Prof. James Weimer

Aided by advances in machine learning, the internet-of-medical-things is disrupting healthcare and medicine worldwide. But learning has yet to penetrate closed-loop systems such as the artificial pancreas, pacemakers, and ventilators. Jim’s talk overviews his vision and ongoing research in learning-enabled medical systems, also known as “autonomous medical systems”, and identifies promising directions towards their future adoption in clinical care.

Prof. Gad Allon

Gig economy firms benefit from labor flexibility by hiring independent self-scheduling workers. This flexibility poses a great challenge to such firms in terms of planning and committing to a service capacity. Understanding the motivations that drive gig economy workers, therefore, is of great importance. In collaboration with a ride-hailing platform, we study how on-demand workers make labor decisions: specifically, when to work and for how long. We are interested not only in improving the prediction of the number of active workers but also in understanding how to design better incentives for them. Data-driven econometric analysis of historical work decisions and responses to incentives accounting for sample selection and endogeneity has revealed behavioral insights that can inform better incentive design.

Prof. Rahul Mangharam

In this talk, we explore Penn research in building (1) Safe Autonomous Vehicles: What is a driver’s license test for driverless vehicles? (2) Safe Medical Devices: How can we use computer models to speed up clinical trials with a reduced cost? and (3) Grid-responsive Energy Systems: How do we build AI for Smart Buildings?

Prof. Deep Jariwala

For the first time since the early 1940s, humankind is at the cusp of a fundamentally new type of computing technology using the quantum mechanical properties of matter and energy. What this technology can enable, has the promise to take our civilization to a new level of advancement. The questions really are how do we get there and how far are we from real applications with commercial value? In this talk, Deep will provide a detailed introduction to current status and future prospects of quantum computing and related technologies.

Prof. Sampath Kannan

Is education, like music, photos, and videos, infinitely and cheaply replicable? Do students actually learn online? Does online advanced education attract a diverse, non-traditional, student population? Sampath will answer these questions based on Penn Engineering’s experience in its forays into online education.

Prof. Rakesh Vohra

In 1987 Robert Solow quipped that “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. Twenty years on, the quip is still true. How does one reconcile this with the intuition that AI and automation has changed and will change our lives in a profound way?

Dean Vijay Kumar

When will we have robots that will be able to drive cars, do our chores, and build other robots? When will AI exceed human intelligence? Will your job be automated? This talk will explore the answers to these existential questions and start a discussion on the future of our society.

Prof. Sampath Kannan and Prof. Rakesh Vohra

What does it mean for machine learning to be privacy-preserving or fair, and how can we build algorithms that incorporate these basic social norms? We will explore how to innovate while respecting privacy concerns and without reflecting biases in algorithmic decision making, promoting transparency and trust.

Associate Prof. Brett Hemmenway and Associate Prof. Mayur Naik

Blockchain technology promises to revolutionize the way transactions are handled across many industries by allowing distributed, but synchronized, ledger system and the promise of secure transactions without a central point of failure. On the other hand, there are many important unresolved questions around protocols, security, and concurrency, particularly with the emergence of distributed embedded systems. We will discuss both the potential benefits and the challenges with these technologies.

Dean Vijay Kumar and Prof. Rajeev Alur

The near-term impact of artificial intelligence has been exaggerated with claims that these technologies will automate half of all paid jobs in the world. However, the difficulties in integrating artificial intelligence into physical machines and having them interact with humans have been greatly underestimated. We will address the challenges in developing autonomous machines, particularly in creating software that is verifiably safe and trustworthy.

Special interaction for high school students.

High school students who aspire to become engineers and computer scientists have an opportunity to engage with Penn faculty in discussions on the future of technology. This Penn-India Youth Forum will feature moderated interactive panels on the future of technology and its impact on society; and the Penn approach to engineering education and opportunities for students.

Mr. Hital Meswani (M&T ’90)
Executive Director, Reliance Industries

Dr. Pramath Sinha (SEAS M.S.E. & Ph.D. ’91)

Tracking his journey from IITK, Penn and the GRASP Lab to the world of business and building on his learnings from building the Indian School of Business (ISB), the Young India Fellowship, Ashoka University, the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women and the Naropa Fellowship, Pramath will share a vision for the future of higher education in India and beyond.

Mr. Sandeep Murthy (M&T ’98, WG ’05)

This session will explore the investment opportunities AI opens up across India.

