BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//cms.divisions.caltech.edu//Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Caltech events: https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/semin ars/ical X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles LAST-MODIFIED:20230407T050750Z TZURL:https://www.tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:PDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:PST TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dual-species Rydberg arrays for quantum information and simulation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250905T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250905T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111633Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Sep 5 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Shraddha Anand\, University of Chicago\nAbstract: Rydberg atom arrays are a leading platform for quantum information due to their inhere nt scalability and flexible connectivity. Advanced protocols like measurem ent-based state preparation and quantum error correction\, however\, requi re efficient crosstalk-free midcircuit operations for the readout\, reset\ , and replenishment of a subset of qubits. These capabilities are natively present in dual-species architectures where two atomic species are contro lled independently and entangled via interspecies Rydberg interactions. In this talk\, we describe a platform composed of rubidium (Rb) and cesium ( Cs) atoms\, and explore new dynamics inaccessible in single-species arrays . First\, we demonstrate enhanced interspecies interactions by exciting at oms to Rydberg states in the Förster regime\, and implement the first int erspecies CNOT gate. We then combine this with midcircuit readout to achie ve quantum non-demolition measurement of a Rb-qubit using an auxiliary Cs- qubit\, circumventing physical qubit transport. Using a spectator qubit pr otocol\, we also perform in-sequence correction of correlated phase errors . Finally\, leveraging the two qubit modalities and using only global addr essing\, we present the first experimental demonstration of quantum cellul ar automata. By programming the initial states and subsequent pulses\, we simulate several automata schemes\, and use Rb-mediated interactions to ge nerate a 17-qubit Cs cluster state. These techniques pave the way toward s calable measurement-based protocols and real-time feedback control in larg e-scale quantum systems.Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90384 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250918T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250920T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111633Z UID:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech@Thu Sep 18 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/international-student -orientation-ibegincaltech-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Finite-Temperature Quantum Topological Order in Three Dimensions DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250919T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250919T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111633Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Sep 19 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Tibor Rakovszky\, Budapest University of Technology and Econom ics\nAbstract: We identify a three-dimensional system that exhibits long-r ange entanglement at sufficiently small but nonzero temperature—it there fore constitutes a quantum topological order at finite temperature\, the f irst known example of such order in physically realistic dimensions. The m odel of interest is known as the fermionic toric code\, a variant of the u sual 3D toric code\, which admits emergent fermionic pointlike excitations . The fermionic toric code\, importantly\, possesses an anomalous two-form symmetry\, associated with the spacelike Wilson loops of the fermionic ex citations. We argue that it is this symmetry that imbues low-temperature t hermal states with a novel topological order and long-range entanglement. Interestingly\, the classification of three-dimensional topological orders suggests that the low-temperature thermal states of the fermionic toric c ode belong to a phase of matter that\, in the context of equilibrium phase s of matter\, only exists at nonzero temperatures. Relatedly\, despite its long-range quantum entanglement\, the system only exhibits a classical me mory.Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90385 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111633Z UID:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 21 10:00:00 2025@cms.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-check-in- for-undergraduates-87966 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250921T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250928T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111633Z UID:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 21 10:00:00 2025@cm s.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-check-in- for-undergraduates-87967 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-in for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:New Student Check-in for Graduates@Mon Sep 22 09:00:00 2025@cms.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-check-in- for-graduates-87968 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250922T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250926T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:New Student Orientation for Graduates@Mon Sep 22 12:00:00 2025@cms.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-orientati on-for-graduates-87969 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250925T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250925T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Thu Sep 25 13:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/undergraduate-academi c-standards-and-honors-committee-meeting-87972 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Consistency and optimality of nonlinear data assimilation with Gau ssian processes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250926T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250926T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Special CMX Lunch Seminar@Fri Sep 26 11:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.calte ch.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Richard Nickl\, Professor of Mathematical Statistics\, Departm ent of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics\, University of Cambri dge\nWe will discuss recent progress in our understanding of Bayesian infe rence methods for parameters or states of time evolution phenomena modelle d by non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) such as Navier-Stoke s\, McKean-Vlasov\, and reaction-diffusion systems. We will show that post eriors can deliver consistent solutions in the `informative' large data/sm all noise limit\, discuss probabilistic approximations to the fluctuations of such posterior measures in infinite dimensions\, and how such results can be used to show that the non-convex problem of computation of the asso ciated `filtering' distributions are polynomial time problems. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/special-cmx-lunch-sem inar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250929T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250930T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term@Mon Sep 29 00:00:00 2025@cms.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/beginning-of-instruct ion-of-fall-term-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Engineering Emergent Material Behaviors with Controlled Microstruc tures DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251002T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251002T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering@Thu Oct 2 11:00:00 2025@cms.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Marcia A. Cooper\, Associate Professor\, J. Mike Walker '66 De partment of Mechanical Engineering\, Texas A&M University\nMechanical and Civil EngineeringTitle: "Engineering Emergent Material Behaviors with Cont rolled Microstructures"Abstract: The performance of advanced materials has traditionally been controlled by engineering ordered\, periodic microstru ctures\, but this approach can often be performance-limiting. Recent resea rch has shown that disordered microstructures can enhance material propert ies by leveraging inherent irregularities to tune macroscale responses. Th is talk will explore the emergent behaviors of both ordered and disordered systems through two case studies: the dynamic responses of multi-material additively manufactured kerf structures and the DC electrical conductivit ies of metal-ceramic powder mixtures. Additionally\, the challenges of cha racterizing irregular\, particle-based systems—where a disordered networ k of hard elements is cemented by soft bonds—will be contrasted with new opportunities for tailoring performance in shock environments. The discus sion will highlight how engineering irregularity can unlock novel material behaviors for a wide range of applications.Bio: Marcia Cooper is an Assoc iate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&\;M University with a courtesy appointment in the Materials Science and Engine ering department. Her Dynamic Material Response Lab at the Texas A&\;M University Turbomachinery Laboratory center combines aspects of shock phys ics\, mechanics of materials\, material science\, thermal science\, and co mbustion to study the performance of materials in severe environments. Pri or to joining Texas A&\;M in fall 2021\, she was a Senior Scientist in the Component Science\, Engineering\, and Production Center at Sandia Nati onal Laboratories in Albuquerque\, New Mexico. She currently serves as Cha ir of the American Physical Society\, Compression of Condensed Matter Topi cal Group. She is an associate technical editor for Experimental Technique s and on the advisory board for Propellants\, Explosives\, and Pyrotechnic s. Marcia has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University (199 9)\, and a M.S. (2000) and a Ph.D. (2004) in mechanical engineering from t he California Institute of Technology. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89903 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Understanding the Networked Dynamics of technology adoption: Appli cation to Pollution-Reducing cookstoves in Nepal DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251006T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251006T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:RSI Research Seminar@Mon Oct 6 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Juni Singh\, Visiting Associate in Social Sciences of Sustaina bility\, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences\, Caltech\nJoin us every other Monday at noon for lunch and a 30-minute research talk\, pres ented by Resnick Sustainability Institute Graduate Fellows and Caltech res earchers funded by the Resnick Sustainability Institute. To see the full s chedule of speakers\, visit the RSI Research Seminar web page. Seminars ar e currently in-person only. For more information\, please reach out to ram onae@caltech.eduUnderstanding the Networked Dynamics of technology adoptio n: Application to Pollution-Reducing cookstoves in NepalThis project inves tigates whether joint learning-by-doing—experiencing a new technology to gether in a socially intimate setting—can accelerate adoption and streng then social ties. We focus on the uptake of environment-friendly electric cookstoves in rural Dhankuta\, Nepal\, where firewood remains dominant des pite health and environmental costs. Using a randomized controlled trial a cross 40 villages (1\,800 households)\, we compare two treatments: (i) coo kstove with demonstrations\, (ii) cookstove with demonstrations plus meal- sharing with randomly matched peers. Households are randomly assigned in v illages to receive an electric cookstove for a three-month trial.  \;T he design allows us to understand how information flows may raise individu al's value for adoption. Outcomes include adoption of cookstove\, beliefs about benefits\, health impacts\, and spillovers on social interactions. B y combining behavioral insights with network-based interventions\, the stu dy contributes to understanding how social learning environments shape tec hnology diffusion and climate-friendly transitions. LOCATION:Resnick Sustainability Center 120 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/rsi-research-seminar- 58 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Analytical and computational methods for metamaterials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251007T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251007T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Oct 7 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jinghao Cao\, von Karman Instructor in Computing and Mathemati cal Sciences\, Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech \nMetamaterials enable wave phenomena far beyond natural materials\, yet t heir analysis requires tools that capture high-contrast resonances\, time modulation\, and non-Hermitian effects. I will present recent progress on the PDE analysis of these systems\, highlighting asymptotic methods and sp ectral theory for resonant and modulated media. On the computational side\ , I will introduce fast Fourier-based quadrature schemes and accelerated s olvers for boundary integral formulations. These approaches make large-sca le simulations of complex metamaterials feasible while retaining analytica l precision. Together\, they bridge rigorous mathematics and scalable comp utation\, offering predictive models for applications in acoustics\, photo nics\, and sustainable materials design. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-62 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Research Seminar Characterization and Inverse Design of Stochastic Mechanical Metamaterials Using Neural Operators DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251008T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251008T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMS Trailblazer Symposium - Qianying Cao@Wed Oct 8 16:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Qianying Cao\, Postdoctoral Research Associate\, Applied Mathe matics\, Brown University\nEngineering design lies at the core of innovati on across critical sectors. However\, traditional design pipelines struggl e with speed\, scalability\, and reliance on expert intuition. Machine lea rning is emerging as a transformative tool for the design of mechanical me tamaterials\, offering properties that far surpass those achievable throug h lab-based trial-and-error methods. Here\, we introduce an end-to-end sci entific ML framework\, leveraging deep neural operators\, to directly lear n the relationship between the complete microstructure and mechanical resp onse from sparse but high-quality in situ experimental data. The approach facilitates the efficient inverse design of structures tailored to specifi c nonlinear mechanical behaviors. Results obtained from stochastic spinoda l microstructures\, printed using two-photon lithography\, reveal that the prediction accuracy for mechanical responses is very high. Our work marks a significant advancement in the field of materials-by-design\, potential ly heralding a new era in the discovery and development of next- generatio n metamaterials with unparalleled mechanical characteristics derived direc tly from experimental insights. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cms-trailblazer-sympo sium-qianying-cao-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"The "Underestimated" Unseen in Digital Image Correlation: Digital Twin in Material Identification\, Full-Field Model Validation and Fractur e Mechanics" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251009T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251009T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 9 11:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pascal Lava\, Managing Director\, MatchID\nMechanical and Civi l Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: The "Underestimated" Unseen in Digital Image Correlation: Digital Twin in Material Identification\, Full-Field Mo del Validation and Fracture MechanicsAbstract: Digital Image Correlation ( DIC) is gradually becoming a standard tool in experimental mechanics\, for both industry and academia. Despite the fact that the measurement system is often sold with the argument of being easy in use and setup\, a poor un derstanding of issues arising in the whole measurement chain (imaging\, no ise\, correlation algorithm\, smoothing\, …) can result in poor or misin terpreted results. In this presentation\, a digital twin methodology will be presented that relies on the use of synthetic speckle image deformation to generate ground-truth strain images [1]\, enabling to properly evaluat e the spatial resolution and inherent systematic and random errors of DIC. Next\, this strategy will be invoked to elaborate on the concept of mate rial testing 2.0 [2] and geometry optimization\, applied to composites\, e lastomers and sheet metal. In a second part\, the difficult question of ho w to validate FEA simulations via full-field DIC data is addressed. The un derpinning novelty is the fact that it takes into account the filtering ef fects of DIC\, which according to the authors\, is a compulsory step to ob tain robust validation [3]. Finally\, the digital twin concept will be app lied to uncertainty quantification of DIC on fracture properties\, such as crack-tip position\, crack growth\, stress intensity factors and energy r elease rate using J-Integrals. Bio: In June 2002 Pascal Lava obtained a ma ster degree in mathematics at Ghent University\, followed by a PhD in nucl ear physics at Ghent University in 2006. From January 2008 till April 2014 \, he worked as a professor at the MTM department at Leuven University. He is a co-founder of the spin-off company MatchID\, developing optical meas urement solutions or Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to assess materials a nd structures. Currently\, he is Managing Director and CTO within MatchID with a specific focus on the integration of DIC with design and developmen t: from the calibration of material models towards the validation of FEA s imulations. His personal drive is to improve the general knowledge about D IC and its error sources\, increasing the technique's range of credibility and applicability in a plethora of verticals. Pascal is the author of mor e than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers\, a fellow and board member of the International DIC Society and received the SEM A. J. Durelli Award for out standing contributions to DIC. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89901 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Bringing AI Up To Speed DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251010T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251010T110000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMS Special Seminar with Dr. Madhur Behl@Fri Oct 10 10:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Dr. Madhur Behl\, Associate Professor\, Computer Science\, Uni versity of Virginia\nDespite decades of advancement\, autonomous driving s ystems have not met the high expectations set by many. What's missing is p hysical intelligence - the ability of AI systems to reason\, react\, and a dapt in real time\, while operating safely and effectively within the laws of physics. In this talk\, I will first examine which hurdles have turned out to be more formidable than expected\, and share our research on how t o refine testing methodologies to advance the safety of autonomous vehicle s. I will then show how high-speed autonomous racing provides a unique pro ving ground to test the boundaries of AI's physical capabilities. Leveragi ng more than a decade of experience in high-speed autonomous racing\, part icularly with the full-scale Cavalier Autonomous Racing Indy car and the F 1tenth platform\, I will demonstrate how racing at high speeds and in clos e proximity to other vehicles exposes unsolved challenges in perception\, planning\, and control. I will recount our journey from the lab to lap tim es\, and the rigorous engineering required to build a full-scale autonomou s racecar from scratch. Despite progress\, autonomous racing has yet to ma tch the skill of expert human drivers or master the complexity of dense\, multi-car competition\; indicating that we still have several more laps to go on our path toward artificial general "driving" intelligence. LOCATION:Annenberg 104 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cms-special-seminar-w ith-dr-madhur-behl-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Prethermal dynamical regimes and resonant melting in quenched quan tum matter DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251010T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251010T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Oct 10 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Alexey Khudorozhkov\, Boston University\nAbstract: The dynami cs of isolated quantum systems following a sudden quench reveal complex ph enomena with implications for thermalization\, non-equilibrium phase trans itions\, and Floquet phase engineering. Yet\, far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics remains challenging to capture --- particularly beyond one dimens ion\, where classical simulations are limited. In this work\, we use QuEra 's neutral-atom analog quantum simulator to systematically investigate lar ge-scale quench dynamics with up to 180 atoms. Initializing the system in a product state and performing hardware-native quenches across a broad par ameter space\, we discover stable yet qualitatively distinct dynamical reg imes. We trace their robustness to Floquet-like prethermal steady states s ustained by strong dynamical constraints on emergent timescales\, and furt her correlate sharp peaks in the dynamical response with the structured me lting of prethermalization through resonances. In two dimensions\, we unco ver a system-size-converging dynamical response edge linked to the prolife ration of Neel-order defects and suggestive of a dynamical phase transitio n that is distinct from equilibrium criticalities and potentially inaccess ible to current classical simulations. These results reveal a subtle inter play between quantum prethermalization and dynamical phases\, demonstratin g how programmable quantum simulators can reveal non-equilibrium phenomena at the frontier of theory and numerics. Following the talk\, lunch will b e provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90386 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mathematics and AI DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251013T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251013T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Oct 13 16:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sergei G. Gukov\, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathema tics\, The Division of Physics\, Mathematics and Astronomy\, Caltech\nAn a lternative title for this talk could be "Learning Hardness." To see why\, we will explore some long-standing open problems in mathematics and examin e what makes them hard from a computational perspective. We will argue tha t\, in many cases\, the difficulty arises from a highly uneven distributio n of hardness within families of related problems\, where the truly hard c ases lie far out in the tail. We will then discuss how recent advances in AI may provide new tools to tackle these challenges. Based in part on the recent work with A.Shehper\, A.Medina-Mardones\, L.Fagan\, B.Lewandowski\, A.Gruen\, Y.Qiu\, P.Kucharski\, and Z.Wang. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 68 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Lagrangian Dual Sections: A Topological View of Hidden Convexity DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251015T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251015T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Information\, Geometry\, and Physics Seminar@Wed Oct 15 15:00:00 2025@ cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kevin Shu\, Postdoctoral Scholar\, Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech\nConvex sets are often easier to study th an more general spaces in mathematics\; it is therefore of interest to und erstand maps that can transform a general set into a convex one. This talk will present a topological property of a continuous map from a general to pological space into Euclidean space has a convex image. In particular\, f or any given map f\, we associate an object called the `Lagrangian dual bu ndle'\, and we show that the existence of a section of this bundle implies that the image of f is convex (up to some technical conditions). We will present examples arising from homogeneous spaces\, such as the set of Herm itian matrices with prescribed eigenvalues or the set of matrices with pre scribed singular values\, and give connections to the well known Kostant c onvexity theorem. One aim of this talk is to give a complete proof of the fact that the image of a sphere of under any Hermitian quadratic map into R^3 is convex. We will also aim to illustrate how these techniques can als o be used in the context of convex optimization to give exactness results for semidefinite programming relaxations of natural optimization problems. Generally\, this talk will highlight broad connections between convex geo metry\, algebraic topology\, and algebra. LOCATION:Linde Hall 310 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/information-geometry- and-physics-seminar-35 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Compression-Driven Gas-Liquid Displacement" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 16 11:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chris MacMinn\, Professor\, Department of Engineering Science\ , University of Oxford\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTit le: "Compression-Driven Gas-Liquid Displacement"Abstract: The gas-driven d isplacement of a viscous liquid from a confined geometry is a classical cl ass of problems in interfacial fluid dynamics. This process also features in a variety of practical applications\, including the operation of a fuel cell\, the subsurface storage of carbon dioxide or hydrogen\, and even th e squeezing of ketchup out of a bottle. In all of these scenarios\, the co mpression of the gas provides the driving force and the viscosity of the l iquid provides the resistance. However\, both the amount of compression an d the amount of resistance are typically coupled to the amount of liquid t hat has been displaced. Here\, we show that the tight coupling of these ba sic mechanical ingredients leads to surprising behavior\, even in the simp lest of settings. We study the impact of gas compression on gas-liquid dis placement in capillary tubes and Hele-Shaw cells using laboratory experime nts\, minimal mathematical models\, linear stability analysis\, and fully nonlinear numerical simulations. We show that a steady rate of squeezing c an generate a strongly unsteady flow and we identify a new dimensionless p arameter\, the compressibility number\, that controls the evolution of the flow. We show that increasing the compressibility number can trigger a su dden flow transition in a capillary tube and can systematically delay the onset -- and decrease the ultimate severity -- of viscous fingering in a H ele-Shaw cell.Bio: Chris is a Professor of Engineering Science at the Univ ersity of Oxford. He is an engineer and applied scientist with an interest in physical mathematics\, fluid and solid mechanics\, and interfacial phe nomena. His research group -- the Poromechanics Lab -- is an interdiscipli nary team of engineers\, physicists\, mathematicians\, and geoscientists w ho use modelling\, simulation\, and multi-scale experiments to study flow\ , transport\, and deformation in porous media and other multiphase systems . Their work has applications in subsurface science and engineering\, soft materials\, and biology and medicine. Prior to joining Oxford in 2013\, C hris earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and was then a Post doctoral Fellow at Yale University. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89902 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:CMS-EE Partners Program Techfest Fall 2025 DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251016T140000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMS-EE Partners Program Techfest Fall 2025@Thu Oct 16 12:00:00 2025@cm s.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:CMS-EE Partners Program's Techfest is a career and technology demo and recruiting fair focused on providing startups\, companies\, stude nts\, postdocs\, and faculty with a chance for meaningful interactions wit h each other. Partners show off cutting-edge research\, inspiring students with future technologies. Students learn about the breadth of application s for computing and mathematical sciences and electrical engineering acros s industries\, as they network with company representatives. Faculty parti cipate to strengthen academic-industry connections.Location: Moore WalkDat e: October 9\, 2025 12:00pm to 2:00pm PT LOCATION:Moore Walk URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cms-ee-partners-progr am-techfest-fall-2025 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Oct 17 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-c ourses-and-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87948 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Engineering Coupled Quantum Interfaces for Superconducting Quantum Technologies DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251017T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Oct 17 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Hung-Yu Yang\, UCLA\n*Note this week only\, the IQIM seminar i s in 310 Linde Hall (math building)Abstract: Superconducting devices are f oundational components of many quantum computing architectures\, playing c ritical roles in qubit design and cryogenic memory. To accelerate the deve lopment of quantum computing\, it is essential to integrate and couple div erse quantum properties with superconductors to enable new functionalities . 2D van der Waals materials\, whose single-atom-thick atomic layers can b e easily obtained and recombined\, offer an ideal platform for creating co upled quantum interfaces. In this talk\, I will present two examples of ho w this approach can be leveraged to advance superconducting quantum techno logies. First\, I will demonstrate how I integrate topology and magnetism\ , which are typically detrimental to superconductivity\, within a 2D super conducting junction made of a topological superconductor. Specifically\, t he field- and temperature-trainable supercurrent diode effect I observed i n this junction provides unambiguous evidence for the coupling between top ology\, magnetism\, and superconductivity\, underscoring the material's po tential for robust topological qubits [1]. Second\, I will describe how I integrate a 2D multiferroic material – with both magnetic and electric o rder – into a 2D superconducting device. The coupling between the multif erroic order and superconductivity results in an unusual field-resilient s upercurrent diode that can operate within a magnetic field range of ±10 m T. This level of field tolerance meets industrial standards for the first time\, making it suitable for use as a cryogenic memory in quantum compute rs [2]. My research establishes a new way to engineering coupled quantum i nterfaces\, with the potential for the next generation of superconducting quantum technologies.References:[1] G. Qiu*\, \;H.-Y. Yang*\, et al. N at. Commun. 14\, 6691 (20Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on th e lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:Linde Hall 310 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90387 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:RSI Research Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251020T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251020T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:RSI Research Seminar@Mon Oct 20 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Join us every other Monday at noon for lunch and a 30-minute r esearch talk\, presented by Resnick Sustainability Institute Graduate Fell ows and Caltech researchers funded by the Resnick Sustainability Institute . To see the full schedule of speakers\, visit the RSI Research Seminar we b page. Seminars are currently in-person only. For more information\, plea se reach out to ramonae@caltech.edu LOCATION:Resnick Sustainability Center 120 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/rsi-research-seminar- 59 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Exploring high dimensions in dynamical sampling: flattening the sc aling curve DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251021T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251021T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Oct 21 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yifan Chen\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, University of California\, Los Angeles\nDynamical sampling of probability distributions based on model or data (i.e.\, generative modeling) is a ce ntral task in scientific computing and machine learning. I'll present rece nt work on understanding and improving algorithms in high-dimensional sett ings. This includes a novel "delocalization of bias" phenomenon in Langevi n dynamics\, where biased methods could achieve dimension-free scaling for low-dimensional marginals while unbiased methods cannot—a finding motiv ated by molecular dynamics simulations. I'll also briefly mention a new un biased affine-invariant Hamiltonian sampler that outperforms popular sampl ers in emcee package (routinely used in astrophysics literature) in high d imensions\, and introduce optimal Lipschitz energy criteria for design of measure transport in generative modeling of multiscale scientific data\, a s alternative to optimal kinetic energy in optimal transport. These exampl es show how dimensional scaling could be flattened\, allowing efficient st ochastic algorithms for high-dimensional sampling and generative modeling in relevant scientific applications. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-63 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Watson Lecture - Molecules\, Mysteries\, and the Matter of Existen ce\, with Nick Hutzler DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251022T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251022T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Watson Lecture - Molecules\, Mysteries\, and the Matter of Existence\, with Nick Hutzler@Wed Oct 22 19:30:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nick Hutzler\, assistant professor of physics\nAdvance registr ation for this event has closed. Guests who have not pre-registered are in vited to join our standby line. We recommend you arrive no later than 6:50 p.m. for standby. If you registered\, please bring your ticket (paper or electronic).A recording of the event will be made available on our YouTube channel. Join our mailing list to receive the latest on public events at Caltech. Thank you for your interest!About the TalkEverything that we unde rstand about the material universe is built from matter––particles that make up everything from atoms to galaxies. However\, we do not know where this matter came from. The big bang should have created equal am ounts of matter and antimatter\, but we don't find antimatter anywhe re apart from laboratories designed to create and study it.  While the d etails of the process that generated the known universe remain a mystery \, it should leave tiny\, residual signatures on regular matter that we ca n study in the laboratory.  Nick Hutzler (BS '07)\, assistant professor of physics\, will discuss how molecules can be used to search for these si gnatures by combining ideas from nuclear physics\, quantum science\, and p hysical chemistry.