Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Michelle Driscoll, Northwestern University "Mind the gap"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Michelle Driscoll, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University
Title:
Mind the gap: a cascade of instabilities created by rotating beads near a floor
Abstract:
Does a rotating bead always spin in place? Not if that bead is near a surface: rolling leads to translational motion, as well as very strong flows around the bead, even quite far away. These flows strongly couple the motion of nearby microrollers (rotating beads), which leads to a rich variety of collective effects. Using experiments in tandem with large-scale 3D simulations, we have shown that driving a compact group of microrollers leads to a new kind of flow instability, whose wavelength is controlled not by the driving torque or the fluid viscosity, but a geometric parameter: the microroller's distance above the container floor. Furthermore, under the right conditions, stable, compact clusters we term "critters" can emerge from the unstable interface. Our simulations and experiments suggest that these critters are a stable state of the system, move much faster than individual rollers, and quickly respond to a changing drive. We believe that critters are unique in that they are clusters which form only with hydrodynamic interactions; no interparticle potentials are needed to create these structures. Furthermore, as compact, self-assembled structures which can easily be remotely guided, critters may offer a promising tool for microscopic transport.
Speaker Bio:
Michelle Driscoll, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is a soft condensed matter experimentalist. Her research rests at the junction between soft-matter physics and fluid dynamics. The Driscoll Lab focuses on understanding how structure and patterns emerge in a driven system, how to control them, and how to use them to connect macroscopic behavior to microscopic properties. Driscoll’s papers have been published in journals like Nature Physics and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and she’s been invited to give talks at physics colloquiums and soft matter seminars at a variety of institutions, from Georgetown University to the University of Chicago.
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between.
Live Stream:
Time
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Hamsa Bastani, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "Challenges in Achieving Human-AI Collaboration"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Hamsa Bastani, Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions, and Statistics and Data Science, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Title:
Challenges in Achieving Human-AI Collaboration
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Hamsa Sridhar Bastani is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions (OID) and Statistics and Data Science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she co-direct the Wharton Healthcare Analytics Lab. Her research sits at the intersection of machine learning, operations research, and economics. She studies how to design, deploy, and evaluate AI systems that empower human decision-makers and improve societal outcomes.
Professor Bastani aims to combine methodological depth with implementation in consequential environments. She has worked with national governments to deploy algorithms at the country scale for targeted border COVID-19 screening and essential medicine access, and has co-led one of the first large field studies of generative AI tutors in high school mathematics. She studies both the mathematical properties of algorithms and the way people respond to them.
Her research has been published in leading outlets including Nature, Management Science, Operations Research, and PNAS, and has garnered numerous recognitions, including the Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award for best healthcare paper, and the George Nicholson Prize. Previously, she graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 2012 with an A.M. in physics and an A.B. in physics and mathematics, completed her PhD in Stanford's Electrical Engineering department under the supervision of Mohsen Bayati, and spent a year as a Herman Goldstine postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99847338986
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, networks, and artificial intelligence. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks with NU Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
May 20th Speakers:
Yulin Yu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Feihong Xu, PhD Candidate, McCormick School of Engineering
Maalvika Bhat, PhD Student, School of Communication
Rochana Chaturvedi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
NICO Lightning talks are open to Northwestern graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars! If you are interested in signing up for a future session, please fill out this short survey.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98031689779
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, networks, and artificial intelligence. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)