Mr. Dev Khare (M&T ’94)

With new unicorns springing up constantly thanks to large investment rounds, the latest one being the 1 billion dollar investment in Swiggy, is India ready for the big game? Where do we see things going in the next 5-10 years.

Ms. Vinati Saraf Mutreja (C ’05, WH ’05)
Ms. Farah Nathani-Menzies (C ’01)
Ms. Neha Bagaria (WH ’03)
Ms. Aryata Agarwal (WG ’08)
Moderator: Ms. Vasundhara (Goenka) Patni (C ’06)

Penn alumni who graduated in the new millennium had an entirely different India to come back to. The digital revolution began in full swing, with devices, connectivity, and commerce all growing at once. This led to traditional business models being questioned and opportunities for new-age entrepreneurship by the younger generation. The panel will discuss the journey of these young and vibrant women after they returned to India, and how they coped with the changing scenario.

Ms. Radhika Chinai Vora (C ’99)
Mr. Pritam Doshi (SEAS ’95)
Mr. Devang Shah (SEAS ’04, WH ’04)
Mr. Sashi Reddi (WG Ph.D. ’93)
Moderator: Mr. Vaibhav Arya (C ’99)

Building technology businesses in India: India supports an academic and institutional environment that has produced world famous technology professionals in top management positions all over the world. This panel will talk about the opportunities and challenges of building technology businesses in India, and addresses areas such as market opportunity, global vs Indian target markets, talent acquisition and most importantly, creating and supporting a truly global innovation culture.

Ms. Aditi Kothari (WH ’98)
Ms. Hena Mehta (SEAS ’08, WG ’18)
Mr. Madhur Deora (WH ’99)
Moderator: Mr. Kunal Bajaj (M&T ’99, SEAS M.S.E. ’00)

Today’s digital landscape is forcing traditional businesses to pivot in order to stay relevant and integrate into the everyday habits of both individuals and businesses. This is particularly evident in banking, where we are seeing a shift in the way we save, borrow, and invest, and even in the way we interact with currency. Consequently, more and more fintech startups are emerging to fill consumer needs, which is changing the financial industry and encouraging traditional banks to innovate. The panelists will discuss the rise of fintech, the integration of new and innovative technologies within financial services, and the future of digital finance.

SEAS Faculty

Deep research into algorithms, complexity, and machine learning is underway at Penn. Advances in these areas promise to impact AI and Data Science technologies globally impacting every industry. This session will help us understand the opportunities and challenges of the new algorithm-centric world that increasingly envelopes us.

Mr. Gaurav Saraf (SEAS ’00)
Mr. Shreyas Shibulal (SEAS M.S. ’16)
Ms. Hena Mehta (SEAS ’08, WG ’18)
Mr. Vaibhav Arya (C ’99)
Moderator: Ms. Neha Bagaria (WH ’03)

Building technology businesses in India: India supports an academic and institutional environment that has produced world famous technology professionals in top management positions all over the world. This panel will talk about the opportunities and challenges of building technology businesses in India, and addresses areas such as market opportunity, global vs Indian target markets, talent acquisition and most importantly, creating and supporting a truly global innovation culture.

Mr. Sandeep Singhal (WG ’94)
Mr. Karthik Reddy (WG ’01)
Mr. Sandeep Murthy (M&T ’98, WG ’05)
Mr. Ganapathy Venugopal
Mr. Arihant Patni (SEAS ’98)

We have spent the greater part of the day talking about trending technology topics such as blockchain, robotics, automation, drones, and AI. However, India could still have some way to go before adopting some of the leading innovations. This panel will discuss the adoption of futuristic technology in India, and what do they see coming up in the medium term that would be interesting from an investment perspective.

Prof. Konrad Kording

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are enabled by neurotechnology, which allows getting data out of brains. Progress in neurotechnology has been exponential for decades and now, with the increased involvement of industry participants, it is growing even faster. My research aims to facilitate such progress and, above all, to build algorithms that make sense of the coming deluge of data. I will highlight how modern decoding techniques can be used to decode brain activities and how such approaches are starting to be a central driver in the study of brains.

