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

CO2 as a Pollutant & Feedstock: Musings on Direct Air Capture of CO2 & Tandem CO2 Capture & Conversion

Thursday, March 5, 2026; 10:35am
Capone Learning Auditorium (CBEB 001)
Speaker: Christopher Jones from Georgia Tech

Most current climate models suggest that limiting warming to <2°C will require large scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. CDR may be natural or technological, with one of the most scalable technological approaches being the direct capture of CO2 from the air, or “direct air capture” (DAC) coupled with geologic storage. Because of the ultra-dilute nature of air, the separation of CO2 from this mixture presents a significant engineering challenge.  Today, DAC technologies are very expensive ($500-1000/tCO2).

In this lecture, I will first describe the unique challenges associated with designing molecules, materials, devices and ultimately processes for DAC.  Specifically, I will describe the design and synthesis, characterization and application of porous oxide-supported amine materials that we have developed as cornerstones of new technologies for the removal of CO2 from air. These materials are incorporated into customized air/solid contactors designed specifically as key components of DAC technologies. DAC offers an interesting case study for the parallel and integrated design of materials, unit operations, and processes in chemistry and chemical engineering.

In the second part of the talk, I will describe our work on tandem, serial CO2 capture from simulated flue gas and CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Using a ZnZrO2 catalyst and a ZnZrO2+NaNO3/Mg3AlOx catalytic sorbent in a fixed-bed for the combined capture and hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol, we show that conventional steady-state co-feed catalysts experiments often do not predict reactivity under highly transient, stepwise, capture and conversion conditions. Using in situ DRIFTS, and SSITKA-DRIFTS, ZnZrO2 alone produced methanol through sequential hydrogenation of HCOO* and CH3O* intermediates under steady-state conditions, with CO primarily attributed to CO2 dissociation at oxygen vacancies, as supported by isotopic shifts and measured reaction orders.  In contrast, for the catalytic sorbent, isotopic switching experiments suggested that monodentate CO32- species act as active intermediates that can be hydrogenated to HCOO* and subsequently to CH3O. Under transient capture and conversion conditions, CO32- species formed during the CO2 capture step follow two competing routes upon H2 exposure: (i) direct hydrogenation to methane on the sorbent domain or (ii) migration of CO32- to the ZnZrO2 domain, where they are hydrogenated to methanol through the HCOO pathway. Under reactive capture and conversion conditions, carbonate hydrogenation routes not observed under co-feed conditions occur and the product distribution is determined by competition between carbonate hydrogenation on sorbent sites and migration to ZnZrO2 sites for methanol synthesis.

Hosted by: Angela Dixon,  adc12@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

Tuesday, March 3, 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

Advancing Next-Generation Electronic Devices and Systems Using (Ultra)Wide-Bandgap Nitrides (and Oxides)

Thursday, March 5, 2026; 9:30-10:30 AM, 101 Electrical Engineering East

Speaker: Jie Zhang from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Bio: Jie Zhang is an EECS Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research focuses on wide-bandgap nitride and oxide semiconductor devices for energy-efficient electronics, logic-memory integration, high-frequency and high-power operation, and extreme-environment applications. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Delaware, where he developed high-performance TiO2 thin-film transistors for low-power IoT applications. His postdoctoral research at Purdue University focused on ultrascaled In2O3 transistors for back-end-of-line-compatible logic and memory integration with enhanced mobility-stability trade-offs. His current work on ferroelectric ScAlN/GaN devices targets resilient electronics for defense, energy, and space systems.

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: Robert D. Braun "Autonomous Deep Space Exploration"

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

Abstract: For decades, space exploration has conjured visions of advanced technology. However, for much of our history, spaceflight has made limited use of autonomy and onboard computational capacity. This has changed in the past few years, particularly at more distant locations or in applications where the number of collaborative sensors is large. This seminar will review the systems trade between ground-in-the-loop and autonomous operations from a risk perspective, discuss recent advances in space exploration enabled by autonomy, and highlight the new class of spaceflight missions possible in the coming decade. The speaker’s experience working with the Mars Perseverance, Ingenuity, DART, Parker Solar Probe and Dragonfly teams will be highlighted.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Robert D. Braun is a space systems engineer, technlogist, and organizational leader. He has contributed to the formulation, development, and operation of multiple space flight missions and is a recognized authority in hypersonics technology and entry, descent and landing systems. Dr. Braun serves on the executive leadership team of the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory with responsibilities that span all civil and national security space activities at the Lab. He is also a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Braun previously served in executive positions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Colorado Boulder, and NASA, and has previously served on the faculty of Georgia Tech, CU Boulder and Caltech. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the AIAA and AAS, and the author or co-author of over 300 technical publications. Dr. Braun is a proud graduate of Penn State Aerospace Engineering.

