eastern Time)

Please RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/bsa-movie-night

***It is important to note that the film includes brief moments of graphic images, specifically images of lynchings and police brutality.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 30 Sep 2020 12:22:25 -0400 2020-10-02T18:00:00-04:00 2020-10-02T20:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Aerospace Engineering Lecture / Discussion [BSA] Upcoming Movie Event Flyer
Write-Togethers (October 5, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615884@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, October 5, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-10-05T09:00:00-04:00 2020-10-05T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (October 12, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615885@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, October 12, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-10-12T09:00:00-04:00 2020-10-12T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (October 26, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615887@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, October 26, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-10-26T09:00:00-04:00 2020-10-26T12:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (November 2, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615888@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 2, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-11-02T09:00:00-05:00 2020-11-02T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
BME PhD Defense: Zhonghua (Aileen) Ouyang (November 6, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/78398 78398-20022735@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 6, 2020 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Biomedical Engineering

NOTICE: This event will be held via Zoom. The link will be provided below.

Zoom: https://umich-health.zoom.us/j/94734899583?pwd=MDNEMjE3QU5xVGgwZzNQajE4UlJQUT09

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a highly prevalent condition which negatively affects the physical and mental health of millions of people worldwide. Sacral neuromodulation (SNM), currently serving ~300,000 patients worldwide, is a promising third-line therapy that provides improved efficacy and minimum adherence issue compared to conventional treatments. While current SNM is delivered in an open-loop fashion, the therapy could have improved clinical efficacy by adopting a closed-loop stimulation paradigm that uses objective physiological feedback. Therefore, this dissertation work focuses on using sacral level dorsal root ganglia neural signals to provide sensory feedback for adaptive SNM a feline model.

This work began with exploring machine learning algorithms and feature selection methods for bladder pressure decoding. A Kalman filter delivered the highest performance based on correlation coefficient between the pressure measurements and algorithm estimation. Additionally, firing rate normalization significantly contributed to lowering the normalized error, and a correlation coefficient-based channel selection method provided the lowest error compared to other channel selection methods.

Following algorithm optimization, this work implemented the optimized algorithm and feature selection method in real-time in anesthetized healthy and simulated OAB feline models. A 0.88 ± 0.16 correlation coefficient fit was achieved by the decoding algorithm across 35 normal and simulated OAB bladder fills in five experiments. Closed-loop neuromodulation was demonstrated using the estimated pressure to trigger pudendal nerve stimulation, which increased bladder capacity by 40% in two trials.

Finally, closed-loop SNM stimulation with DRG sensory feedback was performed in a series of anesthetized experiments. It increased bladder capacity by 13.8% over no stimulation (p < 0.001). While there was no statistical difference in bladder capacity between closed-loop and continuous stimulation (p = 0.80), closed-loop stimulation reduced stimulation time by 57.7%. Interestingly, bladder single units had a reduced sensitivity during stimulation, suggesting a potential mechanism of SNM.

Overall, this work demonstrated that sacral level DRG are a viable sensory feedback target for adaptive SNM. Validation in awake and chronic experiments is a crucial step prior to clinical translation of this method.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 09 Oct 2020 22:08:12 -0400 2020-11-06T10:00:00-05:00 2020-11-06T11:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Biomedical Engineering Lecture / Discussion BME Logo
Write-Togethers (November 9, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615889@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 9, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-11-09T09:00:00-05:00 2020-11-09T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (November 16, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615890@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 16, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-11-16T09:00:00-05:00 2020-11-16T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (November 30, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615892@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 30, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-11-30T09:00:00-05:00 2020-11-30T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Nineteenth-Century Forum Check-In Meeting (November 30, 2020 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/79567 79567-20382969@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, November 30, 2020 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Nineteenth Century Forum

The Nineteenth Century Forum will meet over Zoom on Monday, November 30, at 12pm, to:

Check in as a group & welcome new members
Brainstorm ideas for the rest of the year
Set dates/formats for paper workshops, panels, and other events

If you can't make the meeting but want to contribute to the above discussion, please send Sarah (srvc@umich.edu) or Ani (abezirdz@umich.edu) an email.

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Meeting Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:01:15 -0500 2020-11-30T12:00:00-05:00 2020-11-30T13:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Nineteenth Century Forum Meeting Image of books
Collection and Analysis of Driving Videos based on Traffic Participants (December 3, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/79591 79591-20428440@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, December 3, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

Autonomous vehicle (AV) prototypes have been deployed in increasingly varied environments in recent years. An AV must be able to reliably detect and predict the future motion of traffic participants to maintain safe operation based on data collected from high-quality onboard sensors. Sensors such as camera and LiDAR generate high-bandwidth data that requires substantial computational and memory resources. To address these AV challenges, this thesis investigates three related problems: 1) What will the observed traffic participants do? 2) Is an anomalous traffic event likely to happen in near future? and 3) How should we collect fleet-wide high-bandwidth data based on 1) and 2) over the long-term?