Prof. Michael Kearns

Many recent mainstream media articles and popular books have raised alarms over anti-social algorithmic behavior, especially regarding machine learning and artificial intelligence. The concerns include leaks of sensitive personal data by predictive models, algorithmic discrimination as a side-effect of machine learning, and inscrutable decisions made by complex models. While standard and legitimate responses to these phenomena include calls for stronger and better laws and regulations, researchers in machine learning, statistics, and related areas are also working on designing better-behaved algorithms. An explosion of recent research in areas such as differential privacy, algorithmic fairness, and algorithmic game theory is forging a new science of socially aware algorithm design. I will survey these developments and attempt to place them in a broader societal context. This talk is based on the book The Ethical Algorithm, co-authored with Aaron Roth (Oxford University Press).

Prof. Dan Roth

Natural Language Processing has been flourishing in the last few years due, to a large extent, to the success of deep neural networks models. However, most of this success has pushed the boundaries of well-defined classification tasks, where we have a lot of annotated data to train large models. And, most of it is in English. We would like to broaden the scope of our current natural language understanding programs to better deal with more complex, realistic tasks, and to expand it to other languages. I will describe some of our efforts in the direction of improving natural language processing and, specifically, some key information extraction tasks, in low-resource languages.

Prof. Zack Ives

Data science is transforming all aspects of our society, from how we conduct healthcare and develop treatments, to how we make new discoveries, to how we formulate policies or understand history. Contrary to the popular view, data science consists of more than applying algorithms to data: it must also incorporate existing human expertise, supply any missing context, and provide insights while respecting data’s privacy and integrity. I will discuss recent research at Penn focused on effective data reuse and data sharing within collaborative data science — and the broader goal of developing an AI for facilitating data science and discovery.

Prof. Cherie R. Kagan

By 2050, the US population is estimated to grow to 400 million and the world population to 9.7 billion. Current agricultural practices account for 70% of global water use, energy use is one of the largest costs on a farm, and inefficient use of agrochemicals is altering Earth’s ecosystems. With finite arable land, water, and energy resources, ensuring food, energy, and water security will require new technologies to improve the efficiency of food production, create sustainable approaches to supply energy, and prevent water scarcity.

The National Science Foundation granted the University of Pennsylvania and its partners, Purdue University, the University of California at Merced, and the University of Florida an award to establish the Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag) in September 2020. IoT4Ag’s mission is to create and translate to practice Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for precision agriculture and to train and educate a diverse workforce that will address the societal grand challenge of food, energy, and water security for decades to come. IoT4Ag will develop novel, integrated systems that capture the microclimate and spatially, temporally, and compositionally map heterogeneous stresses for early detection and intervention to better outcomes in agricultural crop production.

The Center will create internet of things (IoT) technologies to optimize practices for every plant; from sensors, robotics, and energy and communication devices to data-driven models constrained by plant physiology, soil, weather, management practices, and socio-economics. Diverse participant groups will be well-prepared through IoT4Ag educational and inclusion programs to have a strong science and engineering knowledge and to establish a workforce able to discover, innovate, translate, and practice precision agriculture solutions. The Center will form an innovation ecosystem and network with academic, industry, investment, and government partners to collaboratively build the future of precision agriculture.

Prof. Dave Meaney

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged each of us to change our social behavior and practices while maintaining a sense of social cohesion and public health. Time and again over the course of the pandemic, technology has emerged to enable solutions to achieve normalcy during a uniquely abnormal time. Whether it was to improve the clinical course of COVID-19, to provide accessible technologies for public health, to provide enriched classroom learning experiences, or to invent entirely new technical platforms for testing, treating, and altering the course of the pandemic, faculty in Penn Engineering quickly engaged to contribute solutions in fighting the pandemic. At the same time, our school expanded our use of technology to achieve an engaged remote learning experience for Penn students throughout the world.

This talk will highlight some of the activities occurring in Penn Engineering over the past several months, a period of time where we witnessed dozens of inventions by necessity. Beginning with clinical technologies that filled phasic inventory challenges in medical supplies, we will also discuss inventions that will inevitably contribute biomedical solutions beyond the current pandemic and shape the course of educational practice well into the next decade.

Prof. Jennifer Wilcox

As the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) continues to rise, it is imperative that we develop technologies that not only mitigate CO2 emissions but also remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere. There are a variety of approaches that are being developed to do just this, and many approaches will be required to achieve a meaningful scale to mitigate climate change. In our work, we have been developing a novel, land-based magnesium oxide looping process to capture CO2 from the air.

