Seminar: Felix Herrmann (Georgia Tech)
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Title: Wave-Based Imaging Beyond the Point Estimate
Abstract: Full-waveform inversion has transformed seismic imaging, but it is still mostly used to compute a single best Earth property model rather than a distribution of models consistent with the data. Sparse observations, nonlinearity, and poor illumination make this inverse problem ill-posed and prone to parasitic local minima. Bayesian methods can quantify uncertainty, but they are hard to scale because of high dimensionality, expensive simulations, and the lack of realistic priors.
This talk outlines a machine-learning approach to uncertainty-aware full-waveform inference. Score-based generative models are used to construct proxy Earth priors from imaged seismic data and sparse Earth properties measured at wells. Samples from these priors, paired with…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/SGMLivif9TEVnKNnrnYp3f. Campus room: IEB G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Seminar: Alan Kaptanoglu
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Title: Recent progress in numerical methods for designing stellarator fusion reactors
Abstract: I will discuss recent work in my research group on the modeling and optimization of 3D toroidal fusion devices (stellarators). We have recently designed a new MHD equilibrium solver that can: produce robust 3D equilibrium solutions with islands and chaos by using magnetic relaxation, scale on modern GPUs and provide differentiable objectives by using JAX, and use nonuniform meshes and numerically conserve the relevant structural properties to machine precision by using mixed FE. Moreover, a long-standing issue for stellarators has been finding suitable coils. Traditional optimization methods struggle to balance multiple physics and engineering constraints, often finding suboptimal or infeasible…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/EnFRHQQpYCRmcA4XK7qtqK. Campus room: IEB G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Seminar: Gian-Gabriel Garcia (UW)
Attend in person, or visit our community page on Cassyni to watch the seminar live or recorded. You can also sign up for notifications for future seminars! Speaker: Gian-Gabriel Garcia, University of Washington
Title: Generating Clinical Role Models via Constraint-Aware Self-Improving Large Language Models
Abstract: As the use of generative AI in healthcare shifts toward clinical decision support, healthcare systems need mechanisms to decide whether generated outputs are clinically meaningful, safe, and appropriate for local use. We study this challenge for personalized treatment planning through Clinical Role Models (CRMs); CRMs are conceptualized as prior patients whose medical history, lifestyle factors, and demographic attributes closely resemble those of the target patient whose treatment plan is yet to be determined. Critically, this prior patient has successfully transitioned from high-risk to low-risk status for a given disease or adverse health outcome following treatment. Therefore, the CRMs…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/T8TXSVawWeGuZ9sfn5kzf7. Campus room: IEB G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Seminar: Ching-Yao Lai (Stanford)
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Title: Solution discovery in fluids with high precision using neural networks
Abstract: I will discuss examples utilizing neural networks (NNs) to find solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs) that facilitate new discoveries. Despite being deemed universal function approximators, neural networks, in practice, struggle to fit functions with sufficient accuracy for rigorous analysis. Here, we developed multi-stage neural networks (Wang and Lai, J. Comput. Phys. 2024) that can reduce the prediction error to nearly the machine precision of double-precision floating points within a finite number of iterations. We use accurate NNs to tackle the challenge of searching for singularities in fluid equations (Wang-Lai-Gómez-Serrano-Buckmaster, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2023). Unstable singularities, especially in dimensions…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/SdqYWSTJUYeahs3BUDQe2R. Campus room: G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, November 5, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
HOLIDAY | UW CLOSED
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: N/A. Event Types: Not Specified.
Wednesday, November 11, 2026.
Seminar: Sara Mouradian (UW)
Attend in person, or visit our community page on Cassyni to watch the seminar live or recorded. You can also sign up for notifications for future seminars! Speaker: Sara Mouradian (UW)
Title: Building and Controlling Quantum Technologies
Abstract: Quantum technologies promise capabilities beyond the reach of classical systems, but realizing this potential requires exquisite control over physical quantum hardware. This talk describes our work on trapped-ion quantum systems across three themes: efficiently calibrating entangling gate operations with minimal experimental overhead; optimal control for increasing operation fidelity under complex noise models; and using the effects of quantum measurement as a resource for metrology. Together, these results illustrate how principled control of quantum systems, combining classical machine learning, hardware characterization, and measurement design, unlocks their potential for both computation and sensing.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/BotD4bmc4KMnRCGeSyWpn9. Campus room: G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, November 12, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Seminar: Leo Kozachkov (Brown University)
Attend in person, or visit our community page on Cassyni to watch the seminar live or recorded. You can also sign up for notifications for future seminars! Speaker: Leo Kozachkov, Brown University
Title: Predictable Nonlinear Dynamics can be Efficiently Parallelized in Time.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB). Online Meeting Link: https://cassyni.com/events/SWg9FGYRNBWZHciQLq7WPX. Campus room: G106. Accessibility Contact: llederer@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Lectures/Seminars. Special Events. Student Activities.
Thursday, November 19, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
HOLIDAY | UW CLOSED
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: N/A. Event Types: Not Specified.
Thursday, November 26, 2026 – Friday, November 27, 2026.
HOLIDAY | UW CLOSED
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: N/A. Event Types: Not Specified.
Friday, December 25, 2026.