The first problem is addressed with future traffic trajectory and pedestrian behavior prediction.We propose a future object localization (FOL) method for trajectory prediction in first person videos (FPV). FOL encodes heterogeneous observations including bounding boxes, optical flow features and ego camera motions with multi-stream recurrent neural networks (RNN) to predict future trajectories. We then introduce BiTraP, a goal-conditioned bidirectional multi-modal trajectory prediction method. BiTraP estimates multi-modal trajectories and uses novel bi-directional decoder and loss to improve longer-term trajectory prediction accuracy. We show that different choices of non-parametric versus parametric target models directly influence predicted multi-modal trajectory distributions. Experiments with two FPV and six bird's-eye view (BEV) datasets show the effectiveness of our methods compared to state-of-the-art. We define pedestrian behavior prediction as a combination of action and intent. We hypothesize that current and future actions are strong intent priors and propose a multi-task leaning RNN encoder-decoder network to detect and predict future pedestrian actions and street crossing intent. Experimental results show that one task helps the other so they together achieve state-of-the-art performance on published datasets.

To identify likely traffic anomaly events, we propose to predict locations of traffic participants over a near-term future horizon and monitor accuracy and consistency of these predictions as evidence of an anomaly. Inconsistent predictions tend to indicate an anomaly has or is about to occur. A supervised video action recognition method can then be applied to classify detected anomalies. We introduce a spatial-temporal area under curve (STAUC) metric as a supplement to the existing area under curve (AUC) evaluation and show it captures how well a model detects both temporal and spatial locations of anomalous events. Experimental results show the proposed method and consistency-based anomaly score are more robust to moving cameras than image generation based methods; our method achieves state-of-the-art performance over AUC and STAUC metrics.

Video anomaly detection (VAD) and action recognition support event-of-interest (EOI) distinction from normal driving data. We introduce a Smart Black Box (SBB), an intelligent event data recorder, to prioritize EOI data in long-term driving. The SBB compresses high-bandwidth data based on EOI potential and on-board storage limits. The SBB is designed to prioritize newer and anomalous driving data and discard older and normal data. An optimal compression factor is selected based on the trade-off between data value and storage cost.Experiments in a traffic simulator and with real-world datasets show the efficiency and effectiveness of using a SBB to collect high-quality videos in long-term driving.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 11:27:05 -0500 2020-12-03T16:00:00-05:00 2020-12-03T18:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Robotics Livestream / Virtual car with bounding box
Write-Togethers (December 7, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-19615893@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, December 7, 2020 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2020-12-07T09:00:00-05:00 2020-12-07T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Control Allocation of Flexible Aircraft for Load Alleviation (December 8, 2020 2:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/79628 79628-20486026@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 8, 2020 2:30pm
Location:
Organized By: Aerospace Engineering

As wing designs aim for higher aerodynamic efficiency, the underlying aircraft structure becomes more flexible, requiring additional features to alleviate the loads encountered from gusts and maneuvers. While alleviating loads, it is desirable to minimize the deviations from the original flight trajectory.

In this work, a dynamic control allocation method which exploits redundant control effectors for maneuver and gust load alleviation is proposed for flexible aircraft. The control architecture decouples the two objectives of load alleviation and rigid body trajectory tracking by exploiting the null space between the input and the rigid body output. A reduced-dimensional null space input is established, which affects the flexible output (but not the rigid body output) when passed through a null space filter to generate incremental control signals. This null space input is determined to maintain the flexible output of the aircraft within specified values, thereby achieving load alleviation.

A receding horizon approach to generate the trajectory of the null space input is developed based on linear aircraft models. This receding horizon approach then informs a model predictive control-based control allocator function which can be used as an add-on scheme to a nominal controller. Numerical simulations are used to show that the proposed load alleviation system can successfully avoid the violation of load bounds in the presence of both gust disturbances and maneuvers and with minimal effect on the trajectory tracking performance.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 07 Dec 2020 16:34:21 -0500 2020-12-08T14:30:00-05:00 2020-12-08T15:30:00-05:00 Aerospace Engineering Livestream / Virtual PhD candidate John Hansen
Research & Writing During the Pandemic (December 15, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/79683 79683-20454247@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 15, 2020 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Nineteenth Century Forum

Are you working on your dissertation or another project during the pandemic? Are you feeling isolated or unmotivated? Are you struggling to access archival materials? Join Sober Postdoctoral Fellows Anne-Charlotte Mecklenburg and Ross Martin for a discussion about research and writing strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic. They will offer tips, tricks, and ways to pivot when things don't go according to plan. This event will also include group discussion, connection, and shared solidarity.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:53:28 -0500 2020-12-15T13:00:00-05:00 2020-12-15T14:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Nineteenth Century Forum Lecture / Discussion Anne-Charlotte Mecklenburg and Ross Martin
Graph Theoretic Algorithms Adaptable to Quantum Computing (December 17, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/79629 79629-20432433@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, December 17, 2020 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Aerospace Engineering

This thesis is the first effort towards solving scientific computing problems using graph-based algorithms amenable to quantum computers and specifically, quantum annealers.

