Millennium Café

The development of thermal analogues to electrical devices (diodes, transistors, etc) and the potential of integrated thermal systems is the next frontier in nano/micro scale thermal transport.  This exciting new area of research represents uncharted territory for the thermal sciences community where until now, the primary objectives for controlling the flow of heat have been focused on fixing the properties of a material or interface to (a) be as conductive or resistive as possible and (b) maintain these properties both over time and under a variety of environmental conditions.  My presentation will encompass a survey of the existing research on thermal diodes and transistors to date, as well as a perspective on future material/device architectures and other electrical-analogs including detectors and interconnects. 

When synthesizing materials for applications in electronics, optoelectronics and other applications the crystalline quality of the material is usually of high importance.  X-ray diffraction, historically, has been widely implemented to assess crystal structure and imperfections present in the crystal lattice.  While this is routinely done for samples that are around 10 nm and thicker, for monolayer materials like two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides such characterization is much more challenging.  In this presentation I will discuss how XRD can be leveraged to study ultra-thin  2D layered materials.

Penn State’s Applied Biological and Biosecurity Research Laboratory (ABRL) protects global health through a strong network of international partners.  Together we perform critical research, assess risks, investigate threats, inform policy and work to build global capabilities for mitigating the threat of human and veterinary infectious disease emergence.  Leveraging state-of-the-art interdisciplinary strategies, ABRL has ongoing programmatic engagements focusing on One Health security around the globe to create sustainable impacts.  We involve regional country ministries and stakeholders as well as US government agencies, global foundations and philanthropic organizations. In the end, our mission is simple: improve global health and biosecurity.  I will provide an overview of ABRL’s Vision, current global engagements and how faculty may engage with and contribute to ABRL’s global engagements.

Kay M. van der Horst | Applied Biological Research Laboratory

Medical radar is an emerging area of research and development, spurred by rapid advances in electromagnetic modeling, simulation, component development, and signal and image processing algorithms. In this talk, we review various important considerations in the design and development of medical radar systems for diagnostic applications. 

Elemental sulfur, an essential intermediate in the sulfur cycle, is both ubiquitous in the environment and an enigmatic material with dozens of allotropic forms.  Despite its prevalence, S(0) is challenging to characterize. In this talk, I will discuss our use of low frequency Raman spectroscopy in detecting and analyzing sulfur in our environmental and lab-synthesized samples.

Chrissie Nims | Cosmidis Lab

A picture is worth a thousand words.  The question is, which thousand words?  This talk will present computational methods developed in my group that enable the translation of raw image pixels to objects, relations, events, decisions, and new knowledge. Based upon these methods we have created highly accurate machine learning systems for segmentation, classification and synthesis of biological and medical images.​

Sharon Huang | Information Sciences and Technology | Huck Institutes