Aerospace Engineering Seminar Series: Aaron Johnson "Developing Judgment to Address Wicked Problems in Aerospace Engineering"

Thursday, March 5, 2026; 3:00pm-4:00pm
028 ECoRE
Speaker: Aaron Johnson from University of Michigan

Abstract: Aerospace engineers constantly face “wicked problems,” which are ill-defined and complex sociotechnical problems with undefined and often-shifting constraints and requirements. Many students come to aerospace engineering because they want to tackle these wicked problems in their future career; however, the well-defined, closed-ended, and decontextualized problems prevalent in undergraduate aerospace engineering education do not allow students to develop the judgment and critical thinking needed to address these problems. This seminar will cover my design-based education research that integrates fundamental research of student thinking and evidence-based development of education interventions. Specifically, I will discuss a set of open-ended problems for engineering science courses and a related taxonomy of emerging engineering modeling judgment that outlines the ways in which engineering students make informed decisions when developing and using mathematical models. The talk will conclude with implications for engineering education, particularly as they relate to the ever-expanding availability and capacbility of generative AI, and future research directions.

Speaker Bio: Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. His lab’s NSF-funded design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hosted by: Jessica Chhan,  jmc7050@psu.edu

How Cancers Lose Their Nerve

Wednesday, March 4, 2026; 12:15 - 1:15 pm
W306 Millennium Science Complex
Speaker: Bojana Gligorijevic from Temple University

To image tumor-associated sensory neurons, we have recently integrated retrograde tracing and tissue-clearing with advanced 3D microscopy (J Microscopy 2024). We have also designed a 3D dorsal root ganglia (DRG)-on-chip (iScience 2026) and established cultures of mechanosensory neurons. Using our novel approaches, we found an increase in sensory neuron outgrowth and activity concomitant with breast tumor progression. Activated neurons release the peptide CGRP, which binds to CRLR/RAMP1 on cancer cells, decreasing their ability to metastasize. This cascade of events suggests that sensory innervation in primary tumors has a protective role.

https://psu.zoom.us/j/94639233394

Hosted by: Rebecca Benson,  rle4@psu.edu

Toward Trustworthy Coordinated Intelligence for the Real World

Monday, March 2, 2026; 10:00AM
W375 Westgate Building
Speaker: Dr. Woojun Kim from Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Woojun Kim is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST, where his research focused on multi-agent reinforcement learning. His current research studies coordination in multi-agent systems through reinforcement learning, and develops trustworthy multi-agent learning for scalable, robust, fair, and safe real-world deployment, with applications to robotics including information gathering. He has published in top machine learning venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR, as well as leading robotics conferences including ICRA and CoRL. His work has been recognized with multiple honors, including the Best Paper Award at the GenAI-HRI Workshop, RSS 2025, and Best Conference Paper Finalist at ICRA 2025.

Hosted by: Emmalia Lutz,  exr123@psu.edu

Advancing Device Design and Integration Across Functional Material Platforms

Friday, March 6, 2026; 9:30-10:30 AM, 101 Electrical Engineering East

Speaker: Kwan-Ho Kim (Northwestern University) from

Bio: Kwan-Ho Kim is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at Northwestern University in the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, working with Prof. John A. Rogers. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

His research expertise lies in the design and integration of high-performance electronic devices across diverse material platforms, including III-nitride ferroelectrics, two-dimensional semiconductors, oxide semiconductors, and silicon-based technologies. His work spans ferroelectric memory devices, negative-capacitance transistors, transient bio-integrated electronics, photovoltaic devices, and quantum tunneling devices with an emphasis on device physics, electrostatics, and system-level integration. Through close collaboration with materials experts, his research aims to translate emerging materials into functional electronic systems that address challenges in energy-efficient computing, extreme-environment operation, and bio-integrated applications.

Hosted by: Lyndsey Biddle,  lrb5765@psu.edu

Waste to Resource: Sustainable Plastic Management for a Circular Global Economy

Wednesday, March 4, 2026; 121 Earth & Engineering Science Building
335-425PM
Speaker: Hilal Ezgi Toramann from Energy, Mineral and Chemical Engineering PSU

Abstract:

About 60% of all plastics ever made are currently in waste sites, resulting in a yearly loss of $80-120 billion USD. Plastic production, accounting for 6% of global oil use, is projected to rise to 20% by 2050. Unique conditions in landfills and the natural environment expose plastic waste to factors like high salinity, varied temperatures, and microbial breakdown which can lead to the formation of microplastics. My lab leverages expertise in catalysis and reaction engineering along with advanced separation techniques such as two-dimensional gas chromatography and artificial intelligence to study the fundamental chemistry behind plastic recycling technologies. Accurate product characterization is essential to develop kinetic models for both catalytic and non-catalytic pathways. By leveraging the advanced separation capabilities of GC×GC, this talk highlights its critical role in resolving complex pyrolysis products and elucidating reaction mechanisms. These insights enable resilient plastic-recycling strategies by deepening our understanding of pyrolysis chemistry, ensuring process adaptability, and reinforcing the foundations of a strong circular economy.

