Fall 2019

10/12/19 | What's so Super About Superocomputing -- Sharon Broude Geva (U-M Office of Research)

Supercomputers have been around for decades, but now they impact every aspect of our lives even if we aren't aware of it. Supercomputing isn't just about hardware and software, it is about what supercomputers can be used for, and even more importantly, it is about the human capabilities and efforts that go into using them.

10/19/19 | The Astronet: A Human-Centric Network of Free-Flying Space Co-Robots -- Dimitra Panagou (U-M Aerospace Engineering)

In this talk, Professor Panagou will describe her work for the NASA Early Career Faculty Award on the "Astronet": a human-centric robotic network of future space free-fliers (Astrobees) that will assist the astronauts in EVAs and IVAs on the ISS, and for space exploration. She will describe her team's algorithmic developments on the intelligence and autonomy of the Astronet, and on how it can interact and assist astronauts in multi-tasking procedures in unstructured environments. She will show simulations results on an ISS simulator, as well as preliminary experimental results with small quadrotors.

10/26/19 | The Birth and Amazing Life of Nonlinear Optics -- Herbert Winful (U-M Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

The birth of the field of nonlinear optics occurred in Randall Laboratory at the University of Michigan in 1961 when Franken, Hill, Peters, and Weinreich observed for the first time the generation of optical harmonics. This discovery was rapidly followed by the observation of numerous other nonlinear effects such as optical rectification, frequency mixing, self-focusing, and parametric oscillation. In this talk we review the physics, birth, growth, and modern day applications of nonlinear optics.

11/02/19 | Who Ordered that? The Marvelous, Mysterious Muon -- Tim Chupp (U-M Physics)

The muon is a heavier version of the electron and was first discovered in cosmic rays but is now studied extensively in accelerator experiments. Many properties of the muon have been measured with exquisite precision and are essential to our understanding of the interactions of elementary particles, but mysteries remain. This talk will be all about the muon and what we expect to learn by studying this marvelous, mysterious particle.

11/16/19 | Supermassive Black Holes and You -- Megan Donahue (Michigan State University)

A supermassive black hole may have played a more important role in your existence than you might have thought. You might want to sit down for this.

11/23/19 | How Wrong is it to Publish in the Right Journals -- Elaine Westbrooks (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Scholars need to communicate their research in order to advance science and to promote the understanding of the human experience. The future of scientific publishing may very well rest on our ability to flip the current model that serves the interests of a few for-profit publishers to a model that has incentives to serve the interests of humanity. This talk will introduce a number of strategies that might be employed to create a more just and sustaining scientific publishing system.

12/07/19 | Black Holes: Facts, Myths, and Mysteries -- Elena Gallo (U-M Astronomy)

This talk will be a journey through the concept of astrophysical black holes: from Einstein's theory to the discovery of the first stellar mass black hole in our Galaxy, all the way to the four- million-solar-mass black hole that is hiding at its center.

12/14/19 | Climate Change Opportunities and Challenges for Michigan -- Johnathan Overpeck (U-M School for Environment and Sustainability)

Climate change is already impacting the planet in dramatic ways, including in the U.S. and in the Great Lakes region. The impacts in Michigan, although not negligible, are modest compared to much of the country, and thus our state could become a go-to destination for many businesses and people fleeing more severe climate change impacts in other parts of the country. However, if climate change is not curbed, Michigan also runs the risk of becoming a sacrifice zone; thus quick action on climate change could be a win-win for our state.