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

Catalyst deactivation: Mechanisms, stability by design, and pathways to machine-learned models

Thursday, March 19, 2026;

Speaker: Phillip Christopher from University of California, Santa Barbara

Supported metal catalysts are used ubiquitously in industrial applications for energy conversion, material/chemical manufacturing, and pollution mitigation. Fundamental research often focuses on elucidating structure-function relationships that connect active site structures and compositions to their reactivities. Relationships that connect active site structure to stability are less well developed. Such insights require appreciation of dynamic structure changes, longer term experimentation, and reactors characterized by gradients in temperatures and chemical potentials. I will highlight two recent research efforts from my group where we have studied the deactivation of supported metal catalysts.

First, I will discuss the deactivation of supported coinage (Cu and Ag) metal catalysts which occurs via sintering due to the low melting points of these metals. We found that the addition of < 1:100 mol fraction of certain dopant metals results in drastic stability enhancement under methanol synthesis reaction conditions A model was developed that proposes the role of dopants as local stabilizers of highly mobile metal atoms. Secondly, I will discuss the deactivation of Rh/TiO2 catalysts under CO2 hydrogenation conditions. Mechanistic studies suggest that deactivation occurs through competing mechanisms as a function of catalyst composition and reaction conditions, motivating the use experimentally trained machine learnt models to predict deactivation behavior. A round robin style experimental campaign was performed across 4 institutions to generate data for this effort. I will discuss our from this effort in the context of experimental uncertainty and the resulting influence on machine learned model development.      

Hosted by: Angela Dixon,  adc12@psu.edu

Superlattice Castellated Field Effect Transistor (SLCFET) Technology

Wednesday, March 18, 2026; 1:00-2:30 PM
114 Steidle
Speaker: Dr. Robert Howell from Northrop Grumman Corporation

BIOGRAPHY   

Howell received a B.S. in engineering and a B.A. in history from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Lehigh University, where he studied polycrystalline silicon thin-film microelectronics for displays. He has since worked at Northrop Grumman, now in the Mission Systems Sector, leading R&D on semiconductor devices and processes across material systems including SiC, GaN, Si, diamond, GaAs, and GeTe, and device types such as DMOSFETs, diodes, TFTs, SITs, HBTs, and HEMTs, most notably inventing the SLCFET topology for low-loss RF and microwave switching. Named an NG Fellow in 2017, he serves as system architect for microelectronics in Mission Next, advancing next-generation components and packaging. He has co-authored over 100 publications and holds more than 25 patents.

Hosted by: Lyndsey Biddle,  lrb5765@psu.edu

Aerospace Engineering Seminar Series: Stefan Bianiawski

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

Hosted by: Jessica Chhan,  jmc7050@psu.edu

From Molecules to Supply Chains: Transforming Data to Decisions using Geometry, Optimization, and Machine Learning

Thursday, March 26, 2026; 10:35am
Capone Learning Auditorium (CBEB 001)
Speaker: Victor Zavala Tejeda from University of Wisconsin-Madison

We discuss how geometry, optimization, and machine learning are key technologies that are
revolutionazing the way we think about data and the way we transform data into actionable models and
decisions. Specifically, we explain how complex data (e.g., text, molecules, time series, images/video, supply
chain flows) can be represented as geometrical objects and how this faciltates interpretation and extraction
of useful information from data. We also discuss how extracted information can be mapped into decisions
using optimization and machine learning models. We illustrate how to use these powerful math tools in
innovative ways for analyzing complex datasets arising in molecular dynamics simulation, microscopy,
chemical processes, and suppy chains. Specifically, we show that these tools can help link the
microstructure of soft gels to their rheological properties, can help analyze complex responses of liquid
crystals from video data, and can help detect faults and optimize large-scale systems.

Hosted by: Angela Dixon,  adc12@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