Bio:

Hilal Ezgi Toraman leads an interdisciplinary research program at Penn State focused on sustainable reaction engineering and catalysis for the valorization of non-traditional carbon feedstocks, particularly plastic waste. Her group integrates advanced pyrolysis experimentation, GC×GC-based analytics, and kinetic modeling to develop and optimize scalable chemical recycling technologies. She leads multi-institutional projects on mixed plastic pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading, where her group contributes intrinsic kinetic studies, GC×GC method development, and data management and analysis infrastructure to support process design and evaluation. Toraman has received both national and international recognition, including the C&EN Talented 12, AIChE CRE Pioneers in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, and ACS Energy & Fuels Rising Star. She has held leadership roles as Director of AIChE's Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division and president of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland Catalysis Society. Her honors include the Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr. Faculty Fellowship and the Wilson Fellowship. Before joining the Penn State faculty, Toraman was a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Delaware Energy Institute at the University of Delaware. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Türkiye , and her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Ghent University, Belgium.

Hosted by: Lana Fulton,  lub18@psu.edu

Aerospace Engineering Seminar Series: TBA

Thursday, March 19, 2026; 3:00pm-4:00pm
ECoRE
Speaker: from

Hosted by: Jessica Chhan,  jmc7050@psu.edu

From neuron classification to spiking neural network simulations: a neuroinformatics approach to data-driven computational models

Wednesday, March 18, 2026; 12:15 - 1:15 pm
W306 Millennium Science Complex
Speaker: Giorgio Ascoli from George Mason University

Neuroscience textbooks describe the brain as a massive network of spiking neurons with complex dynamics. Neural circuits, the story goes, are largely defined by the connectivity between axons, reliably propagating all-or-none action potentials to distant targets, and local dendrites integrating synaptic inputs. In this model, activity-dependent plasticity continuously alters synaptic strength, while neurotransmitters determine excitation v. inhibition. Are these ingredients sufficient to explain cognition? If not, what is missing? Tackling these questions for the hippocampal formation, I will show how neuronal diversity is the key to explore the relationship between synapses and behavior.

https://psu.zoom.us/j/94639233394

Hosted by: Rebecca Benson,  rle4@psu.edu

Aerospace Engineering Seminar Series: Stefan Bianiawski

Thursday, March 26, 2026; 3:00pm-4:00pm
ECoRE
Speaker: from

Hosted by: Jessica Chhan,  jmc7050@psu.edu

Computational Electromagnetics; past, present and future

Wednesday, March 25, 2026; 121 Earth & Engineering Science Building
3:35-4:25 p.m.
Speaker: Balasubramaniam Shanker from Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Ohio State University

The solution to Maxwell’s equation has been the basis of a slew of development over the past eight decades. These range from early radar systems to modern applications that are capturing imagination of engineers today: wearable sensors or antennas, antennas and sensors for driverless vehicles, threat detection scanners, non-invasive medical devices, advanced electromagnetic (EM) and acoustic materials. In exploring these applications, the state of art has advanced to an extent that it computational electromagnetics has become a routine part of the design eco-system. Indeed, more often than not, it is not uncommon for designers to ask whether measured data agrees with HFSS, a simulation software. It was not always this way. A couple of decades ago, the state of art of simulations was at its infancy. Problem that could be solved were electrically small and geometrically not sophisticated. The gradual transformation of the state of art happened in late 1990’s. The transformation was largely driven by both advances in computational horsepower as well new algorithms. In concert, we have achieved remarkable capabilities. That said, the richness of our electromagnetic environment implies that there are a range of problems that are still beyond the reach of our simulation capabilities. Challenges arise due to increase in frequency, behavior of materials at these frequencies, shape and topology optimization, transient physics, multi-physics challenges, packaging in relation to new circuit architectures, and so on. In this talk, I will walk through some the grand challenges (biased perspective, of course) that the community has overcome and our group’s role in these efforts. I will also diverge onto interesting intellectual forays into the intersection of computer graphics and computational electromagnetics as well as particle in cell methods for plasma physics. I will walk through some of the interesting topics that our group has embarked upon as well as pose a set of open interesting problems.

B. Shanker received his B'Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1989, M.S. and Ph.D in 1992 and 1993, respectively, from The Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he is an Elizabeth and John Tinkham Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Ohio State University from 2022. Between 2017-2022, he was a University Distinguished Professor (an honor accorded to about 2% of tenure system MSU faculty members) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Earlier, he was a faculty member at Iowa State University and a visiting assistant professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, all in ECE. At Michigan State University, he served as Associate Chair of the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, a new department at MSU and was a key player in building this Department from 7 to 30+ faculty members in three years. He also served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2012-2015, and the Associate Chair for Research in ECE from 2019-2022. He has authored/co-authored around 450 journal and conference papers. He was an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters (AWPL), IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, and Topical Editor for Journal of Optical Society of America: A. He is a full member of the USNC-URSI Commission B. He is Fellow of IEEE (class 2010), elected for his contributions to time and frequency domain computational electromagnetics. He has also been awarded the Withrow Distinguished Junior scholar (in 2003), Withrow Distinguished Senior scholar (in 2010), the Withrow teaching award (in 2007), and the Beal Outstanding Faculty award (2014).

Hosted by: Lana Fulton,  lub18@psu.edu