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Food\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doors open.7:30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions and conversation .The live event is in-person and a recording will be made available on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years\, the Watson Lect ures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discovery to the publ ic.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Series offers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge science direc tly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with your nei ghbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interactive displays relat ed to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a stimulating talk and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lectures are availabl e on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-nick-h utzler END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The Challenges\, Mysteries\, and Promises of Metal Combustion DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251023T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251023T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:David G. Goodwin Memorial Lecture@Thu Oct 23 16:00:00 2025@cms.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nick Glumac\, Shao Lee Soo Professor\, Mechanical Science and Engineering Department\, University of Illinois\, Urbana-Champaign\nThe va st majority of combustion involves hydrocarbons. Metals are known to burn at very high temperature and with generally high heat content and can comb ust in water and carbon dioxide. These properties have led metals to be co nsidered for many applications\, though historically use has been limited to propellants and explosives\, primarily due to challenges associated wit h high ignition temperatures\, low burning rates\, and solid product gener ation. The emergence of new technologies\, including production of nanosca le and nanoengineered materials\, mechanical alloying\, mixed metal hydrid es\, and other developments\, has generated new interest in metal combusti on and opened up many avenues for research. In this talk\, I'll review rec ent developments in metal combustion\, including changes in the way combus tion chemistry and transport are modeled for fine particle systems. I'll a lso discuss potential applications in transportation and energy that could emerge from expanded use of metal combustion. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/david-g-goodwin-memor ial-lecture-4 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Digital quantum simulation and error correction frontier with atom arrays DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251024T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251024T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Oct 24 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Simon Evered\, Harvard\nAbstract: Quantum processors have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of quantum systems. In particular\, the programmability of digital quantum devices can enable access to highly tunable quantum dynamics and observables. The central cha llenge\, however\, is suppressing errors\, making quantum error correction essential for large-scale algorithms. In this talk\, I will discuss quant um processing with reconfigurable atom arrays\, with experiments featuring up to 448 neutral atom qubits\, high two-qubit gate fidelities\, arbitrar y connectivity\, and mid-circuit qubit readout and reuse. We first realize gate-based quantum simulations\, experimentally studying Kitaev's honeyco mb model and exploring hardware-efficient fermion-to-qubit encodings. Next \, we leverage unique opportunities with atoms to study the key building b locks required for scalable quantum error correction. These include below- threshold performance\, deep computation at constant entropy\, and univers al logical gates. Together\, these experiments highlight unique near-term opportunities with atom arrays and chart a path towards future large-scale atomic processors. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the law n outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90388 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Diffusive behavior of some linear kinetic equations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251027T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Oct 27 16:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:José Alfredo Canizo\, Associate Professor\, Department of App lied Mathematics\, University of Granada\nWe will give a short introductio n to the motivation and problems in kinetic theory\, in particular mean-fi eld limits and hydrodynamic limits. This touches on the fundamental proble m of giving a rigorous justification of the main PDE in physics. There are many interesting mathematical ideas involved\, and in particular we will talk about hypocoercivity techniques\, used when studying convergence to e quilibrium in many kinetic equations. For a more concrete research problem \, we will consider linear kinetic equations of the form $\\partial_t f + \\frac{1}{\\epsilon} v \\nabla_x f = \\frac{1}{\\epsilon^2} L(f)$\, for an unknown $f$ which depends on time $t$\, position $x$ and velocity $v$\, a nd where $L$ is a linear operator which acts only in the velocity variable \, and which typically has a probability equilibrium in $v$. Important exa mples include the Fokker-Planck operator\, nonlocal diffusion operators\, linear BGK-type operators\, or linear Boltzmann operators. This PDE typica lly represents a mesoscopic physical model\, where we keep track of the pr obability distribution of the position and velocity of particles. It is we ll known that when $\\epsilon$ tends to $0$\, this type of equation has a macroscopic or diffusive limit for the density $\\rho(t\,x) := \\int f(t\, x\,v) dv$\, which is either the standard heat equation\, or the fractional heat equation. As a new result\, we show that for a fixed epsilon\, the b ehavior of this equation for large times also follows the standard or frac tional heat equation\, and that the long-time and small-epsilon limits are actually interchangeable in many cases. This is a work in collaboration w ith Stéphane Mischler (U. Paris-Dauphine) and Niccolò Tassi (U. Granada) . LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 69 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251029T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251104T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Oct 29 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/midterm-examination-p eriod-87949 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing for Shape-Morphing Structure s and 4D Printing" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Oct 30 11:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jerry Qi\, Woodruff Endowed Professor\, George W. Woodruff Sch ool of Mechanical Engineering\, Georgia Institute of Technology\nMechanica l and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: "Multimaterial Additive Manuf acturing for Shape-Morphing Structures and 4D Printing"Abstract: 3D printi ng (additive manufacturing\, AM)\, where materials are deposited in a laye r-by-layer manner to form a 3D solid\, has seen significant advances in re cent decades. 3D printing has the advantage in creating a part with comple x geometry from a digit file\, making them an idea candidate for making ar chitected materials. Multimaterial 3D printing is an emerging field in rec ent years in additive manufacturing. It offers the advantage of placement of materials with different properties in the 3D space with high resolutio n\, or controllable heterogeneity. In this talk\, we present our recent pr ogress in developing multimaterial additive manufacturing methods. In the first approach\, we present a new development where we integrate two AM me thods\, direct-ink-write (DIW) and digital light processing (DLP)\, into o ne system. In this system\, the DLP can be used to print complex bulk part s while DIW can be used to print functional inks\, such as conductive inks and liquid crystal elastomers. In the second approach\, we recently devel oped a grayscale DLP (g-DLP) 3D printing method where we can print a part with gradient material properties. We further investigate how to use machi ne learn to help the inverse design of 4D printing of shape-morphing struc tures with multimaterial additive manufacturing.Bio: Dr. H. Jerry Qi is th e Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engine ering at Georgia Institute of Technology and is the site director of NSF I UCRC on Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials (SHAP3D ). He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tsinghua Univer sity and a ScD degree from MIT. After one-year postdoc at MIT\, he joined the University of Colorado Boulder in 2004 and moved to Georgia Tech in 20 14. Prof. Qi's research is in the broad field of nonlinear mechanics of po lymeric materials and focuses on developing fundamental understandings of multi-field properties of soft active materials through experimentation an d constitutive modeling\, then applying these understandings to applicatio n designs. He and his collaborators have been working on a range of soft a ctive materials\, including shape memory polymers\, light-activated polyme rs\, and covalent adaptable network polymers\, for their interesting behav iors such as shape memory\, light actuation\, healing\, reprocessing\, and recycling. In recent years\, he has been working on integrating active ma terials with 3D printing. He and his collaborators pioneered the 4D printi ng concept. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award (2007)\, Sigma Xi Best F aculty Paper Award (2018)\, Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenbur g Association for Polymer Research (2019)\, the James R. Rice Medal from S ociety of Engineering Science (2023)\, the T. H. H. Pian Award from Intern ational Conference on Computational &\; Experimental Engineering and Sc iences (2024)\, and the ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024). He was listed as one of the highly cited researchers by Clarivate in 2024 and 2025. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89904 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum advantage from random geometrically-two-local Hamiltonian dynamics DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251030T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Oct 30 14:30:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yihui Queck\, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne EPFL\ nAbstract:  \;Classical hardness-of-sampling results are largely estab lished for random quantum circuits\, whereas analog simulators natively re alize time evolutions under geometrically local Hamiltonians. Does a \ ;typical \;such Hamiltonian already yield classically-intractable dyna mics? We answer this question in the affirmative for the ensemble of geome trically-2-local Hamiltonians with Gaussian coefficients\, evolved for con stant time. This naturally leads to a quantum advantage scheme with clear prospects for experimental realization\, necessitating only course-grained control. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90395 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Planar fault-tolerant circuits for non-Clifford logic gates – de coding non-Abelian phases DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251031T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251031T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Oct 31 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Julio Magdalena\, Freie Universitat Berlin\n\nAbstract: Two-di mensional topological stabilizer codes are among the most practical code f amilies for fault-tolerant quantum computation.However\, they suffer funda mental limitations\, as there is no such code with a protected non-Cliffor d gate\, which is needed for a universal quantum computation. To mitigate these limitations\, non-native schemes such as magic-state distillation or non-scalable schemes that rely on post-selection have been developed.In t his talk\, I will present a new scheme to perform reliable non-Clifford lo gic in 2D topological codes [1]. They are realized by fault-tolerant non-C lifford circuits augmented with a just-in-time decoding strategy. In fact\ , the circuits implement a non-Abelian topologically ordered state. Using a path-integral tensor-network representation of the circuits\, we can ide ntify errors as defects of the underlying topological phase and prove thre sholds against arbitrary p-bounded noise. The construction allows for a la rge flexibility in both the physical circuits used to implement the gates as well as the specific logic gates that are implemented.I will focus on a n example presented in [2] that performs a fault-tolerant Clifford measure ment on a 2D color code using a low-overhead planar circuit with the only non-Clifford component being physical T gates. They can realize a wealth o f logical diagonal non-Clifford gates such as T\, CS\, CCZ\, or measuremen ts of logical XS or CZ gates.This work extends the common approach to topo logically protected computation with Abelian phases using Clifford circuit s to non-Abelian phases using non-Clifford circuits and highlights the spa cetime perspective to quantum error correction.[1]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/ 2503.15751[2]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.05175Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90389 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:RSI Research Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251103T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251103T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:RSI Research Seminar@Mon Nov 3 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Join us every other Monday at noon for lunch and a 30-minute r esearch talk\, presented by Resnick Sustainability Institute Graduate Fell ows and Caltech researchers funded by the Resnick Sustainability Institute . To see the full schedule of speakers\, visit the RSI Research Seminar we b page. Seminars are currently in-person only. For more information\, plea se reach out to ramonae@caltech.edu LOCATION:Resnick Sustainability Center 120 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/rsi-research-seminar- 60 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Pattern Formation in Soft Mechanics DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251104T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251104T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Nov 4 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ousmane Kodio\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Mechanical Engineering\, University of California\, Santa Barbara\nElastic instabili ties are ubiquitous in natural and engineered systems across a wide range of scales—from supercoiled DNA and folded tissues to flower petals and d eployable space structures. While great progress has been made over the pa st two centuries in predicting the equilibrium shapes of stressed material s\, the dynamics of buckling and wrinkling remain rich with theoretical an d computational challenges.In this talk\, I will present our recent theore tical and experimental efforts to understand how elastic patterns evolve w hen driven far from equilibrium by mechanical and hydrodynamic instabiliti es. In the first part\, I will discuss the evolution of wrinkle patterns o f confined elastic membranes floating on fluid surfaces\, showing how conf inement slows down pattern selection and leads to departures from the self -similar behaviors familiar in fluid mechanics. In the second part\, I wil l demonstrate how rapid quenching can trigger the emergence of nontrivial buckling modes\, and how tuning external control parameters enables the ta rgeted selection of specific patterns. This phenomenon—reminiscent of th e Kibble–Zurek mechanism in continuous non-equilibrium phase transitions —opens new avenues for the dynamical design of elastic patterns. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-68 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:An introduction to quantum image encryption DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251105T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251105T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Information\, Geometry\, and Physics Seminar@Wed Nov 5 15:00:00 2025@ cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Claire Levaillant\, Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, US C\nThis talk is an introductory talk about the 15-years-old field of quant um image encryption\, with an emphasis on the speaker's contributions to t his field. \; LOCATION:Linde Hall 310 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/information-geometry- and-physics-seminar-36 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Testing Quantum Theory on Curved Space-Time with Atomic Clocks DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251107T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251107T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Nov 7 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Igor Pikovski\, Stevens Institute of Technology\nAbstract: Ge neral relativity is among the most thoroughly tested pillars of modern phy sics. The remarkable precision of atomic clocks\, for example\, now allows verification of the gravitational redshift at millimeter scales on Earth. Yet the interface between general relativity and quantum theory remains e ssentially unexplored\, with no experimental input beyond the Newtonian li mit to date. In this talk\, I will discuss how post-Newtonian effects in q uantum theory can be probed using proper-time interferometry\, where clock s experience different proper times in quantum superpositions. I will show how the relevant coupling between gravity and a composite quantum system arises\, deriving the mass-energy equivalence from first principles and re solving a conundrum in general relativity dating back to Eddington in 1938 . Building on the derived fundamental Hamiltonian\, I will describe how ex periments with atomic clocks can test quantum theory in curved space-time and quantum features of proper time\, and outline specific implementations based on trapped ion clocks and quantum networks. Following the talk\, l unch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90390 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:AI+Science Conference DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T073000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251111T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:AI+Science Conference@Mon Nov 10 07:30:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.e du CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:A groundbreaking conference on AI in science\, featuring keyno te speakers\, workshops\, and networking opportunities.The California Inst itute of Technology and the University of Chicago are centers of gravity for the study\, application\, and use of AI and Machine Learning to enabl e scientific discovery across the physical and biological sciences\, adva ncing core AI principles and training a new generation of interdisciplina ry scientists. To both advance this scientific and technical pursuit and demonstrate the leadership of Caltech and UChicago in this space\, we wil l host the The Caltech and University of Chicago Conference on AI+Science \, sponsored by the Margot and Tom Pritzker Foundation\, at Caltech from November 10-11\, 2025. This event will bring together an elite and divers e cohort of leading researchers in core AI and domain sciences to lead co nversations and drive partnerships that will shape future inquiry\, indus try investment\, and entrepreneurial opportunities.Watch the livestream o n November 10-11 LOCATION:Chen 100 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/aiscience-conference- 1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon Nov 10 09:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm- deficiency-notices-87951 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Stein-Log-Sobolev inequalities for the continuous Stein variatio nal gradient descent method DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Nov 10 16:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jose Carrillo\, Professor of the Analysis of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations\, Mathematical Institute\, University of Oxford\nT he Stein Variational Gradient Descent method is a variational inference me thod in statistics that has recently received a lot of attention. The meth od provides a deterministic approximation of the target distribution\, by introducing a nonlocal interaction with a kernel. Despite the significant interest\, the exponential rate of convergence for the continuous method h as remained an open problem\, due to the difficulty of establishing the re lated so-called Stein-log-Sobolev inequality. Here\, we prove that the ine quality is satisfied for each space dimension and every kernel whose Fouri er transform has a quadratic decay at infinity and is locally bounded away from zero and infinity. Moreover\, we construct weak solutions to the rel ated PDE satisfying exponential rate of decay towards the equilibrium. The main novelty in our approach is to interpret the Stein-Fisher information \, also called the squared Stein discrepancy\, as a duality pairing betwee n H⁻¹(ℝⁿ) and H¹(ℝⁿ)\, which allows us to employ the Fourier t ransform. We also provide several examples of kernels for which the Stein- log-Sobolev inequality fails\, partially showing the necessity of our assu mptions. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 70 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Fold-transversal surface code cultivation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251112T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251112T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Wed Nov 12 16:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kaavya Sahay\, Yale\nNote: This is a special IQIM seminar\, We dnesday at 4 pm.Abstract: Magic state cultivation is a state-of-the-art m ethod to prepare high-fidelity non-Clifford resource states for universal quantum computation with low spacetime overhead. We present an efficient cultivation protocol in the surface code that achieves lower spacetime overhead than all existing schemes\, reaching a logical error rate of 1e- 9 with a physical error rate of 0.1% using an average of 9 cultivation at tempts until success. Our improvements arise from three primary design ch oices: (1) measuring the fold-transversal Hadamard of the unrotated surfa ce code in a qubit-efficient way\, (2) leveraging compact unitary circuit s for code conversion within the surface code family\, and (3) employing a two-step procedure to expand to a larger final code without substantial qubit overhead. Further\, we exactly simulate the end-to-end cultivation protocol using a "handoff" technique\, which transfers the output of sta tevector simulations on a few qubits to stabilizer simulations on hundred s of qubits. Our proposal is well suited to practical implementation in a rchitectures with nonlocal connectivity. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90399 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Chaos in "Confinement: Using Polymers to Mix Fluids and Speed Up Chemical Reactions in Porous Media" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Nov 13 11:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sujit Datta\, Professor\, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering\, Caltech\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTit le: "Chaos in Confinement: Using Polymers to Mix Fluids and Speed Up Chemi cal Reactions in Porous Media" Abstract: Many energy\, environmental\, i ndustrial\, and microfluidic processes rely on the viscous flow of polymer solutions through porous media. These fluids are typically shear-thinning \; however\, these solutions can unexpectedly flow thicken when forced thr ough confined\, tortuous spaces such as in porous media. The reason why ha s been a puzzle for over half a century. In this talk\, I will describe ho w by directly visualizing the flow in a transparent 3D porous medium\, we have found that this anomalous flow thickening reflects the onset of an el astic instability in which the fluid exhibits chaotic velocity fluctuation s reminiscent of inertial turbulence\, despite the vanishingly small Reyno lds number. In addition to characterizing this fascinating flow state\, we have found that this phenomenon can be harnessed for improving mixing&nbs p\;and the efficiency of flow-mediated chemical reactions \;— with i mplications for a broad range of processes that are typically limited by p oor mixing. Bio: Sujit Datta is a Professor of Chemical Engineering\, Bio engineering\, and Biophysics at Caltech\, where his group integrates exper iment\, theory\, and computation to study transport processes \;of com plex fluids\, gels\, and microbes in complex environments. He is also Edit or-in-Chief of Reviews of Modern Physics. Prior to moving to Caltech in 20 24\, Sujit was Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Che mical &\; Biological Engineering at Princeton University. Sujit's schol arship has been recognized by awards from a range of different communities \, including three awards from the APS (Early Career Award in Biological P hysics\, Andreas Acrivos Award in Fluid Dynamics\, and Apker Award)\, the Allan P. Colburn and 35 Under 35 Awards of the AIChE\, \;Pew Biomedica l Scholar Award\, Arthur Metzner Award of the Society of Rheology\, Unilev er Award of the ACS\, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award\, NSF CAREER A ward\, and Soft Matter Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Suji t received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania\, his PhD in Physics from Harvard\, and postdoctor al training at Caltech. \; LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89905 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:An area law for metastable states DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251113T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Nov 13 14:30:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chi Fang (Anthony) Chen\, Simons Postdoctoral Scholar\, UC Ber keley\nNote: This is a special IQIM seminar\, Thursday at 2:30 pm.Abstract : Statistical mechanics assumes that a quantum many-body system at low te mperature can be effectively described by its Gibbs state. However\, many complex quantum systems exist only as metastable states of dissipative ope n system dynamics\, which appear stable and robust yet deviate substantial ly from true thermal equilibrium. In this work\, we model metastable state s as approximate stationary states of a quasi-local\, (KMS)-detailed-balan ced master equation representing Markovian system-bath interaction\, and u nveil a universal structural theory: all metastable states satisfy \;a n area law \;of mutual information and a Markov property. The more met astable the states are\, the larger the regions to which these structural results apply. Therefore\, the hallmark correlation structure and noise re silience of Gibbs states are not exclusive to true equilibrium but emerge dynamically. Behind our structural results lies a systematic framework enc ompassing sharp equivalences between local minima of free energy\, a non-c ommutative Fisher information\, and approximate detailed balance condition s. Our results build towards a comprehensive theory of thermal metastabili ty and\, in turn\, formulate a well-defined\, feasible\, and repeatable ta rget for quantum thermal simulation.(Joint work with Thiago Bergamaschi an d Umesh Vazirani\, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.08538v1 \;) LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90398 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum Error Correction in Nearly Critical Toric Codes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251114T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251114T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Nov 14 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Zack Weinstein\, IQIM Postdoctoral Scholar\, Alicea Group\nAbs tract: We investigate the protection and recovery of quantum information stored in the ground-state manifold of deformed toric codes\, particularly as they are pushed towards a quantum critical point. Our focus is on the toric code perturbed by transverse and longitudinal fields\, whose ground states are described by the three-dimensional classical Fradkin-Shenker mo del via the quantum-classical mapping. Using an effective replica field th eory approach in the vicinity of the topological-to-trivial phase transiti on\, we show quite generally that the intrinsic error threshold for local Pauli decoherence remains finite as the critical point is approached. More over\, we demonstrate that this class of nonstabilizer codes can be simply and efficiently decoded by measuring the stabilizers of the unperturbed m odel. This property follows from the stoquastic \;nature of the deform ed toric code Hamiltonians\, which in turn allows us to formulate an optim al decoder for the postmeasurement states in terms of a constrained three- dimensional statistical physics model. We numerically implement the optima l decoder for the transverse-field toric code subjected to bit-flip decohe rence and stabilizer measurements\, and we find that the error threshold f or this decoder remains finite throughout the topological phase. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90394 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Magnetic Refrigerants for Sustainable Cooling DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251117T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251117T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:RSI Research Seminar@Mon Nov 17 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Elena Priesen Reis\, Graduate student\, Fultz Lab\, Engineerin g and Applied Science\, Caltech\nJoin us every other Monday at noon for lu nch and a 30-minute research talk\, presented by Resnick Sustainability In stitute Graduate Fellows and Caltech researchers funded by the Resnick Sus tainability Institute. To see the full schedule of speakers\, visit the RS I Research Seminar web page. Seminars are currently in-person only. For mo re information\, please reach out to ramonae@caltech.eduMagnetic Refrigera nts for Sustainable CoolingCooling currently contributes roughly 10 % of global CO₂ emissions\, a figure that is set to rise. Magnetic refrigera tion provides a solid-state\, gas-free alternative\, with performance dete rmined by the central materials' magnetocaloric properties. In this talk\, I'll show how substituting Fe with Co and Ni in La–Fe–Si alloys can s hift their magnetic transitions close to room temperature while significan tly reducing hysteresis and strain losses\, demonstrating how compositiona l tuning can enable efficient\, sustainable cooling. LOCATION:Resnick Sustainability Center 120 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/rsi-research-seminar- 61 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:TBA DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251117T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251117T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Nov 17 16:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Arash Vahdat\, Research Director\, NVIDIA\nTBA LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 67 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Data driven dynamical closure of partial differential equations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251118T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251118T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Nov 18 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chris Vales\, Postdoctoral Researcher\, Department of Mathemat ics\, Dartmouth College\nI present a data driven dynamical closure scheme for problems governed by partial differential equations. The scheme employ s the operator theoretic framework of quantum mechanics to embed the origi nal classical dynamics into an infinite dimensional dynamical system\, usi ng the space of quantum states to model the unresolved degrees of freedom of the original dynamics and the quantum Bayes rule to predict their contr ibutions to the resolved dynamics. To realize the scheme numerically\, the embedded dynamics is projected to finite dimension by a positivity preser ving discretization\, leading to a finite dimensional representation that is invariant under the dynamical symmetries of the resolved dynamics. I sh ow numerical results of the application of the developed scheme to a closu re problem for the shallow water equations\, demonstrating the accurate pr ediction of the resolved dynamics for out of sample initial conditions. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-64 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Nov 19 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping -courses-exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-21 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Watson Lecture - Thirteen Years in the Dust: How a Robot Showed th at Mars Was Once Habitable\, with Ashwin Vasavada DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251119T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Watson Lecture - Thirteen Years in the Dust: How a Robot Showed that M ars Was Once Habitable\, with Ashwin Vasavada@Wed Nov 19 19:30:00 2025@cms .divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ashwin Vasavada\, project scientist\, Mars Science Laboratory\ , JPL\nAdvance registration for this event has closed. Guests who have not pre-registered are invited to attend the preshow festivities and join our standby line. We recommend you arrive no later than 6:50 p.m. for standby . If you registered\, please bring your ticket (paper or electronic).A rec ording of the event will be made available on our YouTube channel. Join ou r mailing list to receive the latest on public events at Caltech. Thank yo u for your interest!About the TalkWas life ever possible on Mars? The Curi osity rover\, equipped with the most sophisticated scientific payload ever sent to the Red Planet\, reached Mars in 2012 to find out. Join Ashwi n Vasavada (PhD '98)\, project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory\, which delivered Curiosity safely to the surface\, as he recounts the rove r's journey up the slopes of a Martian mountain whose rocky layers hold a record of the ancient past. He'll also share a behind-the-scenes look at t he triumphs and challenges that are a part of the mission's legacy. The Cu riosity rover is operated from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)\, which is managed by Caltech for NASA.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Food\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doors o pen.7:30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions an d conversation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be made av ailable on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years\, t he Watson Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discove ry to the public.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Series o ffers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge science directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with your neighbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interactive displays related to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a stimul ating talk and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lecture s are available on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-ashwin -vasavada END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251120T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Registration for Winter Term@Thu Nov 20 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/registration-for-wint er-term-87920 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Local fault-tolerant error correction with simulated confinement DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251120T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251120T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Nov 20 14:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ethan Lake\, UC Berkeley\nNote: Special date and time for this talk. This talk begins at 2 pm on Thursday\, November 20 in 213 Annenberg .Abstract: I will discuss recent work on surface-code decoders where all o perations---including classical data processing---are geometrically local and homogeneous in spacetime. These decoders use a classical cellular auto maton to simulate an attractive confining interaction between anyons\,&nbs p\;an idea with a long history. I will show that previous constructions in this direction do not have a threshold\, and will describe a simple proce dure by which a threshold can be restored. The result is a fully-paralleli zed decoder which has essentially zero latency\, can be implemented with a local Lindbladian\, and has a competitively large error threshold. This t alk will be based on \;arXiv:2506.03266 and \;arXiv:2510.08056. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90396 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of S cience and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day for Admission to Candidacy for the Degrees of Master of Scien ce and Engineer@Fri Nov 21 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-admissio n-to-candidacy-for-the-degrees-of-master-of-science-and-engineer-87946 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Strategically robust game theory via optimal transport DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fri Nov 21 12:00 :00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicolas Lanzetti\, Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Computing and Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech\nAbstract: In many game-theo retic settings\, agents are challenged with taking decisions against the u ncertain behavior exhibited by others. Often\, this uncertainty arises fro m multiple sources\, e.g.\, incomplete information\, limited computation\, bounded rationality. While it may be possible to guide the agents' decisi ons by modeling each source\, their joint presence makes this task particu larly daunting. Toward this goal\, it is natural for agents to seek protec tion against deviations around the emergent behavior itself\, which is ult imately impacted by all the above sources of uncertainty. To do so\, we pr opose that each agent takes decisions in face of the worst-case behavior c ontained in an ambiguity set of tunable size\, centered at the emergent be havior implicitly defined. This gives rise to a novel equilibrium notion\, which we call strategically robust equilibrium. Building on its definitio n we show that\, when judiciously operationalized via optimal transport\, strategically robust equilibria (i) interpolate between Nash and security strategies\; (ii) come at no additional computational cost compared to Nas h equilibria\; (iii) often lead to better decisions and higher payoffs. Th rough a variety of experiments including bi-matrix games\, congestion game s\, and Cournot competition\, we show that strategic robustness protects a gainst uncertainty in the opponents' behavior and\, surprisingly\, results in higher equilibrium payoffs – an effect we refer to as coordination v ia robustification. Joint work with S. Fricker\, S. Bolognani\, F. Dörfle r\, and D. Paccagnan. LOCATION:Baxter 125 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-lanzetti END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Entanglement Bootstrap and Conformal Field Theory DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251121T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Nov 21 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ting-Chun (David) Lin\, University of California San Diego\nAb stract: Entanglement bootstrap is a framework that emphasizes the role of local density matrices and how they determine the phase of matter. In thi s talk\, I will discuss how this approach applies to conformal field theor ies\, which includes (1) equalities satisfied by the local density matrice s of the ground state (2) implications of these equalities. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90391 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Gaussian Bosonic Dynamics in the Presence of Symmetry: Engineering \, Monotones and Conservation Laws DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251203T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251203T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Wed Dec 3 16:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nick Koukoulekidis\, Duke University\nNote: Special IQIM Semin ar December 3 at 4 pmAbstract: We study the interplay of symmetries and G aussianity in bosonic systems\, under closed and open dynamics\, and devel op a resource theory of Gaussian asymmetry. Specifically\, we focus on Gau ssian symmetry-respecting (covariant) operations\, which serve as the free operations in this framework. We prove that any such operation can be rea lized via Gaussian Hamiltonians that respect the symmetry under considerat ion\, coupled to an environment prepared in a symmetry-respecting pure Gau ssian state. We further identify a family of tractable monotone functions of states that remain non-increasing under Gaussian symmetry-respecting dy namics\, and are exactly conserved in closed systems. We demonstrate that these monotones are not generally respected under non-Gaussian symmetry-re specting dynamics. Along the way\, we provide several technical results of independent interest to the quantum information and optics communities\, including a new approach to the Stinespring dilation theorem\, and an exte nsion of Williamson's theorem for the simultaneous normal mode decompositi on of Gaussian systems and conserved charges. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90400 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Multiscale Models for Sea Ice" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Dec 4 11:00:00 2025@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kenneth Golden\, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics\, Depa rtment of Mathematics\, University of Utah\nMechanical and Civil Engineeri ng Seminar SeriesTitle: "Multiscale Models for Sea Ice"Abstract: Polar sea ice is a multiscale composite material with complex structure on length s cales ranging over many orders of magnitude. A principal challenge in sea ice modeling and computation is how to use microstructural information to find effective or homogenized behavior relevant to large-scale mechanical\ , thermodynamic\, and ecological models. From tiny brine inclusions to ice pack dynamics on oceanic scales\, and from microbes to polar bears\, we'l l tour recent advances in modeling sea ice\, its ecosystems\, and related composite media. We'll encounter fractal geometry\, percolation\, random m atrix theory\, Anderson localization\, mushy layers\, anomalous diffusion\ , and even twisted bilayer graphene.Bio: Ken Golden's main research intere sts are in mathematics of sea ice\, composite materials\, polar ecology\, statistical physics\, and remote sensing. He's been on nineteen polar expe ditions to obtain data that inform sea ice models\, and given over 500 inv ited lectures on six continents\, including four presentations to the U.S. Congress. Golden has won awards for teaching\, mentoring\, and science co mmunication. His research has been covered by media around the world\, inc luding profiles in Science\, Scientific American\, Physics Today\, and the BBC. He is an Inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society\, a F ellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics\, cited for "e xtraordinary interdisciplinary work on the mathematics of sea ice\," a Fel low of the Electromagnetics Academy\, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club\, whose members have included Neil Armstrong and Jane Goodall. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89906 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251206T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Fall Term@Fri Dec 5 00:00:00 2025@cms.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for fall term and the last day to register for winter term without a $50 late fee URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-f or-fall-term-87921 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End-to-End Efficient Quantum Thermal and Ground State Preparation Made Simple DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251205T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Dec 5 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yongtao Zhan\, Preskill group\nAbstract: We propose new quantu m algorithms for thermal and ground state preparation based on system-bath interactions. These algorithms require only forward evolution under a sys tem-bath Hamiltonian in which the bath is a single reusable ancilla qubit\ , making them especially well-suited for early fault-tolerant quantum devi ces. By carefully designing the bath and interaction Hamiltonians\, we pro ve that the fixed point of the dynamics accurately approximates the desire d quantum state. Furthermore\, we establish theoretical guarantees on the mixing time\, and thereby providing a rigorous justification for the end-t o-end efficiency of system-bath interaction models in thermal and ground s tate preparation\, for several physically relevant systems.Following the t alk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90392 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251206T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Study Period@Sat Dec 6 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/study-period-87939 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Understanding Generalization of Deep Generative Models Requires Re thinking Underlying Low-dimensional Structures DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Special CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Dec 9 11:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.calte ch.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Qing Qu\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Electrical Engin eering and Computer Science\, University of Michigan\n Diffusion models re present a remarkable new class of deep generative models\, yet the mathema tical principles underlying their generalization from finite training data are poorly understood. This talk offers novel theoretical insights into d iffusion model generalization through the lens of "model reproducibility\, " revealing a surprising phase transition from memorization to generalizat ion during training\, notably occurring without the curse of dimensionalit y. Our theoretical framework hinges on two crucial observations: (i) the i ntrinsic low dimensionality of image datasets and (ii) the emergent low-ra nk property of the denoising autoencoder within trained neural networks. U nder simplified settings\, we rigorously establish that optimizing the tra ining loss of diffusion models is mathematically equivalent to solving a c anonical subspace clustering problem. This insight quantifies the minimal sample requirements for learning low-dimensional distributions\, scaling l inearly with the intrinsic dimension. Furthermore\, by investigating this under a nonlinear two-layer network\, we fully explain the memorization-to -generalization transition\, highlighting inductive biases in learning dyn amics and the models' strong representation learning ability. These theore tical insights have profound practical implications\, enabling various app lications for generation control and safety\, including concept steering\, watermarking\, and memorization detection. This work not only advances th eoretical understanding but also stimulates numerous directions for many a pplications in engineering and science. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/special-cmx-lunch-sem inar-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251210T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Final Examinations for Fall Term@Wed Dec 10 08:00:00 2025@cms.division s.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/final-examinations-fo r-fall-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251213T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:End of Fall Term@Fri Dec 12 00:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/end-of-fall-term-8792 4 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Fast and scalable quantum simulation of fermionic systems DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Dec 12 12:00:00 202 5@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nishad Maskara\, MIT\nAbstract: Performing large-scale\, accu rate quantum simulations of many-fermion systems is a central challenge in quantum science\, with applications in chemistry\, materials\, and high-e nergy physics. In this talk\, we will discuss recent results on (1) effici ently encoding fermionic algorithms into qubit based quantum devices and ( 2) implementing fault-tolerant quantum simulation algorithms with high-rat e logical operations. In the first part of the talk\, we present a method for faster fermionic simulation with asymptotic space-time overhead of O(l og(N)) in the worst case\, and O(1) for circuits with additional structure \, representing an N/\\log(N) improvement over the prior state-of-the-art. This exponential reduction is achieved by using reconfigurable quantum sy stems with non-local connectivity\, mid-circuit measurement\, and classica l feedforward\, to generate dynamical fermion-to-qubit mappings. In the s econd part of the talk\, we outline an approach for high-rate computation with qLDPC codes\, by constructing batched fault-tolerant operations that apply the same logical gate across many code blocks in parallel. By levera ging shared physical resources to execute many logical operations in paral lel\, these operations realize high rates in space-time and significantly reduce computational costs. Finally\, we show how these techniques can be combined\, to generate high-rate fermionic quantum simulation algorithms w ith low encoding overhead into a fault-tolerant qubit-based device. Follow ing the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90397 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:From Models to Data: Toward a Unified Framework forAgile and Safe Bipedal Locomotion" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251212T140000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Fri Dec 1 2 13:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Min Dai\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Caltech\ nAbstract:Achieving agile\, efficient\, and robust locomotion in bipedal r obots remains a grand challenge of robotics.Traditional model-based contro l methods are theoretically grounded but are often sensitive to model mism atch andstate-estimation uncertainty\, limiting their adaptability to real -world environments. Conversely\, data-driven approachessuch as reinforcem ent learning produce remarkable behaviors but often lack interpretability\ , require non-trivial rewardshaping\, and raise safety concerns.This thesi s bridges these two paradigms through a unified framework that begins with model-based behavior synthesisand culminates in data-driven adaptation. T he first part focuses on constructing walking behaviors and controllers us ingreduced-order models of locomotion. A hierarchy of planners and control lers is developed to enable robust walking forflat-footed and multi-domain gaits\, as well as safety-critical locomotion over constrained footholds such as stairs andstepping stones. Additionally\, this work introduces RoM oCo\, a modular open-source architecture\, a modular open-source architect ure designed to unify reduced-order planning\, output synthesis\, and whol e-body control across multiplebipedal platforms.Building on this foundatio n\, the second part introduces data-driven mechanisms that enable robots t o improve andpersonalize their behaviors through various forms of data. Ep isodic data collected during repeated executions are used tocorrect modeli ng errors and reduce constraint violations. Human preference data facilita tes automatic gain tuningthrough interactive feedback. Online robot data e nables adaptation of reduced-order models by learning step-to-stepdynamics directly from real executions. Environmental interaction data inform high -level planners for navigatinginfeasible paths. Finally\, large-scale simu lation data support a reinforcement-learning framework designed for hardwa redeployment\, where model-guided rewards enable efficient training and in troduce perception inputs\, yielding policiescapable of dynamic stepping-s tone traversal on real robots.Together\, these contributions form a progre ssion from theoretically grounded model-based control to data-enabledadapt ation\, demonstrating that reduced-order models and data-driven learning a re complementary. Their integrationenables bipedal robots such as Cassie a nd G1 to walk safely\, robustly\, and efficiently across diverse terrains\ , marking astep toward human-level agility in legged locomotion. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-40 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Winter Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251213T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260104T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Winter Recess@Sat Dec 13 08:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/winter-recess-87925 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:RSI Research Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251215T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251215T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:RSI Research Seminar@Mon Dec 15 12:00:00 2025@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Join us every other Monday at noon for lunch and a 30-minute r esearch talk\, presented by Resnick Sustainability Institute Graduate Fell ows and Caltech researchers funded by the Resnick Sustainability Institute . To see the full schedule of speakers\, visit the RSI Research Seminar we b page. Seminars are currently in-person only. For more information\, plea se reach out to ramonae@caltech.edu LOCATION:Resnick Sustainability Center 120 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/rsi-research-seminar- 63 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251217T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251217T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Wed Dec 17 09:00:00 2025 @cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-instruct ors-final-grade-reports-87943 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260105T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Winter Term@Mon Jan 5 00:00:00 2026@cms.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/beginning-of-instruct ion-of-winter-term-87929 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260106T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Jan 6 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/undergraduate-academi c-standards-and-honors-committee-meeting-87965 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Characterizing and Utilizing Terrain Responses for Robot-aided Ear th and Planetary Explorations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260108T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260108T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 8 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Feifei Qian\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Electrical a nd Computer Engineering\, University of Southern California\nMechanical an d Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: " Characterizing and Utilizing Te rrain Responses for Robot-aided Earth and Planetary Explorations "Abstract : Robot-aided exploration is central to advancing Earth and planetary sci ence\, yet many high-value scientific targets\, such as Martian dunes\, lu nar craters\, muddy forests\, and snowy mountains\, remain difficult to ac cess. These environments are characterized by loose\, deformable substrate s whose mechanical behavior is governed by complex granular rearrangement\ , porosity\, cohesion\, and particle–fluid or particle–ice interaction s. Such processes control whether a substrate behaves in a solid-like or f luidized manner\, directly challenging robotic mobility\, sensing\, and sa mpling.To address these challenges\, my group integrates granular physics\ , locomotion science\, and proprioceptive sensing\, to develop new strateg ies for robotic characterization of deformable terrains on Earth and other planetary bodies. Our work focuses on linking substrate force responses a nd yield behaviors to robot locomotion and sensing outcomes.In this talk\, I will begin with force responses in dry\, homogeneous granular media\, s howing how the relationship between applied stress and yield stress govern s solid-like versus fluid-like behavior and\, in turn\, robot mobility. Le veraging the high force transparency of direct-drive actuators\, we demons trate that legged robots can use their limbs as proprioceptive sensors\, i nferring terramechanical properties opportunistically from every step. I w ill then extend this discussion to cohesive substrates\, including wet san d and mud\, where attractive interparticle forces and pore-fluid effects i ntroduce new locomotion failure modes and necessitate different locomotion strategies. Finally\, I will discuss our ongoing efforts to understand ic e-cemented regolith\, highlighting newly observed force responses\, locomo tion failure modes\, and their underlying physical mechanisms. I will conc lude with a broader vision of how systematic characterization and utilizat ion of terrain responses can enable enhanced robotic mobility and new scie ntific discovery across Earth and planetary environments.Bio: Feifei Qian is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Unive rsity of Southern California. Qian received her PhD in Electrical Engineer ing and M.S. in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to her appointment at USC\, she worked in the GRASP lab at University of Pennsyl vania as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research interests include bio-inspire d robotics\, legged locomotion\, terrain mechanics\, proprioceptive sensin g and human-robot teaming\, with applications to robot-aided earth and pla netary explorations. Qian's research has been recognized with NSF CAREER a ward\, Charles Lee Powell Foundation Faculty Research Award\, Best student paper award from the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conference\, and has been featured by media outlets including BBC News\, CBS News\, Reuters \, NPR Weekend Edition\, IEEE Spectrum\, Wired\, and R&\;D Magazine. Sh e currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). She has also served as an Associate Editor for the 2023 I EEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)\, the Organ izing Committee for the 2025 Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conference \, and the Program Committees for the 25th International Conference on Cli mbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR)\, the 2021 Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) Inclusion Program\, and the 2019 Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) Pioneer Program. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89909 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Limitations of Noisy Geometrically Local Quantum Circuits DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260109T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260109T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Jan 9 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Joel Rajakumar\, University of Maryland\nAbstract: It has been known for almost 30 years that quantum circuits with interspersed depolar izing noise converge to the uniform distribution at $\\omega(\\log n)$ dep th\, where $n$ is the number of qubits\, making them classically simulable . We show that under the realistic constraint of geometric locality\, this bound is loose: these circuits become classically simulable at even shall ower depths. While prior work in this regime considered quantum circuits w ith random gates/inputs or circuits with high levels of noise\, we conside r sampling from \\textit{any} quantum circuit and noise of \\textit{any} c onstant strength. First\, we prove that the output distributions of noisy geometrically local quantum circuits can be approximately sampled from in quasipolynomial time\, when their depth exceeds a fixed $\\Theta(\\log n)$ critical threshold which depends on the noise strength. This scaling in $ n$ matches classical simulability results that were previously only known for noisy random quantum circuits (Aharonov et al.\, STOC 2023). We furthe r conjecture that our bound is still loose and that a $\\Theta(1)$-depth t hreshold suffices for simulability due to a percolation effect. To support this\, we provide analytical evidence together with a candidate efficient algorithm. Our results rely on new information-theoretic properties of th e output states of noisy shallow quantum circuits\, which may be of broad interest. On a fundamental level\, we demonstrate that unitary quantum pro cesses in constant dimensions are more fragile to noise than previously un derstood.https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06346 LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90402 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New algorithms for the electric grid: the interplay between cont rol\, learning and economics DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260112T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260112T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Jan 12 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Baosen Zhang\, Associate Professor\, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering\, University of Washington\, Seattle\nOur electri c grids are undergoing changes in both form and function\, where renewable resources and new devices are creating systems that are more distributed\ , dynamic and uncertain. Modern AI and machine learning tools have the pot ential to transform the operation of these new energy systems. However\, s uch algorithms typically do not provide guarantees about stability or safe ty\, making them difficult to implement in practice. In this talk\, I will describe how to bridge these gaps. I will show how structured neural netw orks can leverage advances in AI and provide formal guarantees such as sys tem stability and hard constraint satisfaction. Then I will close the loop by discussing the challenge of supplying power to data centers and how it could be done efficiently and fairly\, and how AI-based algorithms can be used in this respect. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 73 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Solving PDEs exactly over polynomials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260113T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260113T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Jan 13 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Keaton Burns\, Principal Research Scientist of Mathematics\, D epartment of Mathematics\, MIT of Mathematics\n Global spectral methods ar e a classical technique for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) in simple geometries\, including Fourier series in periodic domains and or thogonal polynomials in bounded domains. While traditional "collocation" a pproaches for polynomials are slow at scale\, modern spectral methods refo rmulate these systems in sparse operator form\, enabling fast and accurate solvers with near-FFT-like performance. However\, such methods may suffer from poor conditioning\, difficulties at coordinate singularities\, and c onservation issues that depend sensitively on their formulation.In this co ntext\, we will present a "generalized tau" framework that unifies all pol ynomial and trigonometric spectral methods\, from classical collocation to modern "ultraspherical" schemes. In particular\, we examine the exact dis crete equations solved by each method and characterize their deviation fro m the original PDE in terms of perturbations called "tau corrections." By analyzing these corrections\, we can precisely categorize existing methods and design new solvers that robustly accommodate new boundary conditions\ , eliminate spurious numerical modes\, and satisfy exact conservation laws .We will demonstrate the capabilities of this system as implemented in Ded alus\, an open-source Python framework for solving PDEs using sparse spect ral methods. Dedalus provides a symbolic equation specification system tha t allows users to define their own PDEs and automatically constructs optim ally sparse\, parallelized\, and differentiable solvers tailored to the ch osen equations and geometry. We will present examples combining the genera lized tau method with new spectral bases for curvilinear domains\, providi ng fast and well-conditioned solvers for general tensor-valued PDEs in cyl inders\, disks\, spheres\, and balls. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-65 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum Sensing of Gravitational Frame-Dragging and Time Dilation with a Superfluid 4He Gyrometer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260113T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260113T140000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Tue Jan 13 13:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kai Ellers\, UC Berkeley\nNote: this is a Special IQIM seminar . Tuesday\, January 13 beginning at 1 pm in 153 NoyesAbstract: We propose an Earth-based\, laboratory-scale experiment capable of measuring the Eart h's generalrelativistic frame-dragging at the 0.2% level in one second usi ng the macroscopic quantum properties of a novel superfluid 4He single Jos ephson junction gyrometer. We derive the frame-dragging and related geodet ic and Thomas precession effects in such a gyrometer\, emphasizing that al l three effects\, in addition to the Sagnac effect\, can be thought of as frame-dragging effects in a reference frame co-moving with the gyrometer. Using a novel thermal noise analysis for such a superfluid 4He gyrometer o perating at mK temperatures\, we estimate that a thermal noise spectral de nsity of 5×10−17rads/s/√Hz should be achievable. In a one-second meas urement\, this gives a rotational sensitivity of 1 revolution in 4 Byrs\, or 0.2% of the Earth's frame-dragging precession rate. We show that this e xtreme sensitivity corresponds to a measurement of proper time differences as small as 10−35 s. LOCATION:Noyes 153 (J. Holmes Sturdivant Lecture Hall) URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90401 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Efficient Planning and Learning for Contact-rich Manipulation via Structured Exploration DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 15 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pang Tao\, Senior Research Scientist\, RAI Institute\nMechanic al and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle: "Efficient Planning and Lear ning for Contact-rich Manipulation via Structured Exploration"Abstract:The success of Reinforcement Learning (RL) in dexterous\, contact-rich manipu lation has left much to be understood from a model-based perspective\, whe re key challenges include (i) locally\, the hybrid\, non-smooth contact dy namics renders planning and control methods for smooth dynamical systems i neffective\, and (ii) globally\, the non-convex cost landscape requires no n-trivial global exploration strategy. This talk first demystifies RL's su ccess\, attributing it to the implicit randomized smoothing provided by it s stochastic nature. I will then present how smoothing\, the primary insig ht from RL\, can be incorporated into classical planning and control algor ithms to efficiently and explicitly address the local and global challenge s introduced by contact dynamics. Finally\, I will demonstrate how the eff iciency gained from model-based insights can empower prevailing robot lear ning paradigms\, serving as a powerful data generation engine for Behavior Cloning (BC) and RL\, especially on robot embodiments for which teleopera tion-based data collection is challenging.Bio: Tao Pang received his PhD f rom the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, where his work on global p lanning for contact-rich manipulation earned an Honorable Mention for the IEEE T-RO King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award. His research interests li e at the intersection of robotics\, optimization and machine learning\, wi th a focus on building robots with human-level dexterity. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89912 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Computation-Protected Phases of Matter DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260116T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260116T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Jan 16 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Soonwon Choi\, MIT\nAbstract: Classifying phases of matter is a central program in modern condensed matter physics. A highly successfu l paradigm defines gapped phases as equivalence classes of Hamiltonians c onnected by quasi-adiabatic\, gapped paths. This framework has enabled sy stematic identification of exotic phases—such as intrinsic or symmetry- protected topological phases—that are difficult to characterize within conventional approaches based on symmetry breaking.In this talk\, I will explore a new class of gapped quantum phases of matter inspired by compu tational properties. Our starting point is the observation that\, in adia batic quantum computation\, any nontrivial computational task necessarily entails a closing of the spectral gap along the adiabatic path. This sug gests a refined notion of phase equivalence\, in which distinct phases ar e separated by unavoidable gap closings protected by the nontriviality of the computation itself. I will introduce and formalize the concept of co mputation-protected phases of matter\, supported by analytic results\, ex actly solvable models\, and numerical simulations. We will draw the conne ction between our results and modern condensed matter theory topics such as higher form symmetries and mixed-state phases.Following the talk\, lun ch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90393 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New linear response formulas with applications to variational data assimilation and generative SDE models DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260120T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260120T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Jan 20 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Angxiu Ni\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, University of California\, Irvine\nWe present several new formulas for the linear response (parameter derivatives of marginal or stationary measures ) of SDEs. The formulas subsume classical approaches (path-perturbation\, divergence\, and kernel-differentiation) and overcome key difficulties suc h as chaos\, high-dimensionality\, and parameterized noise. With the new a djoint path-kernel formula\, we solve a challenging variational data assim ilation problem where (i) the deterministic dynamics is chaotic\, (ii) the objective is a single long-time function measuring mismatch in both obser vations and dynamics\, (iii) some dynamical parameters are unknown\, and ( iv) the state is only partially observed.With another divergence-kernel fo rmula\, we introduce a generative model\, DK-SDE\, where the model is a pa rameterized SDE trained by minimizing the KL divergence between the data a nd the SDE marginal law. The framework allows parametrizations in both dri ft and diffusion (enabling explicit priors in dynamics)\, and its gradient computation uses only forward processes\, substantially reducing memory c ost. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-69 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Watson Lecture - Lead Contamination: An Old Foe Rises from the Ash es of the Eaton Fire\, with Francois Tissot DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Watson Lecture - Lead Contamination: An Old Foe Rises from the Ashes o f the Eaton Fire\, with Francois Tissot@Wed Jan 21 19:30:00 2026@cms.divis ions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Francois Tissot\, professor of geochemistry\; Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator\nAdvance registration for this event has closed. Guests who have not pre-registered are invited to join our standby line. We recommend you arrive no later than 6:50 p.m. for standby. If you registered\, please bring your ticket (paper or electronic).A recording o f the event will be made available on our YouTube channel. Join our mailin g list to receive the latest on public events at Caltech. Thank you for yo ur interest!About the TalkWatch the previewIn 1965\, Caltech geochemist Cl air Patterson published what was\, at the time\, a highly controversial fi nding: that leaded gasoline and other products like canned food solder\, p aints\, and insecticide were exposing Americans to dangerously high levels of lead. His work helped galvanize the environmental movement\, ultimatel y leading to the Clean Air Act of 1970. Fifty years later\, Caltech resear chers\, led by Francois Tissot\, professor of geochemistry and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator\, were once again at the center of investigations on environmental lead contamination when the Eaton fire de vastated communities surrounding Caltech. A year on from the LA fires of 2 025\, Tissot will discuss Patterson's legacy and its connections to hi s own research group's efforts to study the presence of lead and other tox ic metals in the aftermath of the fires. He will also share the impact of his findings to date—and how they can help communities prepare as fires at the wildland-urban interface grow increasingly common.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Food\, drinks\, and books available for pu rchase.7 p.m. — Doors open.7:30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions and conversation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be made available on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFo r more than 100 years\, the Watson Lectures have brought the wonder of Cal tech research and discovery to the public.Free and open to the public\, th e Watson Lecture Series offers a unique and accessible opportunity to lear n more about cutting-edge science directly from Caltech's premier research ers. Come early to mingle with your neighbors over food\, drink and music\ , as well as interactive displays related to the evening's topic. Then hea d inside to hear a stimulating talk and stay to ask your burning questions .Many past Watson Lectures are available on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-franco is-tissot END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Nonholonomic Stabilization and Pursuit-Evasion: Not-so-hard After All DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260122T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260122T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 22 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Miroslav Krstić\, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Resear ch\, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\, University of Ca lifornia\, San Diego\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar SeriesTitle : "Nonholonomic Stabilization and Pursuit-Evasion: Not-so-hard After All"A bstract: In the polar coordinates\, the unicycle/Dubins vehicle passes Bro ckett's condition. Hence\, stabilization - even global - by static feedbac k is achievable. I present feedback designs for several categories of prob lems. For steering-controlled\, constant-velocity unicycles\, finite-time stable parking is achieved. Shifting the attention from static targets and ground vehicles to moving-target interception\, a kinematically inferior evader is captured\, in spite of the evader's arbitrarily vigorous maneuve ring. In the language of control\, ISS with an asymptotic gain = 0 is achi eved in pursuit-evasion games. The new ideas are (a) treating the distance -to-target as time in the feedback design and (b) converting the vehicle's inability to slow down from a challenge into an asset. For parking and sp acecraft docking\, with direction-reversible velocity control on top of st eering\, global STRICT CLFs are sought - a problem open for 42 years - and found using integrator forwarding and backstepping. Thanks to the DRIFTLE SS nature of the unicycle\, the strict CLFs then yield (1) optimality with out solving HJB PDEs and (2) infinite gain margins. Bio: Miroslav Krstic i s Distinguished Professor\; founding director of UC San Diego's Center for Control Systems and Dynamics (CCSD) and the US Navy-funded Naval Innovati on\, Science\, and Engineering Center (NISEC)\; and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. He has received the IEEE Brockett Control Systems (Field) Award\, Bellman Award\, Bode Lecture Prize\, SIAM Reid Prize\, AS ME Oldenburger Medal\, ASME Nyquist Lecture Prize and Paynter Award\, Raga zzini Education Award\, and several IFAC awards (Chestnut Textbook Prize\, Nonlinear Control Systems Award\, Ruth Curtain Distributed Parameter Syst ems Award\, Adaptive and Learning Systems Award\, Time-Delay Lifetime Achi evement Award). Krstic is Fellow of IEEE\, AIAA\, IFAC\, ASME\, SIAM\, AAA S\, IET\, and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Krstic has coauthored nineteen books on adaptive/nonlinear control\, extremum seeking\, and PDE control. His industrial transitions have been in chip photolithography and advanced arresting gear on carriers. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89915 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260123T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260123T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Jan 23 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-c ourses-and-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87949 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Resilient Autonomy: Perception and Planning for Dynamic\, Unknown Environments DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260126T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260126T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Jan 26 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jonathan How\, Ford Professor of Engineering\, Department of A eronautics and Astronautics\, MIT\n Unmanned aerial systems hold promise f or critical applications including search and rescue\, environmental monit oring\, and autonomous delivery. Real world deployment in safety critical settings\, however\, remains challenging due to GPS denied operation\, unc ertainty in perception\, and the need for safe trajectory planning in dyna mic\, partially known environments. This talk presents recent advances in planning\, control\, and perception that together enable robust\, scalable \, and efficient aerial autonomy. On the planning and control side\, I fir st present IL-RTMPC\, a demonstration and training efficient approach for learning robust control policies from model predictive control. By combini ng single trajectory demonstrations with disturbance aware data aggregatio n\, IL-RTMPC produces policies that generalize to unseen conditions\, with validation on quadrotors and the MIT SoftFly platform. I then introduce D YNUS\, which enables uncertainty aware trajectory planning for safe\, real time flight in dynamic and unknown environments. Building on this foundat ion\, MIGHTY performs fully coupled spatiotemporal optimization to generat e agile and precise motion by jointly reasoning about path and timing. Tog ether with prior work on Robust MADER\, these methods enable fast\, safe\, multi robot navigation under uncertainty. On the perception side\, I intr oduce complementary mapping frameworks that support long term autonomy and planning. GRAND SLAM combines 3D Gaussian splatting with semantic and geo metric priors to produce unified scene representations suitable for photor ealistic planning. ROMAN compresses environments into sparse\, object cent ric maps that are orders of magnitude smaller than traditional representat ions while still enabling accurate relocalization and loop closure under e xtreme viewpoint changes. I also discuss the interaction between perceptio n and control\, focusing on safety filtering for systems that rely on lear ned perception models. I will present results across simulation and hardwa re experiments and conclude with open challenges in building resilient aut onomous aerial systems. These advances move us closer to reliable UAS auto nomy with meaningful real world impact. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 74 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Homogenizing Origami and Kirigami Metamaterials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Jan 29 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Paul Plucinsky\, Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanic al Engineering\, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering\, Univ ersity of Southern California\nMechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar Se riesTitle: "Homogenizing Origami and Kirigami Metamaterials"Abstract: Shap e-morphing finds widespread utility\, from the deployment of small stents and large solar sails to actuation and propulsion in soft robots. Kirigami and origami metamaterials\, formed by repeating patterns of slits\, creas es and panels\, are a versatile platform for shape-morphing\, inspiring th e design of many morphing structures and devices. However\, it remains a c hallenge to predict the response of these and other metamaterial systems t o a broad range of loads and stimuli\, especially under large deformations .This talk describes general theoretical principles for homogenizing origa mi and kirigami metamaterials. Our broad goal is to derive\, from first pr inciples\, an effective mechanical theory for their bulk deformations\, va lid in the limit of a large number of building blocks. The first part disc usses kirigami\; the second discusses origami. We present the foundational ingredients of the theory\, along with numerical and experimental demonst rations of its predictive power.Bio: Paul Plucinsky is an Assistant Profes sor in the USC Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. His res earch interests lie at the interface of solid mechanics\, materials scienc e and mathematic\, where he applies a theory-guided approach to range of t opics including the design and modeling of origami and kirigami metamateri als. Prior to joining USC in 2020\, Paul was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Aer ospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota. He receiv ed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Caltech in 2017\, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Structural engineering at the University of Michigan in 2011. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2023. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89916 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Entanglement oscillations and many-body quantum scars DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260130T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260130T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Jan 30 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicholas O'Dea\, Princeton\nAbstract: Many-body quantum scars states are outlier eigenstates: they have local expectation values that a re very different from those of eigenstates at surrounding energies. Quant um scars are responsible for initial-state dependence of thermalization\, and a number of symmetry-based constructions for scarred Hamiltonians have been proposed. One of the most striking features of the model that was or iginally experimentally explored is non-monotonicity of entanglement entro py in time when initializing from scar superpositions. However\, a quick s urvey of the theoretical literature shows that for a majority of proposed scarred models\, including those proposed by the speaker\, entanglement en tropies of superpositions of quantum scar states are strictly independent of time. What causes this entanglement freezing? Is there a fundamental di fference between models with entanglement oscillations and those with enta nglement freezing? I will present a collaboration with Adithya Sriram from Stanford University that investigates these questions\, \;https://jou rnals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.210402. Following the t alk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90403 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:High Order Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Equations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260202T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260202T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Feb 2 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chi-Wang Shu\, Theodore B. Stowell University Professor\, Appl ied Mathematics\, Brown University\nHyperbolic equations are used extensiv ely in applications including fluid dynamics\, astrophysics\, electro-magn etism\, semi-conductor devices\, and biological sciences. High order accur ate numerical methods are efficient for solving such partial differential equations\, however they are difficult to design because solutions may con tain discontinuities. In this talk we will survey several types of high or der numerical methods for such problems\, including weighted essentially n on-oscillatory (WENO) finite difference and finite volume methods\, discon tinuous Galerkin finite element methods\, and spectral methods. We will di scuss essential ingredients\, properties and relative advantages of each m ethod\, and provide comparisons among these methods. Recent development an d applications of these methods will also be discussed. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 72 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Variational phase-field modeling of fracture: toward second-gener ation models" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260203T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260203T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:James K. Knowles Lectures and Caltech Solid Mechanics Symposium@Tue Fe b 3 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Laura De Lorenzis\, Professor of Computational Mechanics\, ETH Zürich\nJames K. Knowles LectureTitle: "Variational phase-field modeling of fracture: toward second-generation models"Abstract:Variational phase-f ield models of brittle fracture are powerful tools for studying Griffith-t ype crack propagation in complex scenarios. However\, as approximations of Griffith's theory—which does not incorporate a strength criterion—the se models lack flexibility in prescribing material-specific strength surfa ces. Consequently\, they struggle to accurately capture crack nucleation u nder multiaxial stress conditions. For this reason\, many recently propose d models have given up the elegance and the theoretical and practical adva ntages of the variational setting to achieve greater flexibility in reprod ucing experimental observations.In this presentation\, we explore recent s trategies developed in the group of the speaker to endow variational phase -field models with sufficient flexibility to overcome current limitations\ , potentially paving the way for a second generation of variational phase- field fracture models. For fracture under multiaxial stress states\, we fi rst illustrate the pros and cons of models based on the notion of energy d ecomposition and propose a new model of this type that controls the compet ition between nucleation under compressive and tensile stresses. Then\, we illustrate a novel phase-field model of cohesive fracture that allows for an arbitrarily shaped convex strength surface\, thereby reconciling fract ure nucleation and propagation within a unified framework. Finally\, we il lustrate further recent results on phase-field modeling of cohesive fractu re in anisotropic materials and under dynamic conditions.Bio:Laura De Lore nzis received her Engineering degree and her PhD from the University of he r hometown Lecce\, in southern Italy\, where she began her academic career . In 2013 she moved to the TU Braunschweig\, Germany\, as Professor and Di rector of the Institute of Applied Mechanics. Since 2020 she is Professor of Computational Mechanics at ETH Zürich. She was visiting scholar in sev eral institutions\, including Chalmers University of Technology\, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University\, MIT (with a Fulbright Fellowship)\, the Uni versity of Hannover (with an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship)\, the Univ ersity of Texas at Austin and the University of Cape Town. She is the reci pient of several prizes\, including the RILEM L'Hermite Medal 2011\, the A IMETA Junior Prize 2011\, the IIFC Young Investigator Award 2012\, the Eur omech Solid Mechanics Fellowship 2022\, the IACM Fellowship 2024\, two bes t paper awards and two student teaching prizes. In 2011 she was awarded a European Research Council Starting Researcher Grant. She has delivered ove r 30 plenary lectures at international conferences and authored or co-auth ored more than 160 papers on international journals on different topics of computational and applied mechanics. Since 2023 she is Editor of Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89914 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260204T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Feb 4 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/midterm-examination-p eriod-87950 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Infinite temperature at zero energy DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260206T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260206T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Feb 6 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:David Long\, Stanford\nAbstract: The structure of Hamiltonian eigenstates can be characterized by their entanglement. Ground states of gapped\, local Hamiltonians obey an area law in one dimension\, meaning th at the the entanglement entropy of an interval is independent of its lengt h. In contrast\, "infinite temperature" eigenstates -- those in the middle of the spectrum -- are believed to typically exhibit a volume law: the en tanglement entropy of an interval is proportional to its length. We constr uct a family of exactly solvable\, gapless Hamiltonians whose eigenstates have properties characteristic of infinite temperature\, like volume-law e ntanglement entropy\, across the whole spectrum -- including the ground st ate. This construction is the first for which the volume law can be proved to hold for all intervals. The construction is a variation of the Feynman -Kitaev clock -- a well-known mapping between quantum circuits and local H amiltonians -- where the clock register is given periodic boundary conditi ons. We combine this with a family of exactly solvable Floquet quantum cir cuits whose eigenstates we prove obey the eigenstate thermalization hypoth esis (ETH) at infinite temperature. The eigenstates of the clock Hamiltoni an inherit the volume law entanglement of the circuit eigenstates\, demons trating that gapless ground states can essentially be as complicated as in finite temperature states. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90404 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:An Adjoint Method for Optimization of the Boltzmann Equation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260209T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260209T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Feb 9 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Russel E. Caflisch\, Professor of Mathematics\, Courant Instit ute\, NYU\nWe present an adjoint method for optimization of the spatially inhomogeneous Boltzmann equation for rarefied gas dynamics. The adjoint me thod is derived using a "discretize then optimize" approach. Discretizatio n (in time and velocity) is via the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) m ethod\, and adjoint equations are derived from an augmented Lagrangian. T he boundary conditions that are included in this analysis include spectral reflection\, thermal reflection\, and inflow boundary conditions. For the rmal reflection\, a "score function" is included as a statistical regulari zation. This is joint work with Yunan Yang (Cornell). LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 75 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dynamics\, Guidance & Control of Autonomous Orbital Systems: From Conception to Flight Experimentation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T123000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMS Special Seminar with Marcello Romano@Tue Feb 10 11:30:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Marcello Romano\, Professor\, School of Engineering and Design \, Technical University of Munich\nThe presentation will offer an overview of selected research efforts by Dr. Romano and his collaborators\, spanni ng analysis\, laboratory\, and on-orbit experimentation. Research projects will be highlighted which focus on spaceflight mechanics and control (per taining to both rotational and orbital motion)\, orbital robotics\, and sp ace systems engineering.The seminar will take place in Guggenheim 232. URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cms-special-colloquiu m-with-marcello-romano-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Flow Maps: Flow-based generative models with lightning-fast infere nce DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Feb 10 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicholas Boffi\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Machine L earning and Department of Mathematical Sciences\, Carnegie Mellon Universi ty\nFlow-based models have spurred a revolution in generative modeling\, d riving astounding advancements across diverse domains including high-resol ution text to image synthesis and de-novo drug design. Yet despite their r emarkable performance\, inference in these models requires the solution of a differential equation\, which is extremely costly for the large-scale n eural network-based models used in practice. In this talk\, we introduce a mathematical theory of flow maps\, a new class of generative models that directly learn the solution operator for a flow-based model. By learning t his operator\, flow maps can generate data in 1-4 network evaluations\, le ading to orders of magnitude faster inference compared to standard flow-ba sed models. We discuss several algorithms for efficiently learning flow ma ps in practice that emerge from our theory\, and we show how many popular recent methods for accelerated inference -- including consistency models\, shortcut models\, align your flow\, and mean flow -- can be viewed as par ticular cases of our formalism. We demonstrate the practical effectiveness of flow maps across several tasks including image synthesis\, geometric d ata generation\, and inference-time guidance of pre-trained text-to-image models. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-66 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:What a Digital Twin Can Learn from Data\, Thermodynamics\, and Act ion Principles for Damage Assessment in Complex Materials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260212T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260212T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Feb 12 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jiun-Shyan (JS) Chen\, William Prager Chair Professor\, Depart ment of Structural Engineering\, University of California\, San Diego\nTit le: "What a Digital Twin Can Learn from Data\, Thermodynamics\, and Action Principles for Damage Assessment in Complex Materials"Abstract:This talk explores the interplay between data\, thermodynamics\, and action principl es in the development of thermodynamics‑aware digital twins for damage a ssessment in complex materials microstructures. Data is leveraged in two k ey ways: image data is used to represent as-built material microstructures \, while measurable material state data supports data-driven computation. The link between microstructure\, material state\, and structural damage r esponse is grounded in thermodynamic principles and the principle of least action. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm is employed for automa tic microstructure segmentation\, enabling direct model discretization fro m image pixels without the need for body-fitted mesh generation. Inelastic material behavior is modeled in a purely data-driven manner\, bypassing t raditional constitutive models that often lack generalizability across loa ding conditions. To capture localized damage and microstructural features with coarse discretization\, we introduce neural network (NN) enrichment o f the RKPM framework. The NN approximation is formulated through energy mi nimization\, with optimal parameters encoding the location\, orientation\, and transition behavior of damage zones. Regularization ensures discretiz ation-independent solutions\, and convergence properties are analytically derived and numerically verified. For transient dynamics\, the NN-enriched formulation is based on action minimization and symplectic integration\, yielding solutions consistent with classical field theory. The effectivene ss of this digital twin framework is demonstrated in modeling damage evolu tion in composite materials and structures\, and comparison with experimen tal results validated the accuracy and reliability of the proposed computa tional framework.Bio: J. S. Chen is the William Prager Chair Professor and Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering Department\, Mechanical &\; Aerospace Engineering Department\, and the Founding Director of Ce nter for Extreme Events Research at University of California San Diego (UC SD). Before joining UCSD in 2013\, he was the Chancellor's Professor of UC LA Civil &\; Environmental Engineering Department\, Mechanical &\; A erospace Engineering Department\, and Mathematics Department\, where he se rved as the Department Chair of Civil &\; Environmental Engineering dur ing 2007-2012. J. S. Chen's research is in computational mechanics\, meshf ree methods\, multiscale materials modeling\, machine-learning-enhanced co mputational mechanics\, and physics-informed data-driven computing. He is the Past President of US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) a nd the Past President of ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI). He ha s received numerous awards\, including the John von Neumann Medal from the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM)\, the Belytschko Medal from USACM\, the Raymond D. Mindlin Medal from ASCE EMI\, the Computation al Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Me chanics (IACM)\, the Grand Prize from Japan Society for Computational Engi neering and Science (JSCES)\, the Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award f rom ASME Applied Mechanics Division\, the Computational Mechanics Award fr om Japan Association for Computational Mechanics (JACM)\, the ICACM Award from International Chinese Association for Computational Mechanics (ICACM) \, among others. He is the Fellow of USACM\, IACM\, ASME\, EMI\, SES\, ICA CM\, and ICCEES. He received PhD in Theoretical &\; Applied Mechanics f rom Northwestern University. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/james-k-knowles-lectu res-and-caltech-solid-mechanics-symposium END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:From higher-dimensional Fermiology to higher Hall crystals in moir é materials DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260213T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260213T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Feb 13 14:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nisarga Paul\, Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar\nNote sp ecial time for the Feb. 13 talk. It begins at 2 pm in 114 E. Bridge.Abstra ct: In the past decade\, moiré materials have revolutionized how we engi neer and control quantum phases of matter. \;I will describe two recen t efforts to push moiré quantum phases into (1) higher dimensions and (2) higher topological numbers. First\, I will discuss a new family of three- dimensional bulk moiré metals with a one-dimensional superlattice which e xhibit quantum oscillations with a remarkably high degree of order. We fin d that the Fermi surface is comprised of over 40 distinct cross-sectional areas\, near the most observed in any material. This can be naturally unde rstood in a framework in which bulk moiré materials encode electronic pro perties of higher-dimensional superspace crystals in ways that parallel we ll-established crystallographic methods used for incommensurate lattices. Next\, I will discuss a theoretical proposal which can use such one-dimens ionally modulated materials to realize Hall crystals\, in which crystalliz ation gives rise to electronic topology\, with various higher Chern number s. These phases shed light on a regime of moiré materials in which intera ctions and topology coexist\, and could provide a setting for beyond-conve ntional fractional quantum Hall phases. Refreshments will be provided foll owing the talk. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90405 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Tue Feb 17 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm- deficiency-notices-87952 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:A Principled Framework for Discrete Diffusion Models via Denoising DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Feb 17 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ricardo Baptista\, Assistant Professor\, Statistical Sciences\ , University of Toronto\nDiscrete generative models provide a probabilisti c framework for representing and sampling discrete data such as text seque nces. In the continuous setting\, score-based diffusion models have rapidl y become state of the art for tasks involving images\, video\, and other c ontinuous-valued data. A key reason for their success is that estimating t he score function\, the gradient of a perturbed data distribution\, can be linked to a denoising problem through Tweedie's formula\, which enables t he use of well-established supervised methods for learning the score. In t he discrete setting\, diffusion models offer a promising alternative to au toregressive models for generating entire text sequences at once in large language models. However\, they have not yet achieved performance comparab le to autoregressive models and often require specialized loss functions a nd architectures to approximate quantities analogous to the score function . We begin by reviewing the mathematical formulation of discrete diffusion models and then introduce a framework that parallels continuous flow-base d generative modeling. Specifically\, we propose Binomial flows for non-ne gative ordinal data. We show that this approach provides a simple recipe f or training\, sampling\, and computing exact likelihoods in discrete diffu sion models via a discrete version of Tweedie's formula. Finally\, we will demonstrate that sampling can be performed using a Poisson–Föllmer pro cess\, which has desirable theoretical properties and yields competitive p erformance on real-world image generation tasks. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-75 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Inside Baseball: ML in a Baseball Front Office DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260217T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:CMS Special Seminar with Richard Anderson@Tue Feb 17 16:00:00 2026@cms .divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Richard Anderson\, Director of Quantitative Analysis\, Los Ang eles Dodgers\nModern professional baseball is a rich domain for applied ma chine learning. Front offices attempt to optimize the construction and dep loyment of their teams by using high-frequency spatiotemporal data\, video \, and event data. This talk surveys how ML is used in 3 primary domains: (1) on-field strategy\, (2) player performance forecasting\, and (3)\, bio mechanics and movement science. I will outline the current state of the ar t in these domains and discuss open problems that motivate the development of new methods. LOCATION:Chen 100 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cms-special-seminar-w ith-richard-anderson-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"The Inherent Resilience of Large Cities to Natural Hazards: Recor ds\, Evidence and Predictions" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Feb 19 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicos Makris\, Professor of Structures and Mechanics\, Addy Fa mily Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering\, Civil and Environmental E ngineering\, Southern Methodist University\nMechanical and Civil Engineeri ng Seminar SeriesTitle: "The Inherent Resilience of Large Cities to Natura l Hazards: Records\, Evidence and Predictions"Abstract:In view that cities will continue to house the majority of the world's population at an incre asing rate in association with the face of climate change\, in this semina r we quantify urban resilience to natural hazards by examining the respons e history of the mean-square displacement of the citizens of large cities prior and upon natural hazards strike. The recorded mean-square displaceme nts of large numbers of cell-phone users from the cities of Houston\, Miam i and Jacksonville when struck by hurricanes Harvey 2017\, Irma 2017 and D orian 2019 together with the recorded mean-square displacements of the cit izens of Dallas and Houston from traffic-flow data when experienced the 20 21 North American winter storm\, revert immediately to their pre-event ste ady-state response\, suggesting that large cities when struck by natural h azards are inherently and invariably resilient within the context of "engi neering resilience". During the talk we explain how the mean-square displa cement from a random (stochastic) process is intimately related to determi nistic\, emergent time-response functions. This overarching relation which emerges from the theory of Brownian motion in association with the record ed data presented in this study also leads to a mechanical model for citie s\, recently developed by the speaker\, which is rooted in Langevin dynami cs. Our mechanical model predicts precisely what the recorded data uncover —that following a natural hazard\, large American cities revert immediat ely to their initial steady-state regime and resume their normal\, pre-eve nt activities.Bio: Professor Nicos Makris\, an internationally recognized expert in structural-earthquake engineering and structural mechanics-dynam ics\, is the Addy Family Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering at Sout hern Methodist University\, Dallas\, Texas. Makris received his Ph.D (1992 ) and Master of Science (1990) from the State University of New York at Bu ffalo\, USA\; while he holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the Natio nal Technical University\, Athens\, Greece (1988). He has previously serve d on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame\, Indiana (1992-1996)\; t he University of California\, Berkeley (1996-2005)\; the University of Pat ras\, Greece (2003-2014) and the University of Central Florida (2014-2018) . He has published more than 140 papers in archival journals\, while he ha s supervised 16 Ph.D thesis and more than 40 MSc and 5th year Diploma thes is. He has served as the Editor of the Journal Earthquakes and Structures\ ; the Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics\, ASCE\, a nd the Chair of the Dynamics Committee on the same Journal. He is a member of Academia Europaea "The Academy of Europe"\, a foreign member of the Se rbian Academy of Sciences and Arts\, a Fellow of the American Society of C ivil Engineers (ASCE) and a distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Aca demy of Engineering\, UK\; while\, he has been honored with several intern ational prizes and awards including the George W. Housner Structural Contr ol &\; Monitoring Medal and the J. James R. Croes Medal (two times) bot h from ASCE\, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from AS CE\, the T. K. Hsieh Award from the Institution of Civil Engineers\, U.K.