Millennium Café

The growing demand for greener solutions has intensified the search for renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. Bio-renewable resources offer a promising path to sustainable carbon materials, which can replace traditional non-renewable carbon in applications like lithium-ion batteries. This shift reduces environmental impact, lessens fossil fuel dependence, and fosters innovative uses of natural resources for a cleaner future. I will showcase strategies for developing sustainable carbon materials from bio-renewable resources and provide insights into enhancing their performance for energy storage applications, paving the way for innovative and eco-friendly advancements in material science.
Fnu Bindu  |  Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow  |  Energy & Mineral Engineering

I will highlight a collaborative project recently awarded the 2024 Phase 1 accelerator from the Penn State Climate Consortium and hope to foster additional collaborations among Penn State researchers across materials science, architecture, engineering, social sciences, and environmental studies. By encouraging innovative thinking and novel research directions, we seek to develop breakthrough solutions for climate resilience through interdisciplinary approaches to sustainable building materials. 
Mariantonieta ‘Mariant’ Gutierrez Soto | Engineering Design

Enjoy Thanksgiving Break!

There will be no Millennium Café on November 26.
Join us on December 3 for both the Millennium Café and After Café.

New techniques to characterize materials at micro and nano scales have enhanced natural history research discovery. Paleontology, in particular, has benefited from advanced imaging techniques and characterization methods capable of analyzing small samples to understand biological and ecological systems in unprecedented detail. This talk will highlight recent work at the boundaries of paleontology, material sciences, bio-inspiration and wildlife conservation and explore avenues where the study of fossils contribute unique perspectives to modern problems.

Chris Widga  |  Earth & Mineral Sciences

Our project is motivated by the staggering prevalence of anxiety symptoms among adolescents and young adults, and the fact that millions of young people struggle to find accessible and healthy ways to manage anxiety. Our guided drawing intervention integrates an approachable and tangible activity with mindfulness elements. We have found that our guided drawing activity decreases anxiety within-session and days later and bolsters physiological regulation to a greater extent than controls. Our ongoing research examines neurocognitive and long-term effects of the intervention. We will discuss and invite feedback on ideas for potential outputs, dissemination, and applications of this work, as well as opportunities to foster future interdisciplinary arts-sciences collaborations.

Sarah Myruski | College of Liberal Arts
Bill Doan | College of Arts & Architecture

Ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) have become useful for chemosensing (translating chemical composition changes into electrical signals) with applications in environmental monitoring, healthcare diagnostics, and industrial control.  This work explores the integration of machine learning with graphene-based ISFETs, using extensive sensor data for classification and quantification tasks. Specifically, data from non-functionalized graphene-based ISFETs are used to train neural networks to detect issues like food fraud and spoilage, showing potential for data-driven chemical detection across diverse applications.

Saptarshi Das  |  Engineering Science and Mechanics