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The Wednesday Seminar Series is designed to introduce students to the breadth of research happening at Caltech.
The first seminar is on June 17 and will take place in 147 Noyes. All other seminars will take place in 153 Noyes. (These two rooms are right next to each other.) Noyes is building #72 on the Caltech map. All seminars will take place from 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM. Light refreshments will be available before each seminar.
More information on talk titles and abstract will be posted here soon.
June 17 Bil Clemons, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
June 24 Julia Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science
July 1 Mark Stalzer, Executive Director, Center for Advanced Computing Research
July 8 Athanassios G. Siapas, Associate Professor of Computation and Neural Systems
July 15 Matthew Golombek, Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 22 Rana Adhikari, Assistant Professor of Physics
July 29 Bill Deverell, Professor of History, University of Southern California
August 5 Beverly McKeon, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics
August 12 David Anderson, Roger W. Sperry Professor of Biology
Size Matters: Mechanical Properties of Materials at Nano-Scale
While “super-sizing” seems to be the driving force of our food industry, the direction of materials research has been quite the opposite: the dimensions of most technological devices are getting ever smaller. These advances in nanotechnology have a tremendous impact on parts of the economy as diverse as information, energy, health, agriculture, security, and transportation. Some of the examples include data storage at densities greater than one terabit per square inch, high-efficiency solid-state engines, single-cell diagnostics of complex diseases (e.g. cancer), and the development of ultralight yet super-strong materials for vehicles, with the component sizes comprising these technological devices reduced to the sub-micron scale. The functionality of these devices directly depends on their structural integrity and mechanical stability, driving the necessity to understand and to predict mechanical properties of materials at reduced dimensions. Yield and fracture strengths, for example, have been found to deviate from classicalmechanics laws and therefore can no longer be inferred from the bulk response or from the literature. Unfortunately, the few existing experimental techniques for assessing mechanical properties at that scale are insufficient, not easily accessible, and are generally limited to thin films. In order to design reliable devices, a fundamental understanding of mechanical properties as a function of feature size is desperately needed; with the key remaining question whether materials really are stronger when the instrumental artifacts are removed, and if so then why and how.
July 1 - Mark Stalzer, Executive Director, Center for Advanced Computing Research
Engineering Computational Science and Engineering
The purpose of computational science and engineering is to use computers to accelerate scientific discovery and engineering design. This has been a major driver in the development of high performance computing. Yet, something is missing. In this talk I suggest a more systems engineering viewpoint of CSE where all parts are considered: sensors, computers, algorithms, and more formally connecting simulations to experiment. In this viewpoint, the question changes: from how fast does the computer go, to how much science can be done for fixed resources. Examples are given from work at CACR.
July 8 - Athanassios G. Siapas, Associate Professor of Computation and Neural Systems
Network Mechanisms of Memory Formation
(abstract unavailable)
July 15 - Matthew Golombek, Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Exploration Rover Science Results: Climate Change from Wet to Dry
Evidence gathered by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity indicates that rocks exposed in Meridini Planum are dirty evaporites deposited in salt-water playas that record a wet and likely warm environment very early in its history (>3.6 billion years ago). In contrast, the cratered basalt plains of Gusev that Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has traversed have been dominated by impact and eolian processes that argues for a dry and desiccating environment similar to todays since about 3.5 billion years ago. If Mars was habitable early in its history, did life develop (are we alone in the universe)?
July 29 - Bill Deverell, Professor of History, University of Southern California
Environmental Planning and the Growth of Los Angeles: Lessons from the Past
This talk explores a moment in pre-World War II Los Angeles regarding landscape and greenbelt planning. Had the visions of key individuals and institutions been realized, we would today inhabit a very different Los Angeles in terms of greenspace, parks, and the preservation of public recreational spaces.
August 5 - Beverley J. McKeon, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics
“Tickling” Fluid Flows Using Morphing Surfaces
It is well known that surface roughness can degrade the performance of aerodynamic bodies, for example by triggering early transition of laminar boundary layers or increasing skin friction drag in turbulent ones, but can we use this knowledge to our advantage? This talk will investigate opportunities to revolutionize the design of control surfaces for the air and sea vehicles (and sports balls!) of the future. I will describe our work reconfiguring modern materials to generate “morphing surfaces” capable of slight, on-demand changes to their roughness properties, and interrogating the response of various flows to this minimal input, akin to “tickling” the flow in such a way as to induce a large response. Can we actively optimize the dimples on a golf ball for maximum range or directional correction? Not yet...
August 12 - David Anderson, Roger W. Sperry Professor of Biology
Molecular Genetic Analysis of Neural Circuits Underlying Emotional Behaviors
Emotional behaviors are innate behaviors that can be elicited by learned or
unlearned stimuli. Abnormal regulation of emotional function underlies affective disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia. Such illnesses are likely to be disorders of neural circuit function. In order to better understand and treat such disorders, it will be necessary to 1) identify the
circuits that are affected; 2) understand their normal function; 3) understand how their function is perturbed in a given disorder; 4) develop
interventional strategies to correct circuit dysfunction. The functional
dissection of emotion circuits is currently limited by the cellular
complexity of these circuits, and the inadequate specificity of available
tools. I will discuss genetically based approaches to dissecting emotion
circuits in mice, focusing on the amygdala, and to modeling “emotional
behaviors” in Drosophila.
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