Many engineering problems, when considered in a discrete computational setting, can be reduced to a graph coloring problem. Examples range from systems design, image segmentation to pattern recognition where energy cost functions with discrete variables are extremized.

However, graph techniques remain under-utilized in scientific computing. However, we have recently witnessed great advancements in quantum computing where physical devices are available that can solve discrete optimization problems faster than most well-known classical algorithms.

This warrants further investigation into re-formulation of scientific computation problems as graph theoretic problems, and thus enable rapid engineering simulations in a soon-to-be quantum computing world. The computational techniques developed in this thesis allow representation of surface scalars like perimeter and area using discrete variables in a graph. With this framework, several quantities important to engineering applications can be represented in graph based algorithms.

These include: surface energy of cracks for fracture prediction, grain boundary energy to model microstructure evolution, estimate surface areas (of grains, fibers) to generate conformal meshes of microstructures, etc. Combinatorial optimization problems for these applications are first presented.

The last two chapters of the thesis describes two new graph coloring algorithms implemented on a physical quantum computing device: the D-wave quantum annealer. The first algorithm describes a functional minimization approach to solve differential equations. The second algorithm describes a realization of Boltzmann machine learning algorithm on a quantum annealer, with open source codes available on GitHub. The latter allows generative and discriminative learning of data which has vast applications in many fields.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:10:48 -0500 2020-12-17T10:00:00-05:00 2020-12-17T11:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Aerospace Engineering Livestream / Virtual Representative figure
Multidisciplinary Study of Soft Shape Morphing Systems (December 18, 2020 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/80090 80090-20556868@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, December 18, 2020 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Aerospace Engineering

Nature abounds with examples of shape morphing systems where an entity either gradually grows into a complex 3-D shape pattern or rapidly morphs into a new configuration. Inspired by the shape shifting capabilities of biological systems, we study the response of natural and synthetic morphing systems through a few examples. These include the in vitro adaptive contraction of a cardiac muscle cell inside a constraining hydrogel, inflation of architectured rubber membranes, and a shape morphing soft robot.

Cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) have an intrinsic mechano-chemo-transduction (MCT) mechanism that enable them to automatically convert mechanical loads into biochemical signals to actively regulate their amplitude and speed of contraction. At the molecular level, this is attributed to the morphing of regulatory and motor proteins (actin and myosin filaments) to facilitate muscle contraction. The underlying MCT mechanisms, however, are unclear and currently under investigation. To help decipher these mechanisms, we develop a mathematical model, as a companion tool for the experimental in vitro Cell-in-Gel system of our collaborators, to analyze the time-dependent, 3-D strains and stresses within a cardiomyocyte contracting in a viscoelastic medium. The model utilizes the exact analytical solution of the viscoelastic Eshelby inclusion boundary value problem as an efficient computational tool to simulate the mechanical fields inside and outside the cardiomyocyte.

In a second study, we investigate the inflation of shape morphing synthetic soft composites with architectured geometry and material properties. Such shape morphing systems could have desirable applications in space deployable systems where there is a growing demand for energy-efficient lightweight and low-cost structures. These structures possess an exceptionally high mechanical packaging efficiency and very small stowage volume, which makes them attractive candidates for space applications including antenna reflectors, solar arrays, inflatable rovers, re-entry equipment, and human habitats. In particular, we explore several feasible 3-D shapes that can be achieved through the inflation of an initially flat rubber membrane with nonuniform geometrical and material properties. Our rubber-based prototypes provide a convenient basis for conceptual scientific and design explorations in shape morphing inflatable structures.