\ , the Shah Family Innovation Prize from the Earthquake Engineering Researc h Institute (EERI)\, USA and the CAREER Award from the National Science Fo undation\, USA. During the years 2003-2009\, Professor Makris has served as the Director of Reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus in Ancient Nemea\, Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsxPSeWS52Q LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-89913 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Testing the quantumness of gravity "ab absurdo" DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260220T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260220T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Feb 20 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Emanuele Panella\, University of Rome Tor Vergata\nAbstract: T he quest for a quantum description of gravity has been long\, diverse\, an d productive. Yet\, despite decades of theoretical progress\, there is sti ll no direct experimental evidence for the quantum nature of spacetime. In this talk\, I explore an alternative\, indirect route to probing quantum gravity by assuming the fundamental classicality of the gravitational fiel d and examining the resulting observational conflicts. In particular\, I w ill discuss a key consistency condition—known as the decoherence–diffu sion trade-off—that any theory of fundamentally classical gravity couple d to quantum matter must satisfy. By analysing a toy model of a linearised classical–quantum (CQ) gravity–matter system\, I will explicitly show how this trade-off implies unavoidable\, measurable effects\, such as a f undamental stochastic gravitational-wave background\, which cannot be elim inated by fine-tuning the model parameters. Following the talk\, lunch wil l be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90406 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Generative Design via Optimal Transport for Shape and Field Explor ation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260223T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260223T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Feb 23 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Charbel Farhat\, Vivian Church Hoff Professor\, School of Engi neering\, Stanford University\nGenerative Design (GD) combines artificial intelligence (AI)\, physics-based modeling\, and multi-objective optimizat ion to \;autonomously explore and refine engineering designs. Despite its promise in aerospace\, automotive\, and other high-performance applica tions\, current GD methods face critical challenges: AI approaches require large datasets and often struggle to \;generalize\; topology optimiza tion is computationally intensive and difficult to extend to multiphysics problems\; and model order reduction for evolving geometries remains under developed. To address these challenges\, we introduce a unified\, structur e-preserving framework for GD based on optimal transport (OT)\, enabling s imultaneous interpolation of complex \;geometries and their associated physical solution fields across evolving design spaces\, even with non-ma tching meshes and substantial shape changes. This capability leverages Gau ssian splatting to provide a continuous\, mesh-independent \;represent ation of the solution and Wasserstein barycenters to enable smooth\, mathe matically ''mass''-preserving blending of geometries\, offering a major ad vance over surrogate models tied to static meshes. Our framework efficient ly interpolates positive scalar fields across arbitrarily shaped\, evolvin g geometries without requiring identical mesh topology or dimensionality. OT also naturally preserves localized physical features -- such as stress concentrations or sharp gradients -- by conserving the spatial distributio n of quantities\, interpreted as ''mass'' in a mathematical sense\, rather than averaging them\, avoiding artificial smoothing. Preliminary extensio ns to signed and vector fields are presented. Representative test cases de monstrate enhanced efficiency\, adaptability\, and physical fidelity\, est ablishing a foundation for future foundation-model-powered generative desi gn workflows. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 76 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed Feb 25 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping -courses-exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-22 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Watson Lecture: Chasing Sustainable Battery Chemistries for the Fu ture with Kimberly See DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260225T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Watson Lecture: Chasing Sustainable Battery Chemistries for the Future with Kimberly See@Wed Feb 25 19:30:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kimberly See\, professor of chemistry\nAdvance registration fo r this event has closed. Guests who have not pre-registered are invited t o join our standby line. We recommend you arrive no later than 6:50 p.m. for standby. If you registered\, please bring your ticket (paper or elect ronic).A recording of the event will be made available on our YouTube chan nel. Join our mailing list to receive the latest on public events at Calte ch. Thank you for your interest!About the TalkFrom toys to cell phones to electric cars\, batteries power modern life. They also play a potentially pivotal role in building a sustainable energy infrastructure. Next-generat ion batteries could help store power from intermittent renewable sources\, such as wind and solar\, and enable expanded adoption of battery-powered electric vehicles. Such advances are critical to reducing dependence on fo ssil fuels\, a priority that has grown more urgent in recent years given t he massive power needs of AI servers.However\, today's state-of-the-art ba ttery technology\, the lithium-ion battery\, comes with some significant c hallenges. Lithium-ion batteries rely on scarce and expensive minerals\, w hich limits their use and raises concerns about affordability and environm ental impact. In this talk\, Kimberly See\, professor of chemistry\, will explore her lab's efforts to develop energy-storage chemistries that move beyond lithium-ion\, using more abundant and less-expensive materials\, wh ile still achieving the high-energy densities that have made today's batte ries so transformative.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Fo od\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doors open.7:30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions and convers ation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be made available o n our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years\, the Watson Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discovery to the public.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Series offers a u nique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge science directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with you r neighbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interactive displays related to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a stimulating tal k and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lectures are ava ilable on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-kimber ly-see END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260311T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Registration for Spring Term@Thu Feb 26 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.ca ltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/registration-for-spri ng-term-87935 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:How to Improve the Performance of an Airtanker Drop DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260226T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Theodore Y. Wu and Chin-Hua Wu Lecture@Thu Feb 26 16:00:00 2026@cms.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Dominique Legendre\, Professor\, Fluid Mechanics\, Toulouse IN P\, National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse\nTitle: "How to Improve the Performance of an Airtanker Drop"Abstract: Airtanker firefighting is a fa scinating tool used to fight wildland fires. Airtankers are\, however\, de veloped based on empirical methods\, and their performance is only discove red after drop tests made above a grid of cups distributed on a flat field with no vegetation (the cup &\; grid method)\, developed during the 19 90s. Dropping a liquid from an aircraft seems easy to achieve because the released liquid directly falls to the ground due to gravity. However\, the fluid dynamics processes that govern this practice are characterized by r ich and varied physical phenomena\, and controlling the resulting fluid di stribution of the drop pattern raises many scientific issues.The liquid co lumn penetration in the air\, its large-scale fragmentation\, and an inten se surface atomization give shape to the rainfall produced by the airtanke r and the final product deposition onto the canopy. The respective roles o f these mechanisms are described and analyzed here in order to determine t he parameters of importance for improving airtanker drop performance for m ore efficient firefighting.Bio: Prof. Dominique Legendre graduated with a PhD in Fluid Mechanics from Toulouse INP\, France\, in 1996. He has been a Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Toulouse INP since 2007\, and he is Deput y Director of IMFT (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse)\, one of the leading fluid mechanics institutes in Europe. He has been Chairman of the Governing Board of the International Conference on Multiphase Flows (ICMF) from 2022 to 2025.His main line of research is multiphase flows\, in particular bubble and drop dynamics\, including heat and mass transfer\ , icing\, and wetting phenomena. Over the last decade\, he has developed a n original research program on airtanker firefighting efficiency with a st rong connection to the aerial firefighting industry. In particular\, he ha s developed the NaSCa code to model ground deposits of liquid dropped by a ny aerial system. In 2019\, a patent was granted for a new delivery system \, KIOS\, in collaboration with Kepplair Evolution\, and he is now an expe rt for the KE72 project to transform an ATR72 into an airtanker. He has le d several international publications on the subject\, in particular a cont ribution to the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics in 2024. In 2023\, in Was hington\, DC\, he delivered an invited keynote lecture on the fluid mechan ics of airtanker firefighting at one of the most prestigious international fluid mechanics conferences (the Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society). For all his contributions\, he received the "Transfert Technologique" Award of Toulouse University in 20 22. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-285 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Towards sample-optimal learning of bosonic Gaussian quantum states DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260227T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260227T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Feb 27 14:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Senrui Chen\, IQIM Postdoctoral Scholar\, Preskill group\nNote this week's talk begins at 2 pm in 114 E. BridgeAbstract: Bosonic quantu m systems enable key quantum technologies in computation\, communication\, and sensing. Gaussian quantum states emerge naturally in various such app lications\, including gravitational-wave and dark-matter detection. A fund amental question is how to characterize an unknown bosonic Gaussian state from as few samples as possible. In this work\, we study the necessary and sufficient number of copies to learn an n-mode Gaussian state\, with ener gy less than E\, to ε \;trace distance with high probability. We prov e a lower bound of Ω(n^3/ε^2) for Gaussian measurements\, matching the b est known upper bound up to doubly logarithmic energy dependence\, and Ω( n^2/ε^2) for arbitrary measurements. We further show \;an upper bound of O(n^2/ε^2) up to log factors\, given that the Gaussian state is promi sed to be either pure or passive. Interestingly\, non-Gaussian measurement s are provably required for optimal learning of passive Gaussian states. W e also show the role of adaptive learning in achieving energy-independent sample complexity. As a technical ingredient\, we characterize the connect ion and difference between learning Gaussian states and learning their Wig ner distributions. Our results advance quantum learning theory in the boso nic regimes and have practical applications. Refreshments will be availabl e following the talk. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90407 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Stable and Unstable Objects in the PDE Analysis of the Navier-Stok es Equations DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260302T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260302T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Mar 2 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Vladimir Sverak\, Professor\, School of Mathematics\, Universi ty of Minnesota\nWe will discuss examples of stability\, rigidity\, and in stability of solutions. At a conceptual level\, we know what the important principles are. However\, in concrete situations\, the analysis suggested by the general principles is often elusive. We will discuss a few example s\, including vortex rings\, where rigorous results can be obtained\, toge ther with some open problems\, such as stability issues in possible singul arity formation. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 77 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Intelligent Learning Strategies for Thermal Science in the AI Era DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Mar 5 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yoonjin Won\, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineerin g\, UCI Samueli School of Engineering\, University of California\, Irvine\ n\nTitle: "Intelligent Learning Strategies for Thermal Science in the AI E ra"Abstract: Multiphase phenomena are observed in our everyday life in na ture and many industrial applications\, ranging from dew condensation on i nsects\, water harvesting\, electronics cooling\, climatology prediction\, hydrogen generations\, and manufacturing. While the fundamentals of multi phase processes have been studied for over a century\, key scientific ques tions remain regarding the fundamental mechanisms governing complex phenom ena. The intricate interplay between the evolution of phase boundaries and mass transport results in nonlinear behavior\, where subtle changes in on e parameter can have profound and unexpected effects on others. The multim odal\, multidimensional\, and transient nature of these processes presents challenges for investigation and comprehension. Additionally\, interpreti ng experimental data and predicting multiphase phenomena remain significan t challenges. To address these challenges\, our research group seeks to in tegrate cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning strategies. In t his talk\, Dr. Yoonjin Won introduces a paradigm shift: AI-enabled Thermal Science. By integrating high-speed computer vision with "physics-informed " machine learning\, Dr. Won's research group transforms raw visual data o f bubble and droplet dynamics into actionable physical insights. She will discuss the development of the vision framework\, which autonomously extra cts high-fidelity physical descriptors at extreme spatio-temporal resoluti ons. Dr. Won will demonstrate how these intelligent learning strategies al low us to move beyond traditional observation\, enabling the inverse desig n of predicting complex heat transfer behaviors. This intersection of data science and thermal physics provides a roadmap for the future of sustaina ble energy systems and advanced electronic cooling. Bio: Yoonjin Won is cu rrently a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Univers ity of California\, Irvine\, with courtesy appointments in Electrical Engi neering and Computer Science\, and Materials Science Engineering. Dr. Won' s research focuses on multiphase thermal science\, integrating AI for scie nce and experiment\, scientific machine learning\, and materials design. S he is a leader of the DoD funded multi-university research initiative (MUR I)\, ML4HEAT. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award\, the ASME Electronic &\; Photonic Packaging Division Early Care er Award\, the ASME Electronic &\; Photonic Packaging Division Women En gineer Award\, the ASME ICNMM Outstanding Leadership Award\, the Emerging Innovation/Early Career Innovator from UCI Beall Innovation Center\, Facul ty Excellence in Research Awards (Mid-Career) from UCI\, and numerous best paper and poster awards. Yoonjin Won received her B.S. degree in Mechanic al and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University\, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. For more information on Dr. Won's qualifications and research group\, please visit won.eng.uci.edu. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-281 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Majorization theory for quasiprobabilities DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Mar 5 14:30:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Twesh Upadyaya\, University of Maryland\nSpecial IQIM Seminar Thursday\, March 5 beginning at 2:30 pm in Annenberg 213Abstract: Majoriza tion theory is a powerful mathematical tool to compare the disorder in dis tributions\, with wide-ranging applications in many fields including mathe matics\, physics\, information theory\, and economics. While majorization theory typically focuses on probability distributions\, quasiprobability d istributions provide a pivotal framework for advancing our understanding o f quantum mechanics\, quantum information\, and signal processing. Here\, we introduce a notion of majorization for continuous quasiprobability dist ributions over infinite measure spaces. Generalizing a seminal theorem by Hardy\, Littlewood\, and Pólya\, we prove the equivalence of four definit ions for both majorization and relative majorization in this setting. We g ive several applications of our results in the context of quantum resource theories\, obtaining new families of resource monotones and no-goes for q uantum state conversions. A prominent example we explore is the Wigner fun ction in quantum optics. More generally\, our results provide an extensive majorization framework for assessing the disorder of integrable functions over infinite measure spaces. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90411 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reduced Forms: Feasibility\, Extremality\, Optimality DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260306T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260306T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111634Z UID:Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fri Mar 6 12:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ilia Krasikov\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Economics\ , Arizona State University\; Research Economist\, National Bureau of Econo mic Research\nAbstract: We study independent private values auction enviro nments in which the auctioneer's revenue depends non- linearly on bidders' interim winning probabilities. Our framework accommodates heterogeneity a mong bidders and places no ad hoc constraints on the mechanisms available to the auctioneer. Within this general setting\, we show that feasibility of interim winning probabilities can be tested along a unidimensional curv e—the principal curve—and use this insight to explicitly characterize the extreme points of the feasible set. We then combine our results on fea sibility and extremality to solve for the optimal auction under a natural regularity condition. We show that the optimal mechanism allocates the goo d based on principal virtual values\, which extend Myerson's virtual value s to nonlinear settings and are constructed to equalize bidders' marginal revenue along the principal curve. We apply our approach to the classical linear model\, settings with endogenous valuations due to ex ante investme nts\, and settings with non-expected utility preferences\, where previous results were largely limited either to symmetric environments with symmetr ic allocations or to two-bidder environments.Joint work with Alex Suzdalet sev and Pasha Andreyanov LOCATION:Baxter 127 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-krasikov END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum witnesses with no classical substitutes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260306T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260306T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Mar 6 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chinmay Nirkhe\, University of Washington\nAbstract: One of t he most basic questions about quantum proof systems is whether quantum inf ormation is genuinely necessary in a proof\, or whether a classical descri ption would suffice. In complexity-theoretic terms\, this asks whether all owing a verifier to receive a quantum witness (as in QMA) is strictly more powerful than restricting it to a classical witness (as in QCMA). While t hese classes remain unresolved in the unrelativized world\, oracle separat ions offer a way to probe the structure of this question and isolate the s ource of any potential advantage. In this work\, we show that quantum witn esses can indeed be strictly more powerful—even when the oracle itself i s entirely classical. \;We construct a classical oracle proving that\, in a relativized setting\, the set of languages decidable by an efficient quantum verifier with a quantum witness (QMA) is strictly bigger than tho se decidable with access only to a classical witness (QCMA). The separatin g classical oracle we construct is for a decision problem we coin spectral Forrelation—the oracle describes two subsets of the Boolean hypercube\, and the computational task is to decide whether there exists a quantum st ate whose standard-basis measurement distribution is well supported on one subset while its Fourier-basis measurement distribution is well supported on the other subset. This is equivalent to estimating the spectral norm o f a "Forrelation" matrix between two sets that are accessible through memb ership queries.In this talk\, I will outline the proof techniques for show ing the oracle separation. The lower bound is derived from a simple observ ation that a query algorithm with a classical witness can be run multiple times to generate many samples from a distribution\, while a quantum witne ss is a "use once" object. This observation allows us to reduce proving a QCMA lower bound to proving a sampling hardness result which does not simu ltaneously prove a QMA lower bound. To prove said sampling hardness result for QCMA\, we observe that quantum access to the oracle can be compressed by expressing the problem in terms of bosons -- a novel "second quantizat ion" perspective on compressed oracle techniques\, which may be of indepen dent interest. Using this compressed perspective on the sampling problem\, we prove the sampling hardness result\, completing the proof.A joint work with John Bostanci\, Jonas Haferkamp\, and Mark Zhandry.Following the tal k\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90408 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260310T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Tue Mar 1 0 14:30:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Alex Mori Carroll\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\ , Caltech\nAbstract:The four giant planets\, Jupiter\, Saturn\, Uranus\, a nd Neptune\, contain most of the mass and angular momentum of our planetar y system and thus are believed to have played a critical role in the forma tion and evolution of our solar system. Additionally\, the giant planets r epresent the most frequently observed class of exoplanets\, and therefore present a uniquely interesting and relatively accessible analog for exopla netary research. Despite this\, the giant planets are the least studied in our solar system. Our knowledge of them is primarily based on remote sens ing from Earth-based observatories and space telescopes\, which have inher ent limitations when compared to in situ probe measurements. For these rea sons\, future probe missions to the giant planets have been identified as top priorities for the planetary science community.The upper atmospheres o f the giant planets are primarily composed of gaseous hydrogen (H₂) and helium (He). During atmospheric entry\, a shock wave forms in front of the probe. Under the high temperatures found in the post-shock region\, H₂ molecules dissociate and H atoms become electronically excited\, eventuall y ionizing to form protons (H⁺) and electrons (e⁻). To predict heat lo ads and design mass-efficient thermal protection systems\, it is necessary to model each of these non-equilibrium thermochemical processes accuratel y. The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the thermochemis try of H₂/He shock layers and to develop accurate yet computationally-ef ficient kinetic models for future giant planet probe missions.First\, a no vel one-temperature diatomic dissociation model is developed to capture th ermal non-equilibrium and non-Boltzmann effects for H₂ dissociation. In particular\, the rovibrational state-specific master equations are used to derive macroscopic chemical source term and rovibrational energy expressi ons that are valid in all three key limits/regimes of dissociation-dominat ed flows\, i.e.\, the thermal equilibrium limit\, the quasi-steady-state ( QSS) regime\, and the pre-QSS regime.Next\, optimal fits for H₂ dissocia tion rate constants are developed through a comprehensive literature revie w of available experimental and computational data. This includes data fro m high-temperature shock tube experiments (2\,000 to 8\,000 K)\, low-tempe rature discharge-flow experiments (<\; 350 K)\, and ab initio computatio nal studies.Then\, a detailed literature review of the electronic excitati on and ionization rate constants of atomic H (by both electron and heavy-p article impact) is performed. Using the best estimates of these rate const ants along with the newly developed H₂ dissociation model\, an 11-specie s thermochemical model with state-specific kinetics for atomic H is develo ped. To validate the kinetic model\, 1-D steady shocks are simulated using a space-marching inviscid code that explicitly accounts for shock tube bo undary layer effects. The resulting radiance profiles are compared to expe rimental data from the NASA Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility a nd are found to reproduce the measured values reasonably accurately while capturing the distinct induction zone behavior observed in the experiments .Finally\, a reduced-order non-Boltzmann kinetic model for H ionization is constructed using an analogous QSS framework to the one developed for dia tomic dissociation. This model reproduces the majority of the results of t he state-specific H ionization model\, despite treating H as a single bulk species in the flowfield calculations. LOCATION:Gates Annex B122 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-41 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260311T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Winter Term@Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 2026@cms.divis ions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for winter term and the last d ay to register for spring term without a $50 late fee URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-f or-winter-term-87936 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260315T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Study Period@Thu Mar 12 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/study-period-87940 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Talking To Cells Using Mechanically Unusual Proteins And Ultrasoun d DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Mar 12 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Mikhail G. Shapiro\, Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical Engin eering and Medical Engineering\; Investigator\, Howard Hughes Medical Inst itute\, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering\, California Inst itute of Technology\nTitle: " Talking To Cells Using Mechanically Unusual Proteins And Ultrasound "Abstract: Studying biological function in intact organisms and developing targeted cellular therapies requires methods to i mage and control the function of specific cells deep inside the body. Fluo rescent proteins and optogenetics serve this purpose in small\, translucen t specimens\, but are limited by the poor penetration of light into deeper tissues. In contrast\, most non-invasive techniques such as ultrasound an d magnetic resonance imaging – while based on energy forms that penetrat e tissue – are not effectively coupled to cellular function. Our work at tempts to bridge this gap by engineering biomolecules with the appropriate physical properties to interact with sound waves and magnetic fields. In this talk\, I will describe our recent work on biomolecular reporters and actuators for ultrasound. The reporters are based on gas vesicles – a un ique class of air-filled protein nanostructures derived from buoyant photo synthetic microbes. These proteins scatter sound waves\, enabling their de tection with ultrasound. I will describe our progress in understanding the biomechanial and acoustic properties of these biomolecules\, introducing them genetically into various cell types of interest for in vivo imaging\, and turning them into dynamic sensors of intracellular molecular signals. In addition to their applications in imaging\, gas vesicles can be used t o control cellular location and function by serving as receivers of acoust ic radiation force or seeding localized bubble cavitation. Additional cont rol is provided by thermal bioswitches – biomolecules that provide switc h-like control of gene expression in response to small changes in temperat ure. I will describe how these functionalities allow the development of re mote-controlled cell therapies and diagnostics. Bio: Mikhail Shapiro is th e Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical Engineering and Medical Engineering\ , an HHMI Investigator\, and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cell ular Medicine at Caltech. The Shapiro laboratory develops biomolecular tec hnologies allowing cells to be imaged and controlled inside the body using noninvasive methods such as ultrasound. These technologies enable the stu dy of biological function in vivo and the development of cell-based and ge ne-based diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Mikhail received his PhD in Bi ological Engineering from MIT and his BSc in Neuroscience from Brown. He c onducted post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and the Unive rsity of California\, Berkeley\, where he was a Miller Fellow. Mikhail's a wards include the NIH Pioneer Award\, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promis e\, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award\, the Carl Hellmuth Hertz Ul trasonics Award and the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair. Mikhail is an inducted Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society. Alongside a cademic research\, Mikhail has been involved as a founder and adviser to s everal biotechnology and medical device startups. More information about t he Shapiro Lab can be found online at shapirolab.caltech.edu. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-282 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Optimal learning of quantum channels in diamond distance DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Mar 12 14:30:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Antonio Anna Mele\, Freie Universität Berlin\nSpecial IQIM se minar - Thursday\, March 12 beginning at 2:30 pm in Annenberg 213Abstract: Quantum process tomography---the task of estimating an unknown quantum ch annel---is a central problem in quantum information theory. A long-standin g open question is to determine the optimal number of uses of an unknown c hannel required to learn it in diamond distance\, the standard metric for distinguishing quantum processes. While the analogous problem of quantum s tate tomography has been settled over the past decades in both the pure- a nd mixed-state settings\, for general quantum channels it remained largely open beyond the unitary case. Here we establish the query complexity of q uantum channel tomography with optimal dependence on the relevant dimensio n parameters.We design an algorithm showing that any channel with input an d output dimensions $d_{\\mathrm{in}}\,d_{\\mathrm{out}}$ and Kraus rank a t most $k$ can be learned to constant accuracy in diamond distance using $ \\Theta(d_{\\mathrm{in}}d_{\\mathrm{out}}k)$ channel uses\, and we prove t hat this scaling is optimal via a matching lower bound.More generally\, ac hieving accuracy $\\varepsilon$ is possible with $O(d_{\\mathrm{in}}d_{\\m athrm{out}}k/\\varepsilon^{2})$ channel uses. Since quantum channels subsu me states\, unitaries\, and isometries as special cases\, our protocol pro vides a unified framework for the corresponding tomography tasks\; in part icular\, it yields the first optimal protocols for isometries and for bina ry measurement tomography\, and it recovers optimal trace-distance tomogra phy for fixed-rank states.Our approach reduces channel tomography to pure- state tomography: we use the channel to prepare copies of its Choi state\, purify them in parallel\, and run sample-optimal pure-state tomography on the resulting purifications\; we then show that the induced diamond-dista nce error scales essentially linearly with the trace-distance error in est imating the (purified) Choi state. We also resolve an open question by sho wing that adaptivity does not improve the dimension-optimal query complexi ty of quantum channel tomography. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90412 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Incentivizing Quality Text Generation via Statistical Contracts DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260313T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260313T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fri Mar 13 12:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Eden Saig\, Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Computi ng & Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech\nAbstract: While the success of large language models (LLMs) increases demand for machine-generated text\, curr ent pay-per-token pricing schemes create a misalignment of incentives know n as moral hazard: Providers of text-generation services have an incentive to cut costs by preferring a cheaper model over the cutting-edge one\, an d this can be done "behind the scenes" since the provider performs inferen ce internally. In this work\, we approach this issue from an economic pers pective by proposing a pay-for-performance\, contract-based framework for incentivizing quality. We study a principal-agent game where the agent gen erates text using costly inference\, and a contract determines the princip al's payment for the text according to an automated quality evaluation. Si nce standard contract theory is inapplicable when internal inference costs are uncertain\, we introduce cost-robust contracts. As our main theoretic al contribution\, we characterize optimal cost-robust contracts through a direct correspondence to optimal composite hypothesis tests from statistic s. We evaluate our framework empirically by deriving contracts for a range of objectives and LLM evaluation benchmarks\, and find that cost-robust c ontracts sacrifice only a marginal amount of objective value compared to t heir cost-aware counterparts.Joint work with Inbal Talgam-Cohen and Ohad E inav. LOCATION:Baxter 125 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-saig END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Rigorous bounds on dynamics and correlations in thermal and driven quantum systems and their comparison to experiment DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260313T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260313T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Mar 13 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Zohar Nussinov\, Washington University in St. Louis\nAbstract: We will discuss thermalization in quantum systems (and constraints impli ed by the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis). We will then derive bound s on general spatial and temporal gradients in thermal many body systems a nd illustrate that thermalization times cannot\, typically\, be shorter th an Planck's constant divided by the temperature\; a more general (and accu rate) relation involving the heat capacities will be explained. This relat ion will allow us to derive bounds on speeds\, accelerations\, Lyapunov ex ponents\, and transport coefficients in general many-body systems. These b ounds will be compared with experimentally measured viscosities and diffus ion constants in common systems such as water and various metallic fluids where they appear to be nearly saturated. The inequalities that we obtain further suggest the prospect of long range correlations in driven systems as will indeed be demonstrated in simple soluble models. Following the tal k\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90409 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of Winter Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260318T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260319T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:End of Winter Term@Wed Mar 18 00:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/end-of-winter-term-87 939 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Spring Recess DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260319T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260329T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Spring Recess@Thu Mar 19 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/spring-recess-87940 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Local Control in a Sr quantum computing demonstrator DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260320T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260320T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Mar 20 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kevin Mours\, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics\nAbstract : Digital quantum simulations and quantum error-correction protocols requ ire the application of local gates. We demonstrate such local control in a Sr-88 tweezer array platform by locally shifting the qubit frequency usin g off-resonant light. This enables precise\, highly parallel local Z rotat ions with low crosstalk. In combination with fast\, recoil-free global X r otations\, optimized via optimal-control techniques to minimize motional e ntanglement\, this approach allows the local implementation of universal s ingle-qubit gates at rates exceeding 20 kHz. Together with two-qubit opera tions based on strong Rydberg blockade\, we can realize a universal quantu m gate set. Equipped with qubit shuttling\, our platform opens an exciting frontier for quantum computing\, digital quantum simulation\, and quantum metrology. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outsid e East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90410 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260323T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260323T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports@Mon Mar 23 09:00:00 2026 @cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-instruct ors-final-grade-reports-87944 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Can Local Data Reveal Global Fluid Dynamics? DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260324T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260324T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Mar 24 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ali Pakzad\, Assistant Professor of Mathematics\, Department o f Mathematics\, Bahounar University of Kerman\nData assimilation aims to r econstruct the state of a dynamical system by combining partial observatio ns with a mathematical model. For fluid flows governed by the incompressib le Navier-Stokes equations\, classical results show that coarse observatio ns distributed across the entire spatial domain can recover the full flow through continuous nudging\, known as the Azouani-Olson-Titi 2014 algorith m. In practice\, however\, sensor placement is often limited\, and efficie nt reconstruction of turbulent flows requires strategic positioning of ava ilable measurements.In this talk\, we challenge the standard framework by showing that it is possible to recover the full system dynamics using only local observations from a subregion of the domain. In particular\, we dem onstrate that achieving global accuracy does not necessarily require globa l data: carefully chosen localized observations can be sufficient to synch ronize the model with the true flow. This naturally raises a fundamental q uestion: given a physical domain\, should the observational region be plac ed near the boundary or away from it? We discuss recent theoretical result s and numerical experiments that aim to shed light on this question. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-70 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Katie Bouman: Illuminating the Hidden Universe with Physics and AI DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260325T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260325T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Katie Bouman: Illuminating the Hidden Univ erse with Physics and AI@Wed Mar 25 19:30:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.ed u CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Katie Bouman\, associate professor of computing and mathematic al sciences\, electrical engineering and astronomy\; Rosenberg Scholar\; H eritage Medical Research Institute Investigator\nUPDATE: Due to unforeseen maintenance at Beckman Auditorium\, this Watson Lecture will be reschedul ed for a future season. All registrations for this event will be cancelled . We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.Abo ut the TalkSome of the most iconic images in modern science were never cap tured by a camera in the traditional sense. Instead\, they were inferred f rom indirect and incomplete measurements\, using a careful combination of physics\, prior knowledge\, and computation. In this talk\, Katie Bouman\, professor of computing and mathematical sciences\, electrical engineering and astronomy\; Rosenberg Scholar\; and Heritage Medical Research Institu te Investigator\; will explore how physics and artificial intelligence (AI ) are working together to illuminate parts of the universe that are diffic ult—or even fundamentally impossible—to observe directly. It begins wi th the story of black hole imaging\, where theory long predicted what we s hould see\, and where confidence came not from a single image\, but from t he consistency of features across many reconstructions of the same data. T his kind of inference is not unique to extreme astrophysics\, but it also underlies how researchers form images in familiar technologies they rely o n every day. In this talk\, Bouman will demonstrate how simple assumptions can take us far\, but she will also explain where these assumptions begin to limit what we can learn\, and how modern AI methods provide new ways t o explore richer possibilities while still respecting physical laws. More broadly\, this talk explores a shift in scientific imaging: As we push the boundaries of observation\, images are increasingly constructed rather th an simply captured\, and understanding how they are made is essential to i nterpreting what they show.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music . Food\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doors open.7 :30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions and con versation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be made availab le on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years\, the Wa tson Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discovery to the public.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Series offers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge scie nce directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with your neighbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interactive displ ays related to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a stimulating talk and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lectures are available on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-katie- bouman END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Constant depth pseudoentanglement---How trivial states can have no n-trivial entanglement structure DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260327T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260327T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Mar 27 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Alexandru Gheorghiu\, IBM\nAbstract: I'll describe a construct ion for a family of constant depth quantum circuits that output states who se entanglement entropy across a given cut cannot be efficiently estimated (to within constant additive error)\, based on plausible cryptographic as sumptions. Previous works were only able to achieve this with either log-d epth circuits or constant depth circuits having gates of unbounded fan-out . In contrast\, this construction uses a constant depth circuit with local single and two-qubit gates. \;Since constant depth quantum circuits c an be learned efficiently\, the resulting pseudoentangled states are publi c key (the circuits preparing them are known in advance) and not pseudoran dom (the states can be efficiently distinguished from Haar random). Nevert heless\, their entanglement structure is intractable to learn both quantum ly andclassically.I'll also discuss a potential classical analog of this r esult\, as well as implications to the hardness of learning the entangleme nt structure of ground-states of local Hamiltonians.The talk is based on u npublished work and I welcome comments\, feedback and suggestions for pote ntial improvements or for applications of this result.Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90414 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260330T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Spring Term@Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 2026@cms.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/beginning-of-instruct ion-of-spring-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260331T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Tue Mar 31 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/undergraduate-academi c-standards-and-honors-committee-meeting-87966 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Data-Driven Modeling of Turbulent Flows: Nonlinear Modal Dynamics and Transient Forecasting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260402T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260402T154900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 2 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Oliver Schmidt\, Associate Professor\, Mechanical and Aerospac e Engineering\, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\, Unive rsity of California\, San Diego\nTitle: "Data-Driven Modeling of Turbulent Flows: Nonlinear Modal Dynamics and Transient Forecasting"Abstract: Turbu lent flows pose two closely related challenges for data-driven modeling: p redicting high-dimensional transient evolution and extracting the nonlinea r interactions that mediate energy transfer across scales. This talk prese nts two recent methods that address these problems from complementary pers pectives. First\, I will present triadic orthogonal decomposition\, a new framework for revealing nonlinear flow physics through coherent structures that optimally capture spectral momentum transfer. TOD identifies coupled modal interactions\, quantifies their energy exchange\, and localizes the regions where nonlinear transfer occurs. Second\, I will introduce space –time projection\, a forecasting framework based on extended space–tim e POD modes that provides an interpretable and competitive approach for pr edicting time-resolved flow data. The method naturally combines dimensiona lity reduction and time-delay embedding\, requires minimal tuning\, and ha s been shown to perform strongly on both transient and statistically stati onary high-dimensional datasets. Applications to canonical and engineering turbulent flows\, using both numerical and experimental data\, illustrate how these methods address two key aspects in the data-driven forecasting and analysis of turbulent flows.Bio: Oliver Schmidt is an Associate Profes sor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Unive rsity of California San Diego. He earned his Ph.D. in Aeronautical Enginee ring from the University of Stuttgart in 2014 and subsequently held a post doctoral position in Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California In stitute of Technology before joining UC San Diego. Schmidt's research focu ses on the simulation and data-driven modeling of complex turbulent flows\ , with an emphasis on both method development and real-world applications. His group develops advanced tools for reduced-complexity modeling\, inclu ding modal decomposition techniques\, mesh-free numerical methods\, and st ochastic modeling approaches. These methods are applied across a range of engineering and natural systems\, including aeroacoustics\, aero-optics\, noise control\, thermal management\, and design optimization. He is best k nown for his contributions to modal decomposition of turbulent flows\, wid ely disseminated through review articles and open-source software that has been downloaded thousands of times and adopted by researchers worldwide. His work is currently supported by the NSF\, ONR\, AFOSR\, and DOE. Schmid t is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award and was recently named one of ASM E's Rising Stars of Mechanical Engineering. He currently serves as co-chai r of the AIAA Reduced-Complexity Modeling Discussion Group\, leading a com munity challenge for data-driven model reduction in turbulent flows that p rovides benchmark datasets with baselines from both machine learning and c lassical model-order reduction methods. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-286 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Finite Time Bounds for Robust Reinforcement Learning with Linear F unction Approximation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260403T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260403T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fri Apr 3 12:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yashaswini Murthy\, Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Computing & Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech\nAbstract: Robust reinforceme nt learning (RL) focuses on designing optimal policies from data for MDPs with model uncertainties. Existing convergence guarantees for robust RL ar e either limited to tabular settings or use restrictive assumptions in the function approximation setting. We will present an RL algorithm for learn ing the optimal policy from data in the function approximation setting and provide finite time sample complexity bounds without requiring generative access to the underlying MDP model. Our algorithm uses a combination of i deas from distributionally robust optimization (DPO)\, two time-scale stoc hastic approximation\, and traditional (non-robust) fitted value iteration and Q-learning. LOCATION:Baxter 127 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-murthy END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:From Fractionalization to Superconductivity in Flat Chern Bands — And What AI Enables Next DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260403T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260403T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Apr 3 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ahmed Abouelkomsan\, MIT\nAbstract: Fractionalization and sup erconductivity are two of the most striking collective phenomena in quantu m matter. A paradigmatic setting for fractionalization is the fractional q uantum Hall (FQH) effect\, where strong interactions give rise to quantum liquids whose excitations carry fractional charge and obey anyonic exchang e statistics. Superconductivity\, by contrast\, is a coherent condensate o f paired electrons\, characterized by phase rigidity and dissipationless t ransport. \; At first sight\, the two appear incompatible: superconduc tivity is associated with an effective attraction that binds electrons int o pairs\, whereas fractionalization is driven by strong repulsive interact ions. This contrast motivates a natural question: can fractionalization an d superconductivity coexist? \;In this talk\, I will show that these s eemingly contrasting phenomena can in fact coexist within a unified theore tical framework in the flat bands of two-dimensional van der Waals heteros tructures such as twisted transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Because this physics is strongly interacting\, making reliable predictions requir es solving the challenging quantum many-body problem beyond mean-field or perturbation theory. I will conclude by showing how artificial intelligenc e (AI) provides a powerful route for studying quantum many-body systems fr om first-principles\, enabling access to regimes that were previously inac cessible.[1] D.Guerci*\, A. Abouelkomsan*\, L. Fu\, \;Phys. Rev. Lett.  \;135\, 186601 (2025)[2] D. Guerci\, A. Abouelkomsan\, L. Fu\, \; arXiv:2602.15106[3] A. Abouelkomsan\, L. Fu\, \;arXiv:2602.03927Follow ing the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90415 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Toward a Science of Auditing AI-Mediated Information Ecosystems DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260406T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260406T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Apr 6 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Chara Podimata\, Class of 1942 Career Development Assistant Pr ofessor and Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Statistics\, MI T\n AI-mediated systems\, from social media recommendation algorithms to L LMs\, now curate the information that billions of people worldwide consume at an unprecedented scale. Yet both operate as black boxes: their interna l mechanisms are opaque\, their biases poorly understood\, and their accou ntability to ethical norms mostly unenforced. In this talk\, I present two complementary studies that work toward a science of auditing such systems . In doing so\, I will reveal a duality: LLMs can serve as both the method ological tool and the object of the auditing study. In the first study\, I introduce a counterfactual auditing framework that uses LLMs as behaviora l engines for synthetic user accounts\, enabling causal identification of how social media algorithms respond to user demographics\, a form of ident ification that had previously been infeasible. Deployed on X during the 20 24 U.S. presidential election\, we find that the platform's recommendation algorithm substantially amplifies toxic\, polarizing\, and right-leaning content\, with effects that are highly heterogeneous across user types and political leanings. In the second\, I turn the same auditing lens on LLMs themselves\, querying 12 models daily from July through November 2024 on a set of more than 12\,000 election-related questions. I find that LLMs ex hibit systematic biases in how they represent candidates and electoral iss ues\, are sensitive to demographic steering\, and hold implicit (and highl y unstable) beliefs about election outcomes. These findings suggest that L LMs are political actors\, whether or not they intend to be. Taken togethe r\, I argue that auditing AI-mediated information systems requires new met hodological frameworks\, ones that are counterfactual\, large-scale\, and sensitive to heterogeneity across user populations. Building this science is one of the most pressing challenges at the intersection of AI and socie ty. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 78 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Convergence Analysis of Deep Galerkin Methods for solving PDEs and Adjoint-optimized Neural-Network PDE Models DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260407T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260407T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Apr 7 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Justin Sirignano\, Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, Uni versity of Oxford\nDeep Galerkin Methods (DGM) and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) directly solve partial differential equations (PDEs) wit h neural networks. For linear elliptic PDEs\, we prove that DGM/PINNs (des pite the non-convexity of neural networks) trained with gradient descent g lobally converge to the PDE solution as the number of training steps and h idden units go to infinity. A key technical challenge is the lack of a spe ctral gap for the training dynamics of the neural network. A related appli cation of interest in applied mathematics and engineering is using deep le arning to model unknown terms within a PDE\, such as closure models in lar ge-eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS). The n eural network terms in the PDE are optimized using adjoint PDEs\, which ag ain requires minimizing a highly non-convex objective function. Similar to the result for DGM/PINNs\, we are able to prove (for semi-linear paraboli c equations) that the trained neural network-PDE converges to a global min imizer. Numerical results for LES and RANS with adjoint-optimized neural n etwork closure models will be presented for several canonical examples in fluid dynamics. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-71 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Safety Filters for Autonomous Systems: When They Misbehave and How to Fix Them DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T160100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 9 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Pol Mestres\, Postdoctoral Scholar\, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering\, California Institute of Technology\nTitle: Safety Filters for Autonomous Systems: When They Misbehave and How to Fix ThemAbs tract: Control Barrier Function (CBF)-based safety filters have become ubi quitous in modern safety-critical control\, and are being deployed across an expanding range of autonomous systems\, ranging from humanoid robots\, self-driving vehicles\, and aerospace systems. Their appeal is clear: give n any nominal controller\, possibly precomputed to optimize some performan ce metric\, a safety filter provides a principled\, minimally invasive cor rection that provably keeps the system within a desired safe set. Their si mplicity\, generality\, and modularity has driven their rapid and widespre ad adoption. Despite this widespread use\, in this talk we argue that thei r dynamical behavior is still far from being well-understood. We provide a variety of examples showing how closed-loop dynamics induced by CBF-based safety filters are far richer (and possibly far more dangerous) than thei r design intent suggests. Those include examples with unbounded trajectori es\, limit cycles\, and undesired equilibria that can even be locally stab le. These pathologies are not edge cases: we show that they arise for broa d classes of nominal controllers and safe set geometries\, including conve x ones. Fortunately\, for an important class of systems and safe sets (pri marily linear dynamics paired with affine or quadratic CBFs) we identify c oncrete design principles that provably preclude these undesirable behavio rs. We hope these results serve as a foundation for extending such guarant ees to more general classes of systems\, with the ultimate goal of providi ng safety filters with more rigorous stability and performance guarantees. Bio: Pol Mestres received the bachelor's degree in mathematics and the bac helor's degree in engineering physics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya\, Barcelona\, Spain\, in 2020\, and the master's and Ph.D. degr ees in mechanical engineering in 2021 and 2025 respectively from the Unive rsity of California\, San Diego\, La Jolla\, CA\, USA. He is currently a p ostdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. His researc h interests include safety-critical control\, motion planning\, and reinfo rcement learning. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-287 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Convergent Equilibrium Learning through Risk-aversion DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260410T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260410T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fri Apr 10 12:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yizhou Zhang\, Graduate Student\, Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences\, Caltech\nRisk-aversion and bounded rationality are two key characteristics of human decision-making in behavioral economics. Risk-averse quantal-response equilibrium (RQE) is a solution concept that incorporates these features\, providing a more realistic depiction of hum an decision making in various strategic environments compared to a Nash eq uilibrium. We study RQE in both general-sum normal form games and discount ed infinite-horizon Markov games. For normal form games we adopt a monoton icity-based approach to show the uniqueness of RQE and its Lipschitz conti nuity with respect to the payoff matrices as long as players' degrees of r isk aversion and bounded rationality exceeds some threshold. For Markov ga mes we first define the risk-averse quantal-response Bellman operator and prove its contraction under further conditions on the players' risk-aversi on\, bounded rationality\, and temporal discounting. We finally present Q- learning and Actor-Critic based MARL algorithms with scalable adaptation u sing neural-networks that provably converge to the RQE for all Markov game s. LOCATION:Baxter 127 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-yizhou-z hang END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Processing massive classical data on small quantum computers DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260410T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260410T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Apr 10 14:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Haimeng Zhao\, Huang and Preskill groups\nNote special time th is week\, IQIM seminar begins at 2:00 pm in 114 E. BridgeAbstract: Broadl y useful quantum advantage\, particularly in classical data processing and machine learning\, has remained a fundamental open question. In this work \, we prove that a small quantum computer of polylogarithmic size can perf orm large-scale classification and dimension reduction on massive classica l data by processing samples on the fly\, whereas any classical machine ac hieving the same requires exponentially larger size or superpolynomially m ore samples and time. We validate these quantum advantages in real-world a pplications including movie review sentiment analysis and single-cell RNA sequencing\, demonstrating four to six orders of magnitude reduction in si ze with fewer than 60 logical qubits. These quantum advantages are enabled by quantum oracle sketching\, an algorithm for accessing the classical wo rld in quantum superposition using only random classical data samples. Com bined with classical shadows\, our algorithm circumvents the data loading and readout bottleneck to construct succinct classical models from massive classical data\, a task provably impossible for any classical machine tha t is not exponentially larger than the quantum machine. These quantum adva ntages persist even when classical machines are granted unlimited time or when BPP=BQP\, and rely only on the correctness of quantum mechanics. Toge ther\, our results establish machine learning on classical data as a broad and natural domain of quantum advantage and a fundamental test of quantum mechanics at the complexity frontier. Refreshments will be provided follo wing the talk. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90418 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Optimization by Decoded Quantum Interferometry DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260413T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260413T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Apr 13 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Stephen Jordan\, Research Scientist\, Google Quantum AI\nAchie ving superpolynomial speedups for optimization has long been a central goa l for quantum algorithms. I will discuss Decoded Quantum Interferometry (D QI)\, a quantum algorithm descended from Regev's reduction\, that uses the quantum Fourier transform to reduce optimization problems to decoding pro blems. For approximating optimal polynomial fits over finite fields\, DQI achieves a superpolynomial speedup over known classical algorithms. The sp eedup arises because the problem's algebraic structure is reflected in the decoding problem\, which can be solved efficiently. Whether DQI can also attain quantum advantage for algebraically unstructured optimization probl ems such as max-k-XORSAT remains an open question. One reason for optimism is that the sparsity of the clause structure in max-k-XORSAT is reflected in the dual decoding problem\, which is for LDPC codes. I will describe s ome current lines of attack on this open question\, as well as generalizat ions of DQI for preparing Gibbs states of Hamiltonians. This talk will tar get a broad audience without assuming deep background in quantum algorithm s. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 79 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Controlling and Interrogating Matter at the Fundamental Limits of Space and Time DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260414T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260414T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Tue Apr 14 11:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Mohammed Th. Hassan\, University of Arizona\nSpecial IQIM semi nar: April 14 begins at 11 am in 469 Lauritsen.Abstract: Understanding and manipulating the dynamic behavior of electrons and atomic lattices requir es probing matter at its ultimate spatiotemporal and quantum boundaries. T his talk presents a unified experimental paradigm for observing and drivin g physical phenomena at these fundamental limits\, bridging advances in at tosecond electron microscopy\, condensed matter surface science\, and ultr afast quantum optics1.First\, we introduce "Attomicroscopy\,"2 a breakthro ugh that shatters previous temporal barriers in transmission electron micr oscopy to achieve 625-attosecond resolution. Utilizing this instrumentatio n\, we demonstrate real-time\, real-space imaging and attosecond electron diffraction of strongly driven electron dynamics in graphene3. Extending t his deterministic manipulation to the atomic scale\, we explore the field- driven control of hydrogen-bond networks. Using low-temperature scanning t unneling microscopy\, we reveal the electric-field-induced transition of i nterfacial water into highly ordered monolayers and characterize the forma tion of moiré patterns on graphite.Beyond controlling the structural and electronic states of matter\, we extend attosecond precision to the quantu m fluctuations of driving optical fields to establish the new fields of ul trafast quantum optics and quantum strong-field physics4. We show that the squeezing of an ultrashort light field is intrinsically time-dependent on sub-optical-cycle timescales\, and that this time-domain quantum structur e can be visualized and transduced into a quantum electronic observable du ring strong-field interaction.Finally\, we demonstrate that the quantum op tical uncertainty of the driving squeezed field is encoded in the noise st atistics of a light-induced tunneling current in a graphene–silicon hete rostructure\, achieving sub-femtosecond tunability. This constitutes an ex perimental realization of quantum–quantum coupling between a nonclassica l optical field and a quantum electronic observable\, establishing a robus t foundation for next-generation quantum sensing and ultrafast quantum inf ormation processing5.Refrences1 Krausz\, F. Nobel Lecture: Sub-atomic moti ons. Rev. Mod. Phys. 96\, 030502\, (2024).2 Hui\, D.\, Alqattan\, H.\, Sen nary\, M.\, Golubev\, N. V. &\; Hassan\, M. T. Attosecond electron micr oscopy and diffraction. Science Advances 10\, eadp5805\, (2024).3 Sennary\ , M. et al. Light-induced quantum tunnelling current in graphene. Nature C ommunications 16\, 4335\, (2025).4 Sennary\, M. et al. Attosecond quantum uncertainty dynamics and ultrafast squeezed light for quantum communicatio n. Light: Science &\; Applications 14\, 350\, (2025).5 Sennary\, M.\, R ivera-Dean\, J.\, Lewenstein\, M. &\; Hassan\, M. T. Attosecond quantum optics. arXiv:2601.08671\, (2026). LOCATION:Lauritsen 469 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90425 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Non-Hermitian skin effect in resonator systems DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260414T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260414T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Apr 14 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Silvio Barandun\, Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate\, De partment of Mathematics\, Massachusetts Institute of Technology\nThe skin effect is the phenomenon whereby the bulk eigenmodes of a non-Hermitian sy stem are all localised at one edge of an open system. I will present the m athematical theory of the non-Hermitian skin effect in systems of finitely and infinitely many sub-wavelength resonators with a non-Hermitian imagin ary gauge potential and analyse its resonance in the deep subwavelength re gime.I will particularly focus on localisation results arising from the To eplitz nature of the discrete approximation of the system.A part of the pr esentation will touch on disordered localisation effects similar to Anders on localisation. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-72 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Recent Progress on Liquid Jet Atomization DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260416T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260416T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 16 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Stéphane Zaleski\, Professor of Fluid Mechanics\, Institut Je an Le Rond d'Alembert\, Sorbonne Université\nTitle: "Recent Progress on L iquid Jet Atomization"Abstract: Atomization is one of the CFD fields with the most striking progress. It has natural\, industrial and fundamental in terest. In natural sciences\, spray formation on wave crests\, molten rock breakup in asteroid impacts and lava breakup in volcanic eruptions are al l examples of atomization. In engineering\, combustion of liquid fuels is the most studied application\, although other have emerged such as molten metal atomization for the fabrication of powders used in additive manufact uring\, or milk atomization for the production of dried milk powder. On th e fundamental side\, atomization is a nonlinear multiscale physical phenom enon with strong analogy with single phase turbulent flow. The fundamental problem of turbulence is to find a statistical probability distribution f unction for turbulent fields\, The spectral energy density is known with s ome degree of confidence to follow the Kolmogorov -5/3 law. What would be the equivalent of such a statistical theory in atomization? Instead of the power spectrum\, one may wish to predict the droplet sizes. The PDF is th en the equivalent of the spectrum. In the talk\, I shall discuss how numer ical simulations of atomization\, following the VOF method\, allow to make advances on this problem.Bio: Stéphane Zaleski is Professor of Mechanics at Sorbonne Université and member of the "Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembe rt". He spent his early years at the Physics Laboratory of Ecole Normale S upérieure in Paris where he obtained his PhD under the supervision of Yve s Pomeau. After three years at the Applied Math group of MIT he joined the Mechanics group at Sorbonne Université. He investigates numerical method s for multiphase flows with applications to atomization\, cavitation\, por ous media flow\, nucleate boiling\, hydrometallurgy\, moving contact lines and droplet impact. Methods include the Volume of Fluid method\, the Edge -Based Interface Tracking method and the Diffuse Interface method. He has written several computer codes for the simulation of multiphase flow inclu ding PARIS Simulator and is involved in the development of the Basilisk pl atform. He is Associate Editor of J. Comput. Phys. and of Computers and Fl uids. He has led the ERC-Advanced project TRUFLOW on mass transfer at larg e Schmidt numbers and is a member of Institut Universitaire de France.Awar ds and Honors: 2024: Medal of the Section of Mechanics and Informatics of the Paris Academy of Sciences LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-288 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incomplete s DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day for Adding Courses and Removing Conditions and Incompletes@Fr i Apr 17 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-adding-c ourses-and-removing-conditions-and-incompletes-87950 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum eigenvalue processing DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260417T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Apr 17 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yuan Su\, AWS Center for Quantum Computing\nAbstract: In this talk\, I will present quantum algorithms to estimate and transform eigenv alues of high dimensional matrices. Such an eigenvalue processing problem arises from applications such as simulating non-Hermitian physics\, transc orrelated quantum chemistry and solving differential equations\, but is ou t of the reach of existing quantum singular value algorithms\, because eig envalues are different from singular values for non-normal operators. I wi ll show a natural reduction to the quantum linear system problem\, whose s olution produces a quantum superposition of Faber polynomials---a nearly-b est polynomial basis for function approximation over the complex plane. I will introduce an extremely simple quantum linear system solver with optim al query complexity based on block preconditioning. I will also describe a circuit to generate $n$ Fourier coefficients in superposition with $O(pol ylog(n))$ gates improving over the standard approach with gate complexity $\\Theta(n)$. Based on arXiv:2401.06240 and arXiv:2410.18178. Following th e talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90416 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Nano-architected Composites Across Scales and Strain Rates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T100000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Mon Apr 2 0 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kevin Nakahara\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, C altech\nAbstract:Transportation\, infrastructure\, personnel protection\, and all other applications requiring dynamic impact resistance drive the d emand to develop advanced manufacturing for structural materials that are simultaneously lightweight and superior at energy absorption. Polymer matr ix composites (PMCs) are widely used in mechanical applications due to the ir high strength-to-weight ratios\, high stiffness-to-weight ratios\, corr osion resistance\, and design flexibility. However\, these composites ofte n suffer from matrix and interfacially driven failure mechanisms under dyn amic compression. Nano-architected materials are an emergent class of meta materials capable of achieving high-stiffnesses and strengths while also e xhibiting high specific energy absorptions under micro particle impacts. M ost studies of nano-architected materials focus on periodic lattices geome tries or other cellular solids while their use as reinforcements in compos ites\, especially at large-scales\, remains limited. Combining the works o f nano-architected metamaterials and PMCs\, we create nano-architected com posites possessing high mechanical energy absorptions under dynamic compre ssion without the need for dense constituent reinforcement materials.We fi rst explore how nano-architected materials are fabricated at large-scales\ , and we demonstrate how they can be incorporated with epoxy polymer matri ces to create nano-architected composites using molding methods. Subsequen tly\, we characterize these nano-architected composites\, showing how chan ging fabrication parameters can produce various configurations of nano-arc hitecture within samples\, and how fabrication limitations can result in d efects at multiple scales. Through various quasi-static and dynamic testin g methods\, we study how nano-architectures deform\, fail\, and contribute to composite performance - decoupling their effects from defects. Our stu dy shows that while composite performance can be mitigated by defects\, in creasing the amount of nano-architectures present in composites leads to h igher strengths and delayed catastrophic failure. In-situ observations of these tests allow us to directly connect deformation and failure mechanism s to enhanced stress-strain performance. We then use phenomenological mode ling to relate mechanical performances across loading rates showing high n ano-architected rate sensitivities and verifying the role of nano-architec tures in delaying catastrophic failure. Nano-architected performance is co mpared against classical PMCs reported in literature demonstrating their h igh energy absorptions and unique capability to address shortcomings of fi ber- and particle-reinforced composites.Our nano-architected composites of fer a new way to toughen polymer matrix composites\, utilizing small scale architectures rather than changes to constituent material composition to delay catastrophic failures. These nano-architected composites are a uniqu e demonstration of the capabilities of nano-architectures to perform under high rates\, loads\, and energies\, paving the route to new possibilities for composite design. Our modeling work of nano-architected composite per formance shows the potential of these materials to absorb energies through the introduction and control of nano-architected structures.---------Also available to attend over Zoom: https://caltech.zoom.us/j/84099990742 LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-42 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Adventures in Building Structure into Models: Lessons from Constru cting Euclidean Neural Networks for Physics DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260420T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Apr 20 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Tess Smidt\, Associate Professor\, Department of Electrical En gineering and Computer Science\, Massachusetts Institute of Technology\nSy mmetry provides a powerful lens for building machine learning models that interact with scientific data. Euclidean neural networks (E(3)NNs) make th is concrete: architectures that encode transformation laws through group r epresentations\, enabling models to operate on geometric and tensorial dat a while respecting the structure of physical systems.In this talk\, I'll s hare lessons from building and applying these models in practice. Incorpor ating symmetry shapes how data is represented\, how models learn\, and how they are optimized\, while introducing new trade-offs in expressivity and computation.I'll also explore how symmetry can emerge implicitly in data and learning systems\, even when it is not built directly into the model. Together\, these perspectives point toward a broader view: building struct ure into models changes what they can represent and how we draw insight fr om them. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 80 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Elasto-Plastic Stochasticity: The Role of Atomic Level Fluctuation s on Mesoscale Deformation Properties in Complex Alloys DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260423T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260423T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 23 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jaime Marian\, Professor\, Department of Materials Science and Engineering\, University of California\, Los Angeles\nTitle: "Elasto-Plas tic Stochasticity: The Role of Atomic Level Fluctuations on Mesoscale Defo rmation Properties in Complex Alloys"Abstract: Materials deformation is ul timate controlled by physical processes at the atomic scale. In many cases \, these processes are controlled by fluctuations characterized by highly stochastic behavior. While we have learned to subsume this stochasticity i nto continuum laws that describe average behavior\, as science and technol ogy pushes down the boundaries of what is observable in terms of time and length scales\, the mean field approach becomes to be questionable. Specif ically\, important phenomena in metals deformation such as creep\, dynamic strain aging\, solute hardening\, and deformation processes in chemically complex alloys cannot be properly studied without capturing atomic-level fluctuations and their effect on meso/macroscopic behavior. In this presen tation\, I will discuss the development of models that take into account t hermal and compositional fluctuations explicitly and how their results can be extended into larger length and longer time scales. Results for refrac tory transition metals\, ferritic materials\, and high-entropy alloys will be shown.Bio: Professor Jaime Marian has a joint appointment in the Mater ials Science and Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Depts. at UCLA s ince 2014. Prior to that\, he was a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory\, where he worked on the development of physics models for materials under extreme conditions. He holds an industrial engineerin g degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid\, and a PhD in computat ional materials and mechanics. He did postdoctoral work at Caltech and was visiting professor at the IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-289 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Emulating the Bose-Hubbard Model with Arrays of Superconducting Qu bits DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260424T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260424T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Apr 24 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:William Oliver\, Director of the Center for Quantum Engineerin g\, MIT\nAbstract: In this talk\, we study the propagation\, entanglement\ , and entropy of quantum information using 3x3 and 4x4 arrays of supercond ucting qubits that emulate the two-dimensional (2D) hard-core Bose-Hubbard model. The 2D arrays feature site-selective\, simultaneous control and re adout of all qubits. We highlight several recent experimental demonstratio ns using these arrays\, including quantum random walks\, Anderson and Wann ier-Stark localization [1]\, the crossover from area-law to volume-law ent anglement [2]\, the realization of synthetic electromagnetic fields throug hout the array [3]\, and studies of flat-band physics in rhombic lattices [4].[1] npj Quantum Information 8\, 35 (2022) | arXiv:2107.05035 (2021)[2] Nature 629\, 561-566 (2024) | arXiv:2306.02571 (2023)[3] Nature Physics 2 0\, 1881-1887 (2024) | arXiv:2405.00873 (2024)[4] Physical Review X 15\, 0 21091 (2025) | arXiv:2410.07878 (2024)Following the talk\, lunch will be p rovided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90413 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mathematics of Cryo-Electron Microscopy DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260427T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260427T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon Apr 27 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech. edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Amit Singer\, Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, Princeto n University\n\nCryo-EM is a Nobel Prize winning technology for determinin g 3-D biological molecular structures at high resolution. Reconstruction i n cryo-EM is an inverse problem that involves many different fields of mat hematics including statistical inference\, optimization (convex and non-co nvex)\, numerical analysis\, dimension reduction\, representation theory\, and information theory. We will discuss the mathematical and statistical foundation underlying computational methods for 3-D reconstruction\, focu sing on the challenges of reconstructing small size molecules and the reco nstruction of flexible molecules. In passing\, we will contrast modern dee p learning algorithms with classical applied math and statistical methods. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 82 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Midterm Examination Period DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260505T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Midterm Examination Period@Wed Apr 29 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.calt ech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/midterm-examination-p eriod-87951 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Sarkis Mazmanian DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Sarkis Mazmanian@Wed Apr 29 19:30:00 2026@ cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sarkis Mazmanian\, Luis B. and Nelly Soux professor of microbi ology\; Merkin Institute Professor\nUPDATE: Due to unforeseen maintenance at Beckman Auditorium\, this Watson Lecture will be rescheduled for a futu re season. All registrations for this event will be cancelled. We apologiz e for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.About the TalkSt ay tuned! More information about this Watson Lecture is coming soon.Learn about the gut microbiome-brain connection in neurodegenerative disease wit h Sarkis Mazmanian\, Luis B. and Nelly Soux professor of microbiology\; Me rkin Institute Professor.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Food\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doors open.7:3 0 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concessions and conve rsation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be made available on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years\, the Wats on Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and discovery to t he public.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Series offers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting-edge scienc e directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mingle with y our neighbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interactive display s related to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a stimulating t alk and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lectures are a vailable on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-sarkis -mazmanian END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Robots That Learn To Model The World By Playing DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260430T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260430T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu Apr 30 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Anirudha Majumdar\, Associate Professor\, Mechanical and Aeros pace Engineering (MAE) department\, Princeton University\nTitle: "Robots T hat Learn To Model The World By Playing"Abstract: Predictive models of the world are fundamental to robotics — from planning\, to evaluation\, to reinforcement learning. However\, despite decades of investment in physics -based simulation\, we do not have models that can endow robots with gener al manipulation capabilities. In this talk\, I will discuss the potential of action-conditioned video generation models to serve as general-purpose world models for robotics. Their ability to generate photorealistic observ ations\, to simulate complex physical interactions with non-rigid objects\ , and to be improved with data make them an attractive alternative to trad itional physics-based models. But\, how should we learn such world models? I will argue that autonomous play may hold the key. Just as self-guided p lay is critical for children to explore and learn the dynamics of the worl d\, autonomous robot play provides a scalable pathway for capturing the co mplex\, long-tailed physical interactions essential for manipulation. I wi ll show how world models learned through play demonstrate significant impr ovements in accuracy compared to models trained on data from human tele-op eration. I will also show how the resulting world models can be used (i) a s "simulators" for evaluating the reliability and safety of robot policies \, and (ii) for training policies via reinforcement learning in the world model. I will end by discussing recent work on world models that know when they don't know through rigorous uncertainty quantification.Bio: Anirudha Majumdar is an Associate Professor at Princeton University in the Mechani cal and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department\, and founding co-Director of the Princeton Robotics Initiative. He also holds a 20% research scienti st position at Google DeepMind in the Robotics Safety &\; Alignment tea m. Majumdar received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc e from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016\, and a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvani a in 2011. Subsequently\, he was a postdoctoral scholar at \;Stanford& nbsp\;University from 2016 to 2017 at the Autonomous Systems Lab in the Ae ronautics and Astronautics department.Majumdar is a recipient of the Sloan Fellowship\, ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) award\, NSF CAREER awar d\, Google Faculty Research Award (twice)\, Amazon Research Award (twice)\ , Young Faculty Researcher Award from the Toyota Research Institute\, Best Student Paper Award (as advisor) at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoR L)\, Paper of the Year Award from the International Journal of Robotics Re search (IJRR)\, Best Conference Paper Award at the International Conferenc e on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)\, Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award (Pri nceton)\, and the Excellence in Teaching Award (Princeton SEAS). \; LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-290 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:This seminar has been canceled. DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260501T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260501T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:► CANCELED: Center for Social Information Sciences (CSIS) Seminar@Fr i May 1 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Lauren Conger\, Graduate Student\, Department of Control & Dyn amical Systems\, Caltech\nPlease check later for additional details LOCATION:Baxter 125 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/csis-seminar-conger END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Non-Abelian Quantum Low Depth Parity Check Codes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260501T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260501T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri May 1 14:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Maine Christos\, AWS Quantum Postdoctoral Scholar\nNote specia l time this week\, IQIM seminar begins at 2:00 pm in 114 E. BridgeAbstract : We introduce constructions for non-Abelian qLDPC codes obtained by gaug ing transversal Clifford gates using measurement and feedback. In particul ar\, we identify two qualitatively different approaches to gauging qLDPC c odes to obtain their non-Abelian counterparts. The first approach applies to codes that exhibit a generalized form of Poincaré duality and leads to a qLDPC non-Abelian Clifford stabilizer code\, whose stabilizers are remi niscent of the action of a Type-III twisted quantum double. Our second app roach applies to general qLDPC codes\, and uses a graph of ancilla qubits which may be tailored to properties of the input codes to gauge a single t ransversal gate. For both constructions\, the resulting gauged codes are s hown to have properties analogous to 2D non-Abelian topological order -- e .g. the analog of a single anyon on a torus. We conclude by demonstrating that our gauging procedures enable magic state preparation via the measure ment of logical Clifford gates. Consequently\, our gauging constructions o ffer a protocol for performing non-Clifford operations on any qLDPC code. Refreshments will be provided following the talk. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90419 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Low-Dimensional Generation DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260504T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260504T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:[CANCELED] H.B. Keller Colloquium@Mon May 4 16:00:00 2026@cms.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nisha Chandramoorthy\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Sta tistics\, The University of Chicago\nIn any Generative Model\, the generat ed samples have a different distribution than the data distribution\, due to inevitable learning errors. Moreover\, this discrepancy\, and metrics f or evaluating the generated samples\, are hard to characterize in high dim ensions\, motivating the need to understand how learning errors affect the reproducibility of certain "features" of the generated distributions.&nbs p\; A first question is whether generative models produce "physical" sampl es\, i.e.\, samples whose support is close to that of the true target dist ribution\, despite algorithmic errors. A second question concerns what we term a lazy generative model. Consider a noising process in which given sa mples from the target\, we apply an arbitrary random dynamical system such that the distribution at finite time is approximately Gaussian. In princi ple\, this noising process cannot be exactly inverted to recover target sa mples—but if we probe the noised samples\, we will find that some statis tics or observables are still recoverable. What statistics are recoverable and how do we exploit this recoverability to perform lazy generative mode ling without any denoising?The first part is joint work with Adriaan de Cl ercq (UChicago) and the second with Georg Gottwald (U Sydney). LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/hb-keller-colloquium- 83 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:An approximation-theoretic tour of measure-to-measure operator lea rning DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260505T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260505T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue May 5 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Nicholas Nelsen\, Klarman Fellow\, Department of Mathematics\, Cornell University\nMeasure-to-measure operator learning provides a princ ipled framework for learning maps whose inputs and outputs are best viewed as probability measures\, empirical distributions\, or evolving ensembles \, rather than as fixed-dimensional data representations. This perspective is increasingly relevant in applications where information is intrinsical ly distribution-valued\, including Bayesian data assimilation\, LiDAR imag ing\, interacting particle systems\, and mean-field control. Transformers and related measure-centric neural operator architectures offer a flexible route to learning such maps while respecting permutation invariance\, var iable particle sizes\, and the geometry of the space of probability distri butions. This talk presents recent approximation theory for such architect ures. The results cover both density function and empirical measure formul ations\, with controlled finite-particle quantization errors in the latter case. Probabilistic conditioning serves as a motivating example throughou t the talk. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-73 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Maximum information divergence from linear and toric models DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260506T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260506T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Information\, Geometry\, and Physics Seminar@Wed May 6 15:00:00 2026@ cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yulia Alexandr\, Postdoc\, Department of Mathematics\, UCLA\nI will revisit the problem of maximizing information divergence from a new perspective using logarithmic Voronoi polytopes. We will see that for line ar models\, the maximum is always achieved at the boundary of the probabil ity simplex. For toric models\, I will describe an algorithm that combines the combinatorics of the chamber complex with numerical algebraic geometr y. I will pay special attention to reducible models and models of maximum likelihood degree one\, with many colorful examples. This talk is based on joint work with Serkan Hoşten. LOCATION:Linde Hall 310 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/information-geometry- and-physics-seminar-37 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:No Small Measure: Using Nanostructure to Create Materials with Sup erior Toughness DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu May 7 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Lucas Meza\, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering\, D epartment of Mechanical Engineering\, University of Washington\nTitle: "No Small Measure: Using Nanostructure to Create Materials with Superior Toug hness"Abstract: Nanomaterials leverage size-dependent effects to achieve e xtraordinary mechanical properties\, including high strength\, flaw resist ance and enhanced ductility. Natural systems like shell and bone have intr icate nanoscale architectures that effectively dissipate energy and impede cracks\, and while the effect of architecture has long been explored\, th e role of size on toughness is not well understood. This talk examines how different ordered and stochastic nanoarchitected materials can be used to enhance toughness\, and how fracture size-effects can alter the emergent ductility of materials at small length scales. Topics include: 1) polymeri c nano-Bouligand architectures with twisted nanofibers that dissipate ener gy through nanoscale-enhanced ductility\, 2) nanocellular polymeric foams that defy traditional toughness scaling laws\, 3) shell-inspired spinodal architectures with structural gradients that slow crack growth\, 4) layere d architectures that exploit size-enhanced ductility for exceptional tough ness\, and 5) interpenetrating lattices that have toughness 6x higher than their bulk constituents. This work reframes ductility and toughness as ar chitecture- and size-dependent properties\, revealing how nanoengineering can break classic trade-offs between strength\, density\, and toughness.Bi o: Lucas Meza is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the U niversity of Washington. His research investigates new ways of engineering material properties at the micro- and nanoscale. He did his postdoc at th e University of Cambridge\, where he studied the micromechanical behavior of 3D woven fiber composites. He obtained his PhD in 2016 in mechanical en gineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for his wo rk on ultralight\, hierarchical metamaterials composed of nanoscale cerami cs. His work is supported in large part by the National Science Foundation . LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-283 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Fault-Tolerant Computation with Rotated 4D Toric Codes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260508T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260508T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri May 8 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Dave Aasen\, Microsoft Station Q\nAbstract: Recent progress i n neutral atoms\, trapped ions\, and other platforms with flexible connect ivity opens new opportunities for quantum error correction beyond strictly two-dimensional layouts. In this talk\, I will describe a family of rotat ed 4D toric codes obtained by quotienting the four-dimensional integer lat tice by optimized sublattices. I will focus on the construction\, code sea rch\, and fault-tolerant architecture developed in arXiv:2506.15130. In pa rticular\, I will discuss a [[96\,6\,8]] rotated 4D toric code with weight -6 stabilizers\, depth-8 syndrome extraction\, single-shot decoding\, and favorable circuit-level performance. I will also describe how lattice symm etries and lattice surgery can be combined to implement logical Clifford o perations. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90420 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Midterm Grades DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260511T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260511T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Due Date for Midterm Grades@Mon May 11 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.cal tech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-midterm- deficiency-notices-87953 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Stable algorithms cannot reliably find isolated perceptron solutio ns DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260512T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260512T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue May 12 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Shuangping Li\, Assistant Professor\, Statistics and Data Scie nce\, Yale University\n We study the binary perceptron\, a random constrai nt satisfaction problem that asks to find a Boolean vector in the intersec tion of independently chosen random halfspaces. A striking feature of this model is that at every positive constraint density\, it is expected that a 1 - o_N(1) fraction of solutions are strongly isolated\, i.e. separated from all others by Hamming distance Omega(N). At the same time\, efficient algorithms are known to find solutions at certain positive constraint den sities. This raises a natural question: can any isolated solution be algor ithmically visible?We answer this in the negative: no algorithm whose outp ut is stable under a tiny Gaussian resampling of the disorder can reliably locate isolated solutions. We show that any stable algorithm has success probability at most (3 sqrt(17) - 9)/4 + o_N(1) <\;= 0.84233. Furthermor e\, every stable algorithm that finds a solution with probability 1 - o_N( 1) finds an isolated solution with probability o_N(1).The class of stable algorithms we consider includes degree-D polynomials up to D <\;= o(N/lo g N)\; under the low-degree heuristic\, this suggests that locating strong ly isolated solutions requires running time exp(Theta-tilde(N)).Our proof does not use the overlap gap property. Instead\, we show via Pitt's correl ation inequality that after a random perturbation of the disorder\, the nu mber of solutions located close to a pre-existing isolated solution cannot concentrate at 1.This is based on joint work with Shuyang Gong\, Brice Hu ang\, and Mark Sellke. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-77 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Distributed quantum science with neutral atom arrays DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260513T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260513T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Wed May 13 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jacob Covey\, University of Chicago\nSpecial IQIM Seminar\, We dnesday\, May 13 beginning at 12 noon.Abstract: The realization of fast a nd high-fidelity entanglement between separated arrays of neutral atoms wo uld enable a host of new opportunities in quantum communication\, distribu ted quantum sensing\, and modular quantum computation. In this talk\, I wi ll describe two approaches we are pursuing to generate fast and high-fidel ity remote entanglement. In the first approach\, we have demonstrated a ph otonic interconnect based on high-fidelity entanglement of the metastable nuclear spin-1/2 qubit in ytterbium-171 and a telecom-band photon with tim e-bin encoding. We have realized an atom-photon Bell state fidelity of 0.9 5 when correcting for atomic measurement errors. As an extension of this w ork\, I will describe a second system based on ytterbium-171 atom arrays i n a near-concentric optical cavity. We anticipate the ability to generate atom-atom Bell pairs with fidelity approaching 0.99 and rate of 10^4 ebits /sec using this telecom photonic interface. In the second approach\, I wil l introduce a novel technique for transporting large tweezer arrays over 2 00 mm within a single vacuum chamber via a microscope objective mounted on an air-bearing linear motion stage. I will describe our vision for modula r quantum computation based on an array of atom arrays. Following the talk \, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90429 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Era Radio Astronomy Objectives and Technology DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260514T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260514T163000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:EE Devices Seminar- Sander Weinreb@Thu May 14 15:30:00 2026@cms.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:New Era: In the past the objects observed in radio astronomy w ere the 21cm hydrogen line\, thermal emission from planets in our solar sy stem\, and from unusual stars and galaxies which typically do not change i n a human lifetime. Whereas\, in the new era many objects of interest vary on a millisecond of time scale. The current research topics are pulses fr om neutron stars\, study of planets around other stars including search fo r emissions from primordial life\, study of radio emissions from the perim eter of black holes\, and study of the origins of pf Fast Radio Bursts (FR B's) which strike the earth from random directions at detectable levels at a rate of over 500 per day.New Technology: Rather than just detecting wea k signals from a small area of sky with a large single-dish telescope\, th e new objects are best studied by forming radio images of large areas of t he sky. This is best performed by large arrays of small telescopes utilizi ng the correlation of signals from each pair of telescope. For this purpos e Caltech is constructing a 1650x6.2m Radio Camera array located in a 20km diameter region in Nevada and operating in the frequency range of 700 to 200 MHz. LOCATION:Moore B280 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/ee-devices-seminar-sa nder-weinreb END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degress of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day for Scheduling Examinations for the Degress of Doctor of Phil osophy and Engineer@Fri May 15 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-scheduli ng-examinations-for-the-degress-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day for Seniors to Remove Conditions and Incompletes@Fri May 15 0 8:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-seniors- to-remove-conditions-and-incompletes-87948 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Phantom codes: Entangling logical qubits without physical operatio ns DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260515T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri May 15 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Jin Ming Koh\, Harvard\nAbstract: Fault-tolerant logical enta ngling gates are essential for scalable quantum computing\, but are limite d by the error rates and overheads of physical two-qubit gates and measure ments. To address this limitation\, we introduce \;phantom codes—qua ntum error-correcting codes that realize entangling gates between all logi cal qubits in a code block purely through relabelling of physical qubits d uring compilation\, yielding perfect fidelity with no spatial or temporal overhead. We present a systematic study of such codes. First\, we identify phantom codes using complementary numerical and analytical approaches. We exhaustively enumerate all 27 billion inequivalent CSS codes up to n = 14 and identify additional instances up to n = 21 via SAT-based methods. We then construct higher-distance phantom-code families using quantum Reed-Mu ller codes and the binarization of qudit codes. Across all identified code s\, we characterize other supported fault-tolerant logical Clifford and no n-Clifford operations. Second\, through end-to-end noisy simulations with state preparation\, full QEC cycles\, and realistic physical error rates\, we demonstrate scalable advantages of phantom codes over the surface code across multiple tasks. We observe a one-to-two order-of-magnitude reducti on in logical infidelity at comparable qubit overhead for GHZ-state prepar ation and Trotterized many-body simulation tasks\, given a modest preselec tion acceptance rate. Our work establishes phantom codes as a viable archi tectural route to fault-tolerant quantum computation with scalable benefit s for workloads with dense local entangling structure\, and introduces gen eral tools for systematically exploring the broader landscape of quantum e rror-correcting codes.Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the l awn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90423 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Radon-Wasserstein gradient flows for high-dimensional sampling DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue May 19 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Elias Hess-Childs\, Postdoctoral Researcher\, Department of Ma thematics\, Carnegie Mellon University\nElias Hess-Childs\, Postdoctoral S cholar\, Department of Mathematical Sciences\, Carnegie Mellon University\ n Sampling from a probability measure given only through its density is ch allenging\, particularly in high dimensions. A prominent approach is to di scretize gradient flows on the space of probability measures. Examples inc lude Langevin Monte Carlo and Stein Variational Gradient Descent\, which c orrespond to gradient flows of the Kullback--Leibler (KL) divergence under the Wasserstein and Stein geometries\, respectively. In this talk\, I wil l present recent work introducing a new geometry on the space of measures\ , the Radon--Wasserstein geometry. The associated KL gradient flows exhibi t two key features: they admit accurate interacting-particle approximation s in high dimensions\, and their per-step computational cost scales linear ly in both the number of particles and the dimension. I will discuss theor etical results for these flows\, including well-posedness and long-time co nvergence\, as well as numerical experiments illustrating their behavior a nd performance. Time permitting\, I will also describe extensions that yie ld affine-invariant algorithms. This is joint work with Dejan Slepčev an d Lantian Xu. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-76 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Quantum-enhanced clocks and assembled superfluids with strontium a tom arrays DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Tue May 19 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Alec Cao\, Adam Kaufman's group\, JILA\nThis is a Special IQIM Seminar Tuesday\, May 19 beginning at 12 noon.Abstract: Arrays of neutra l atoms have emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for exploring quantu m science. In this seminar\, I will discuss a pair of efforts at the inter section of quantum information processing\, frequency metrology and many-b ody simulation using strontium atoms which are programmably reconfigured i n an optical lattice. The first half of the talk will focus on realizing q uantum-enhanced optical atomic clocks using Rydberg-mediated entanglement generation. We demonstrate the preparation of GHZ and spin-squeezed states in an optical clock performing below the standard quantum limit\, with ad vances in multi-qubit entangling gates and autoionization-based mitigation of collective decoherence. In the second part\, I will discuss a new bott om-up approach to analog quantum simulation in optical lattices. In contra st to the traditional top-down approach of evaporative cooling to a bulk d egenerate gas\, we demonstrate how a Fock state of individually tweezer-as sembled\, laser-cooled atoms can be adiabatically connected to near ground states of a Hubbard-compatible optical lattice. We verify the presence of a significant superfluid fraction near the center of the trap using compa rison to quantum Monte Carlo calculations. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90427 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Changing Sections DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day for Dropping Courses\, Exercising Pass/Fail Option\, and Chan ging Sections@Wed May 20 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-dropping -courses-exercising-passfail-option-and-changing-sections-23 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Generative Modeling of Earthquake Ground Motion DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T100000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Wed May 2 0 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yaozhong Shi\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Cal tech\nAbstract: Reliable earthquake ground motions are essential for seis mic hazard analysis\, structural design\, and the risk assessment of distr ibuted infrastructure systems. However\, observed records of large earthqu akes remain sparse\, while physics-based simulations are computationally e xpensive and difficult to deploy at the scale required for uncertainty qua ntification. This thesis develops generative modeling frameworks for effic ient\, scenario-specific synthesis of earthquake ground motion\, with an e mphasis on neural operators\, function-space learning\, and scalable regio nal wavefield generation.The work begins with conditional generative adver sarial neural operators for broadband three-component ground-motion synthe sis at individual sites\, conditioned on earthquake source\, path\, and si te parameters. It then develops broader methodological foundations for fun ctional generative modeling\, including operator flow matching for stochas tic-process learning and mesh-informed neural operators for domain- and di scretization-agnostic generation on complex geometries. Building on these advances\, the thesis introduces Ground-Motion Flow\, a physics-inspired l atent operator flow-matching framework for large-scale 3D regional ground- motion synthesis. By generating wavefields in a physics-aligned latent rep resentation and reconstructing full spatiotemporal motions through neural operators\, the framework produces spatially coherent earthquake wavefield s conditioned on physical parameters with orders-of-magnitude acceleration relative to direct numerical simulation.Together\, these studies establis h a progression from single-site waveform synthesis to regional-scale\, un certainty-aware ground-motion wavefield generation. The results demonstrat e the potential of functional generative models to complement physics-base d simulation and empirical ground-motion modeling\, opening a path toward fast\, probabilistic\, and scalable seismic hazard workflows for resilient infrastructure systems.---------Also available to attend over Zoom: Zoom Link LOCATION:South Mudd 365 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-43 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Kirby Nielsen DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260520T203000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:POSTPONED: Watson Lecture - Kirby Nielsen@Wed May 20 19:30:00 2026@cms .divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Kirby Nielsen\, professor of economics\; William H. Hurt Schol ar\nUPDATE: Due to unforeseen maintenance at Beckman Auditorium\, this Wat son Lecture will be rescheduled for a future season. All registrations for this event will be cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience and appr eciate your understanding.About the TalkStay tuned! More information about this Watson Lecture is coming soon.Learn about how people make decisions —and mistakes—in an uncertain world with Kirby Nielsen\, professor of economics\; William H. Hurt Scholar.Evening Schedule6 p.m. — Activities and music. Food\, drinks\, and books available for purchase.7 p.m. — Doo rs open.7:30 p.m. — Talk and Q&\;A.8:30 p.m. — Post-talk concession s and conversation.The live event is in-person and a recording will be mad e available on our Youtube channel.About the SeriesFor more than 100 years \, the Watson Lectures have brought the wonder of Caltech research and dis covery to the public.Free and open to the public\, the Watson Lecture Seri es offers a unique and accessible opportunity to learn more about cutting- edge science directly from Caltech's premier researchers. Come early to mi ngle with your neighbors over food\, drink and music\, as well as interact ive displays related to the evening's topic. Then head inside to hear a st imulating talk and stay to ask your burning questions.Many past Watson Lec tures are available on Caltech's YouTube channel. LOCATION:Beckman Auditorium URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/watson-lecture-kirby- nielsen END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Re search DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Registration for Fall Term and Registration for Summer Graduate Resear ch@Thu May 21 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/registration-for-fall -term-and-registration-for-summer-graduate-research-87951 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:X-ray Based Full Field Stress-Strain Measurements in Metals DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260521T122400 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar@Thu May 21 11:00:00 2026@cms. divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Angkur Shaikeea\, Assistant Professor of Aerospace\; Bren Scho lar\, The Lynn Booth & Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace\, California Ins titute of Technology\nTitle: "X-ray Based Full Field Stress-Strain Measure ments in Metals"Abstract: We are developing an X-ray instrument to measur e spatially resolved elastic strain fields in metals. Because stress is co njugate to elastic strain\, these measurements enable reconstruction of fu ll-field stress distributions. When combined with digital image correlatio n (DIC)\, the method captures full-field stress–strain behavior and prov ides much needed data for data-driven discovery in metals. It enables prob ing of local stress–strain responses in heterogeneous materials\, includ ing additively manufactured metals\, and supports investigation of crack-t ip stress fields and the micromechanics of metamaterials. The capability a dvances understanding of microscopic behavior under mechinical loading and supports the design of next-generation materials.Bio: LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 135 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-291 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Non-perturbatively slow spread of quantum correlations in non-reso nant systems DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260522T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260522T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri May 22 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Benjamin McDonough\, University of Colorado\, Boulder\nAbstrac t: Strong disorder dramatically reshapes quantum dynamics\, yet the concr ete extent of this effect for interacting systems has remained unclear\, e specially in dimension greater than one. In this seminar\, I will discuss a new approach to rigorously bound the spread of quantum correlations in c ommuting\, disordered systems perturbed by local interactions. This approa ch revolves around an extension of Lieb-Robinson bounds\, a central tool i n mathematical many-body physics which establishes an emergent light cone in interacting many-body quantum systems. Leveraging recently developed ma thematical techniques\, we formulate a "Lieb-Robinson theorem for disorder ed systems." This theorem demonstrates the existence of the conjectured pr ethermal many-body localized regime\, characterized by logarithmically slo w spreading of entanglement\, up to non-perturbatively long time scales in any dimension. Surprisingly\, our results also prove that disorder has a drastic effect on dynamics even far past the prethermal timescale\, constr aining the velocity of information propagation beyond all orders of pertur bation theory. Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn out side East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90421 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Temporal patterns and solitons in optical parametric oscillators DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260527T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260527T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:EE Devices Seminar- François Leo@Wed May 27 11:00:00 2026@cms.divisio ns.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:François Leo\, Research Associate\, University of Brussels.\n Temporal patterns and dissipative solitons in Kerr resonators have attract ed considerable attention in recent years\, both from a fundamental and an applied perspective. In this talk\, I will discuss analogous nonlinear dy namics in degenerate optical parametric oscillators (OPOs)\, highlighting both the similarities and the important differences with Kerr systems. Whi le OPOs are widely used as versatile sources in many areas of optics and p hotonics\, their potential for pattern formation and localized structures remains comparatively less explored. I will review recent developments and discuss the opportunities offered by these systems for nonlinear dynamics and frequency conversion LOCATION:Moore B280 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/ee-devices-seminar-fr ancois-leo END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260530T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Seniors and Graduate Students@Fri May 29 00:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-f or-seniors-and-graduate-students-87952 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philos ophy and Engineer DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day for Presenting Theses for the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Engineer@Fri May 29 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-for-presenti ng-theses-for-the-degrees-of-doctor-of-philosophy-and-engineer-87953 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri May 29 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Samson Wang\, IQIM Postdoctoral Scholar\nAbstract:Following th e talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90422 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Discrete Shell Methods for Stimuli-Responsive and Deployable Struc tures: Buckling\, Bistability\, and Topology Optimization DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T140000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar: PhD Thesis Defense@Fri May 2 9 13:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Sathvik Sanagala\, Graduate Student\, Mechanical Engineering\, Caltech\nAbstract: Shells - thin curved structures such as eggshells\, i nsect wings\, and pressure vessels - are ubiquitous in nature and engineer ing. They are slender yet structurally capable\, supporting many times the ir own weight. They can also undergo dramatic geometric transitions\, such as buckling\, snap-through\, and bistability. This combination of strengt h and geometric nonlinearity stems from the interplay between bending and stretching in thin geometries. As a result\, simulating shells is numerica lly demanding. Finite-element methods are the standard tool\, but thin she lls require high order elements that adds substantial formulation and impl ementation complexity. An alternative approach to address some of these pr oblems comes from the computer graphics community. Discrete differential g eometry methods discretize the shell on a triangulated mesh using only nod al positions as degrees of freedom. This sidesteps the need for high order elements in finite element analysis. However\, existing formulations are typically developed for visual realism rather than mechanical accuracy\, a nd lack the physically meaningful energy formulations required for enginee ring design.This thesis develops a discrete Kirchhoff-Love shell framework that combines a triangulated-mesh discretization with the mechanical rigo r required for engineering design. The formulation employs a Koiter energy with standard engineering material constants\, supports a spontaneous-cur vature field for active materials\, and provides analytic gradients and He ssians that enable Newton-Raphson equilibrium solving\, adjoint sensitivit y analysis\, and energy-landscape path-finding. The framework is verified against four canonical shell benchmarks.The framework is first applied to photoactive liquid crystal elastomer shells\, governed by a spontaneous-cu rvature evolution law that couples illumination intensity and direction to surface geometry. Simulations capture a flat sheet that bifurcates to a c ylindrical configuration under uniform illumination\, resulting from the G auss curvature coupling between bending and stretching. A second example s hows a thin active sheet that reorients to track a moving light source\, a nalogous to a sunflower.Tape springs are thin curved strips used as deploy able booms in spacecraft\; they fold compactly via snap-through buckling a nd recover a stiff deployed state on release. The framework is then applie d to simulate their forward bending response in opposite-sense and equal-s ense loading modes. The opposite-sense results match analytical prediction s for the propagation moment and localized fold geometry.Building on the t ape spring analysis\, a multi-equilibrium topology optimization method com putes adjoint sensitivities through the deployed and folded states simulta neously. A parameter sweep over volume fraction\, design region\, and fold ed-state moment threshold reveals non-intuitive topologies\, including hou rglass designs that single-state optimizers cannot access.Finally\, the nu dged elastic band method is applied within the discrete-shell framework to compute the minimum-energy path for the eversion of a bistable spherical cap. The path passes through a non-axisymmetric saddle\, illustrating the energetic favorability of asymmetric eversion\, which stems from the inter play between Gauss curvature and stretch.Together\, these applications est ablish the framework as a versatile\, mechanically grounded platform for s imulating the nonlinear mechanics of thin shells. LOCATION:Gates-Thomas 115 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/mechanical-and-civil- engineering-seminar-phd-thesis-defense-44 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260530T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Study Period for Seniors and Graduate Students@Sat May 30 08:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/study-period-for-seni ors-and-graduate-students-87954 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:TBD DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Jun 2 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:David Mordecai\, Adjunct Professor of Econometrics and Statist ics\, University of Chicago Booth School of Business\nTBA LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-67 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Te rm DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Final Examinations for Seniors and Graduate Students for Spring Term@W ed Jun 3 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/final-examinations-fo r-seniors-and-graduate-students-for-spring-term-87955 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260604T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260604T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Jun 4 14:30:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Aleksander Kubica\, Yale\nSpecial IQIM Seminar\, Thursday\, Ju ne 4 at 2:30 in 213 AnnenbergAbstract: LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90428 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260606T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Last Day of Classes for Undergraduates@Fri Jun 5 00:00:00 2026@cms.di visions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the last day of classes for undergraduates for spring term and the last day to register for fall term without a $50 late fee URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/last-day-of-classes-f or-undergraduates-87956 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260605T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Fri Jun 5 12:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Ruohan Shen\, MIT\nAbstract:Following the talk\, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge. LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90424 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Study Period for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260606T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Study Period for Undergraduates@Sat Jun 6 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions .caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/study-period-for-unde rgraduates-87957 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Grad uate Students DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260608T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260608T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Seniors and Graduate Students@Mon Jun 8 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-instruct ors-final-grade-reports-for-seniors-and-graduate-students-87958 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Optimization-Ready Surrogates with Derivative-Informed Learning DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T130000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:CMX Lunch Seminar@Tue Jun 9 12:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Thomas O'Leary-Roseberry\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Mathematics\, Ohio State University\n Modern decision-making in complex physical and engineered systems increasingly requires quantifying high-dim ensional uncertainty and solving risk-averse optimization problems under u ncertainty\, often in near real time. Operator learning has emerged as a p romising framework for constructing scalable surrogate models in this sett ing. Yet approximation errors in learned operators can significantly degra de the quality of downstream decisions arising from inverse problems and o ptimization tasks.In this talk\, we present a framework that formulates op erator learning through the lens of downstream optimization objectives. By deriving a priori error bounds for inverse problems and optimization unde r uncertainty\, we motivate learning formulations that explicitly penalize errors in the derivatives of input–output maps. We illustrate the effec tiveness of these ideas on applications including structural health monito ring\, shape optimization\, and fluid flow control. The resulting methods yield improved accuracy in surrogate-based optimization and consistently s tronger empirical performance in related statistical learning tasks. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/cmx-lunch-seminar-74 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Fast Randomized Recovery and Solvers for Rank-Structured Matrices DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260609T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Special CMX Seminar@Tue Jun 9 15:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Anna Yesypenko\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Mathemati cs\, Department of Mathematics\, The Ohio State University\nLarge dense ma trices arise naturally in numerical methods for PDEs\, integral equations\ , and related problems in scientific computing. These matrices can be too expensive to form or store explicitly\, but in many cases their off-diagon al blocks have low numerical rank. This rank structure can be exploited to design compressed representations and fast solvers.This talk describes ra ndomized algorithms for recovering rank-structured matrices from matrix-ve ctor products with the matrix and its adjoint. A central theme is sample e fficiency: for several hierarchical formats\, the number of random samples can be made proportional to the relevant off-diagonal rank\, rather than to the matrix size. The talk will discuss how randomized sketches capture low-rank structure and how this information can be organized into compress ed representations\, factorizations\, or preconditioners. Numerical exampl es will illustrate the performance of these methods on matrix-free problem s arising from PDEs. LOCATION:Annenberg 213 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/special-cmx-lunch-sem inar-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260610T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T235900 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Final Examinations for Undergraduates for Spring Term@Wed Jun 10 08:00 :00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/final-examinations-fo r-undergraduates-for-spring-term-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Commencement DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260612T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Commencement@Fri Jun 12 10:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Caltech's 132nd Commencement exercises will take place on Frid ay\, June 12\, 2026\, at 10 a.m. on Beckman Mall.Kip Thorne (BS '62)—the oretical astrophysicist\, distinguished alumnus\, and Nobel laureate—wil l deliver the 2026 Commencement address.No tickets are required for our Co mmencement ceremony and guest seating is on a first-come\, first-served ba sis. Please note that\, due to space constraints\, in the general guest se ating area on Beckman Mall there are approximately four guest seats availa ble per graduating student. Guests are asked to be mindful of this limitat ion and courteous to other guests. Saving seats is not permitted. For over flow guests without a seat on Beckman Mall or for those who prefer an air- conditioned option\, multiple indoor livestream viewing locations will be available on campus.As the event approaches\, graduating students and thei r guests can refer to the Caltech Commencement website for timely news and information\, including the graduating student checklist\, news and annou ncements\, the 2026 events and activities schedule\, the visiting guest gu ide\, FAQ\, and more.Students eligible to participate in the 2026 Commence ment event will begin receiving regular email updates in January 2026 from commencement@caltech.edu. Others who wish to receive regular email update s about Caltech's 2026 Commencement event\, may sign up to receive Commenc ement emails.Livestream the CeremonyThe ceremony will be livestreamed on C altech's Commencement website beginning shortly before 10:00 a.m. PST on commencement day. Within a day or so\, Caltech's commencement ceremony wil l be featured on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/caltech URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/commencement-87960 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Summer Term begins DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260615T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260616T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Summer Term begins@Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/summer-term-begins-87 964 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260617T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260617T090100 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Due Date for Instructors' Final Grade Reports for Undergraduates@Wed J un 17 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/due-date-for-instruct ors-final-grade-reports-for-undergraduates-87963 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Driven-Dissipative Entanglement of Distant Giant Atoms DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260618T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260618T150000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Thu Jun 18 14:00:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Aziza Almanakly\, NYU\nNote: this talk begins at 2:00 pm in 10 5 AnnenbergAbstract: Developing quantum interconnects for distributed quan tum computing and sensing motivates exploration of controlled light-matter interaction. Remote entanglement generation schemes typically leverage co herent\, reversible interactions\, requiring precise timing and calibratio n. Alternatively\, driven-dissipative approaches exploit correlated dissip ation to stabilize steady-state\, environment-protected entanglement\; how ever\, rotating into unprotected states to use the entanglement causes dec ay\, limiting protocol fidelity. Here\, we employ giant artificial atoms t o implement tunable dissipation enabled by interference between two atom-w aveguide coupling points. We autonomously stabilize remote entanglement by driving two giant atoms coupled in series to a shared waveguide with a si ngle\, continuous microwave tone. To store this entanglement\, we tune the qubit frequencies in situ to decouple them from the waveguide\, protectin g the entire two-qubit subspace from dissipation. We deterministically ent angle the distant giant atoms\, achieving Bell-state fidelity F = 0.89 ± 0.02. This demonstration establishes steady-state entanglement as a viable resource for all-to-all connectivity in distributed quantum networks.Refr eshments will be served following the talk. LOCATION:Annenberg 105 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90426 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260624T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260624T120000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Wed Jun 24 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/undergraduate-academi c-standards-and-honors-committee-meeting-87967 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Exotic Quantum Statistics in 1D Bose Gases DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260727T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260727T153000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar@Mon Jul 27 14:30:00 202 6@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Yi Zeng\, University of Innsbruck\nSpecial IQIM Seminar\, Mond ay\, June 27 at 2:30 in 114 E. BridgeAbstract: Exotic quantum statistics g eneralize the familiar dichotomy of bosons and fermions to a spectrum. On it lie anyons\, allowing particles to partially share one state\, and "sup er fermions"\, where particles occupy several states. My talk explores how strongly interacting 1D Bose gases provide a platform to realize these un conventional statistics. I present the observation of emergent anyonic cor relations induced by spin-charge separation\, where a mobile impurity gene rates a system with a tunable statistical phase [1\,2]\, providing a conti nuous transmutation from bosons through anyons to fermions. This is reveal ed through an asymmetric momentum-distribution and dynamical fermionizatio n. I then report the realization of fractional Fermi seas [3\,4\,5]. These are many-body systems in which each particle occupies an integer number o f states larger than 1. One might call the resulting statistics "super-fer mionic"\, under the framework of Haldane's generalized exclusion statistic s. For this\, we drive our 1D Bose system via ramping interaction cycles i nto excited states. Observed Friedel oscillations in the one-body correlat ions directly expose the underlying Fermi surfaces. Together\, these resul ts demonstrate a powerful and controllable route to exploring the full lan dscape of low-dimensional quantum statistics beyond the boson-fermion para digm.References[1] Sudipta Dhar\, Botao Wang\, Milena Horvath\, Amit Vashi sht\, Yi Zeng\, Mikhail B. Zvonarev\, Nathan Goldman\, Yanliang Guo\, Manu ele Landini\, and Hanns-Christoph Nägerl\, Observing anyonization of boso ns in a quantum gas\, Nature 642\, 53 (2025).[2] Botao Wang\, Amit Vashish t\, Yanliang Guo\, Sudipta Dhar\, Manuele Landini\, Hanns-Christoph Näger l\, Nathan Goldman\, Anyonization of bosons in one dimension: an effective swap model\, Physical Review Letters 135\, 253403 (2025).[3] Yi Zeng\, Al vise Bastianello\, Sudipta Dhar\, Zekui Wang\, Xudong Yu\, Milena Horvath\ , Grigori Astrakharchik\, Yanliang Guo\, Hanns-Christoph Nägerl and Manue le Landini\, Realization of Fractional Fermi Seas\, arXiv:2602.17657[4] Ma ciej Marciniak\, Grigori E. Astrakharchik\, Krzysztof Pawlowski\, and Brun o Julia-Diaz\, Fermionizing the ideal Bose gas via topological pumping\, a rXiv:2504.19569.[5] Alvise Bastianello\, Yi Zeng\, Sudipta Dhar\, Zekui Wa ng\, Xudong Yu\, Milena Horvath\, Grigori E. Astrakharchik\, Yanliang Guo\ , Hanns-Christoph Nägerl\, and Manuele Landini\, Exotic critical states a s fractional Fermi seas in the one-dimensional Bose gas\, arXiv:2602.17656 LOCATION:East Bridge 114 URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/iqim-postdoctoral-and -graduate-student-seminar-90430 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:End of summer term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260901T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260902T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:End of summer term@Tue Sep 1 00:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/end-of-summer-term-87 965 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260917T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:International Student Orientation: iBegin@Caltech@Thu Sep 17 08:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/international-student -orientation-ibegincaltech-2 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260919T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:New Student Check-In for Undergraduates@Sat Sep 19 10:00:00 2026@cms.d ivisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-check-in- for-undergraduates-87968 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260920T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260927T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:New Student Orientation for Undergraduates@Sun Sep 20 10:00:00 2026@cm s.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-orientati on-for-undergraduates-1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Check-in for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T160000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:New Student Check-in for Graduates@Mon Sep 21 09:00:00 2026@cms.divisi ons.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-check-in- for-graduates-87969 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:New Student Orientation for Graduates DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260921T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260925T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:New Student Orientation for Graduates@Mon Sep 21 12:00:00 2026@cms.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/new-student-orientati on-for-graduates-87970 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260924T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260924T170000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee Meeting@Thu Sep 24 13:00:00 2026@cms.divisions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/undergraduate-academi c-standards-and-honors-committee-meeting-87973 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260928T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260929T000000 DTSTAMP:20260524T111635Z UID:Beginning of Instruction of Fall Term@Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 2026@cms.div isions.caltech.edu CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.cms.caltech.edu/news-events/seminars/beginning-of-instruct ion-of-fall-term-2 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR