[UCI-Calit2] Seminar for SURF-IT Program

Stuart A ROSS STUROSS at uci.edu
Thu Jul 7 10:25:22 PDT 2005


The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program in Information
Technology (SURF-IT) presents a four-part summer seminar series,
featuring faculty projects involving SURF-IT students.

Each session will include a light lunch, served at 11:45 a.m., and two
20-minute research talks.

    The first session will be held:

    July 12, 2005   (Tuesday) 

    Calit2 Building, Room 3008

==============================================

Noon  

Speaker:  	William Tomlinson
		Assistant Professor of Informatics
		Assistant Professor of Drama

Title:  "The Eco-Raft Project"

Abstract:   The goal of this project is to combine research in computer
science, mobile computing, interactive animation and restoration ecology
in order to develop a novel computational platform for environmental
education.  This platform will serve as the basis for regionally
specific interactive exhibits that will be installed in science centers
and museums around the United States.  The interactive platform consists
of a heterogeneous network of fixed and mobile computational systems,
inhabited by autonomous animated agents (virtual species).  This
paradigm involves several stationary computer screens that serve as
"virtual habitat patches" inhabited by small populations of the animated
species, and several Tablet PCs that serve as "virtual rafts," or
dispersal mechanisms, with which people carry the species from patch to
patch.  This project has already been accepted to the Emerging
Technologies venue at SIGGRAPH 2005; a major mid-summer milestone will
be to present the group's work at that conference.

	Undergraduate Researcher:  Uel McMahan - "The EcoRaft Project"


==============================================

12:30 p.m.

Speaker: 	Zhibin Guan
		Professor of Chemistry

Title:  "Materials Design at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology"

Abstract:  Our research program is developing new concepts and
strategies at the interface with biology for the design of well-defined
polymeric materials. This presentation will highlight our recent work on
the synthesis and single molecule nanomechanical studies of new
biomimetic modular multi-domain polymers.  Inspiration from natural
biopolymers is used in our lab to design macromolecular materials having
precise secondary structures for advanced mechanical properties.
Modular domain structures are commonly seen in natural biopolymers such
as adhesion proteins and skeletal muscle protein, titin, which have
important mechanical functions in biological systems.  The remarkable
combined strength and toughness of titin was proposed to derive from its
modular structure comprising a linear array of domains, in which each
domain is held together by secondary forces.  We have synthesized
titin-mimicking modular polymers having various supramolecular modules.
This talk will discuss the design principle, synthesis, single molecule
studies, and correlation of single molecule and macroscopic mechanical
properties of the modular polymer.

Undergraduate Researcher:  Vahe Gabuchian - "Biomimetic Modular Design
for Advanced Biomaterials"

===============================================

Future seminars will be held July 26, August 9 and August 23.


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