In a third study, we explore the idea of shape shifting in the design and fabrication of synthetic soft robots with active components. Motivated by the swimming mechanisms of jellyfish, we develop a novel concept for a soft biomimetic underwater robot that imitates the shape and kinematics of the typical animal. The robot swims by harnessing the buckling instability of its soft body to quickly morph from an initially flat into a deformed dome-shaped configuration, which generates the required thrust for underwater locomotion. Joule heating of an embedded pre-stretched shape memory alloy spring serves as an artificial muscle for the robot to make this shape morphing possible. The proposed synthetic shape morphing system introduces a new idea in design of simple, compact, and biomimetic robots with smart artificial muscles.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:38:05 -0500 2020-12-18T10:00:00-05:00 2020-12-18T11:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Aerospace Engineering Livestream / Virtual Headshot of Mohammad Kazemi
Write-Togethers (January 25, 2021 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-20562759@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, January 25, 2021 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2021-01-25T09:00:00-05:00 2021-01-25T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Metalevel Motion Planning for Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Metrics Definition and Algorithm Selection (January 26, 2021 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/81051 81051-20838703@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 2:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

A diverse suite of manned and unmanned aircraft will occupy future urban airspace. Flight plans must accommodate specific aircraft characteristics including physical volume with safety zone clearance, landing/takeoff procedures, kinodynamics, and a wide range of flight environments. No single motion planner is applicable across all possible aircraft configurations and operating conditions. This dissertation proposes the first motion planning algorithm selection capability with application to small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) multicopters operating in and over a complex urban landscape.

Fail-safe studies are presented to improve on contemporary "fly-home" or automatic landing protocols. Three alternative data-driven fail-safe protocols are presented for multicopter UAS urban flight, focusing on building rooftops as safe urban landing sites. In the first fail-safe strategy, the multicopter identifies, generates, and follows a flight plan to the closest available rooftop suitable for landing. In the second supervisory fail-safe strategy, the multicopter examines rooftops en route to a planned landing site, diverting to a closer, clear landing site when possible. In the third fail-safe strategy, the multicopter cannot preplan a safe landing site due to missing landing site data. In this case, the multicopter executes a coverage path to explore the area and evaluate overflown rooftops to find a safe landing site. These three fail-safe algorithms integrate map generation, flight planning, and area coverage capabilities.

The motion planning algorithm selection problem (ASP) requires qualitative and quantitative metrics to inform the ASP of user/agent, algorithm, and configuration space preferences and constraints. Urban flight map-based, path-based, and software-based cost metrics are defined to provide insights into the properties of the urban canyon needed to construct safe and efficient flight plans. Map-based metrics describe the operating environment by constructing a collection of GPS/Lidar navigation performance, population density, and obstacle risk exposure metric maps. Path-based metrics account for a vehicle's energy consumption and distance traveled. Software-based metrics measure memory consumption and execution time of an algorithm. Metric maps were analyzed in-depth with path-based and software-based metrics utilized in Monte Carlo and ASP studies.

An algorithm portfolio consisting of geometric (Point-to-Point: PTP), graph-based (A* variants), and sampling-based (BIT* variants) motion planners were considered in this work. Path cost, execution time, and success rate benchmarks were investigated using Monte Carlo problem instances with A* "plus" producing the lowest cost paths, PTP having the fastest executions, and A* "dist" having the best overall success rates. The BIT* variant paths typically had higher cost but their success rate increased relative to altitude. The problem instances and metric maps informed two new machine learning solutions for urban small UAS motion planning ASP. Rule-based decision trees were simple to construct but unable to capture both complex cost metrics and algorithm properties. The investigated neural network-based ASP formulations produced promising results, with a hybrid two-stage selection scheme having the best algorithm selection accuracy, laying the seeds for future work.

The most significant innovation of this dissertation is motion planning ASP for UAS. Non-traditional open-source databases also advance the field of data-driven flight planning, contributing to fail-safe UAS operations as well as ASP. Path planning algorithms integrated a new suite of diverse cost metrics accompanied by a novel multi-objective admissible heuristic function. Neural network and decision tree ASP options were presented and evaluated as a first-case practical approach to solving the motion planning ASP for small UAS urban flight.

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Livestream / Virtual Thu, 21 Jan 2021 11:31:54 -0500 2021-01-26T14:00:00-05:00 2021-01-26T15:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Robotics Livestream / Virtual chart
Write-Togethers (February 1, 2021 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-20562760@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, February 1, 2021 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2021-02-01T09:00:00-05:00 2021-02-01T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (February 8, 2021 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-20562761@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, February 8, 2021 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2021-02-08T09:00:00-05:00 2021-02-08T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other
Write-Togethers (February 15, 2021 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/75828 75828-20562762@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, February 15, 2021 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Sweetland Center for Writing

Write-Together sessions provide structure, accountability, and support for graduate writers working on writing at any stage, from papers to theses to journal articles to dissertations and more. For each of these remote sessions, participants access a shared Google document that will serve as a communal virtual space. Students will be invited to post pre-writing goals and post-writing reflections in the document. Writers can also schedule a 10-minute Zoom meeting with Sweetland faculty during each session to discuss writing questions. We will also provide weekly writing strategies to habituate students to best writing practices.

Supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Sweetland Center for Writing.

More information available at
https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/graduates/write-together-sessions.html

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Other Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:05:27 -0500 2021-02-15T09:00:00-05:00 2021-02-15T12:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Sweetland Center for Writing Other