Harsh Jain

Dream11 is India’s leading fantasy gaming platform. Harsh will share what attracted him to fantasy sports, his journey over the past decade since Penn, the ups and downs, and the exhilarating growth of Dream11 into the exclusive decacorn status it now enjoys. Harsh will share what it takes to build a new industry category in India, raise large rounds of capital, sign up for arguably India’s most prominent brand sponsorship (IPL cricket), lead and grow the Dream11 organizational structure, and insights into all the pain points and fun moments along the way.

Harsh Jain is the CEO (Culture Enforcement Officer) and Co-Founder of Dream Sports, India’s leading sports technology company, with over 160 Million users across brands such as Dream11, FanCode, Dream Capital, DreamSetGo, SoStronk, DreamPay and Dream Sports Foundation in its portfolio. He founded Dream11 in 2008, along with co-founder Bhavit Sheth, and led it to become the world’s largest fantasy sports platform.

Harsh is a passionate believer in building culture-driven organizations and adopting a user-first approach to problem-solving. He has married these beliefs with his love for sports, gaming and technology to create India’s first multi-billion dollar sports tech company, Dream Sports, with a mission to ‘Make Sports Better’.

A lifelong Manchester United, Mumbai Indians and Indian cricket team fan, Harsh completed his engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is based in Mumbai and is actively involved in philanthropy through the Dream Sports Foundation, focussed on enabling the Indian sports ecosystem, as well as Raksha Foundation, an NGO he set up along with his wife Dr. Rachana Jain, to serve animals and children in need.

Prof. Dave Issadore

The transformative growth in microelectronics in the latter half of the 20th century was fueled fundamentally by the ability to miniaturize complex circuits onto chips. The impact of this has been profound– computing is pervasive and portable and communication is instant and global. My research aims to harness these same engineering approaches to solve high impact problems in medical diagnostics.

To accomplish this goal my lab develops hybrid microchips, where microfluidics are built directly on top of semiconductor chips. In this talk, I will focus on recent work at Penn on ‘digital assays.’ Digital assays — in which ultra-sensitive molecular measurements are made by performing millions of parallel experiments in picoliter droplets — have generated enormous enthusiasm due to their single-molecule resolution. These assays have incredible untapped potential for disease diagnostics but are currently confined to laboratory settings due to the instrumentation necessary to generate, control, and measure tens of millions of droplets.

To overcome this challenge, we are developing a hybrid microelectronic / microfluidic chip to ‘unlock’ droplet-based assays for mobile use. Our microDroplet Fluorescence Detector (µDFD) takes inspiration from cellular networks, in which phones are identified by their carrier frequency and not their particular location. In collaboration with physicians at The Abramson Cancer Center, we are demonstrating the power of this approach by developing a multiplexed exosome-based diagnostic for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Fractal
Moderated by Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund

Srikanth will share deep insights on AI technologies, trends, and use cases.

Prof. Susan Davidson
Weiss Professor of Computer and Information Science

The rapid rise of generative AI is challenging educators to adapt what and how we teach. What should we be teaching about generative AI as it relates to our curriculum? How can we enable students to use it as an “intelligent tutor”, i.e. as a tool to improve learning but not to complete homeworks? How can we best prepare our students for a future in which intelligent use of these tools will be commonplace? I will discuss experiences within SEAS from Fall 2023.

Prof. Rajeev Alur
Zisman Family Professor
Department of Computer and Information Science

Recent advances in machine learning—in particular, deep neural networks and large language models, can potentially transform many aspects of healthcare and medicine. While current AI technology is already suitable for automating some repetitive clinical tasks, for critical tasks such as personalized patient treatment, existing AI models cannot be deployed due to the lack of explanations accompanying their predictions and lack of guarantees to trust the recommended interventions. Penn Engineering’s ASSET center is collaborating with clinicians and researchers in Penn Medicine to develop the next generation of trustworthy AI-based decision systems for healthcare applications. In this talk, I will review some of the projects addressing this challenge.

Prof. Sid Deliwala
Director of Lab Programs

AI exerts a profound influence on physical systems, ushering in a new era of automation, optimization, and intelligent operation across diverse domains. Within the undergraduate curriculum of Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), a multitude of courses strategically illuminate the pivotal role of AI. Specifically, these courses delve into the integration of AI in signal processing, the deployment of AI in Internet of Things (IoT) edge devices, and the facilitation of immersive, hands-on experiences in deep learning for undergraduates. This educational approach not only underscores the transformative impact of AI but also equips future engineers with the knowledge and practical skills essential for navigating the evolving landscape of electrical and systems engineering. In this talk, Sid will showcase some of the most unique course and lab offerings.