Thomas Lord Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) Spring 2026 Distinguished Seminar Speaker Series welcomes Dr. Jian Cao (Northwestern) to deliver the MEMS Distinguished Seminar, "Physics-based AI-assisted Design and Control Manufacturing Processes." Abstract: Current research efforts at my manufacturing group aim to advance the capability to co-design materials and manufacturing processes using hybrid […]

Abstract: Vulcan Elements has established a full supply chain to manufacture rare earth permanent magnets in the United States. This includes a network of raw material suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and a growing talent pool. These magnets are used in all critical industries, like aerospace and transportation, data centers and telecommunications, industrial equipment and power generation, […]

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science invites Dr. Olivier Delaire (Duke) to present the MEMS Seminar, "The Dynamics of Atoms in Solids - from Early Breakthroughs to Current Challenges." ABSTRACT: From Einstein's and Debye's models for the heat capacity , through Peierls' early theory of thermal conductivity , and the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory […]

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science welcomes Lance Collins to deliver the MEMS Seminar, "Technology Campuses Spurring the Regional Economy." ABSTRACT: In late 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration announced a competition to create a new campus in New York City that would accelerate the burgeoning tech sector in the city. […]

Abstract: Vision-Language-Action (VLA) policies have recently emerged as a promising paradigm for generalist robot autonomy. However, VLAs have several challenges that must be overcome before they can achieve their potential. Firstly, these models require fine-tuning with human-teleoperation demonstrations, which can be tedious, expensive, and time-consuming to collect. Secondly, policy performance is limited to teleop demonstration […]

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science hosts Dr. Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard) to present the MEMS Distinguished Seminar.

Abstract: Electrocatalysis has the potential to enable sustainable chemical infrastructures via the generation of commodity chemicals such as hydrogen, hydrocarbons, and ammonia with renewable energy, but electrochemical devices such as electrolyzers often exhibit inadequate activity and stability for these transformations due to poor catalyst performance for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The Moreno-Hernandez Laboratory specializes […]