Please note that the list below only shows forthcoming events, which may not include regular events that have not yet been entered for the forthcoming term. Please see the past events page for a list of all seminar series that the department has on offer.
Thu, 13 Jun 2024
12:00 -
13:00
L3
The mechanics of physical knots: from shoelaces to surgical sutures
Pedro M. Reis
(EPFL)
The join button will be published 30 minutes before the seminar starts (login required).
Further Information
Pedro M. Reis
Flexible Structures Laboratory,
Institute of Mechanical Engineering,
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL),
Pedro Miguel Reis is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Prof. Reis received a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Manchester, UK (1999), a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics (Part III Maths) from St. John’s College and DAMTP, University of Cambridge (2000), and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Manchester (2004). He was a postdoc at the City College of New York (2004-2005) and at the CNRS/ESPCI in Paris (2005-2007). He joined MIT in 2007 as an Instructor in Applied Mathematics. In 2010, he moved to MIT’s School of Engineering, with dual appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, first as the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor and, after 2014, as Gilbert W. Winslow Associate Professor. In October 2013, the Popular Science magazine named Prof. Reis to its 2013 “Brilliant 10” list of young stars in Science and Technology. In 2021, he was the President of the Society of Engineering Science (SES). Prof. Reis has also received the 2014 CAREER Award (NSF), the 2016 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award (Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME), the 2016 GSOFT Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research (APS), and he is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
Abstract
Even though most of us tie our shoelaces "wrongly," knots in ropes and filaments have been used as functional structures for millennia, from sailing and climbing to dewing and surgery. However, knowledge of the mechanics of physical knots is largely empirical, and there is much need for physics-based predictive models. Tight knots exhibit highly nonlinear and coupled behavior due to their intricate 3D geometry, large deformations, self-contact, friction, and even elasto-plasticity. Additionally, tight knots do not show separation of the relevant length scales, preventing the use of centerline-based rod models. In this talk, I will present an overview of recent work from our research group, combining precision experiments, Finite Element simulations, and theoretical analyses. First, we study the mechanics of two elastic fibers in frictional contact. Second, we explore several different knotted structures, including the overhand, figure-8, clove-hitch, and bowline knots. These knots serve various functions in practical settings, from shoelaces to climbing and sailing. Lastly, we focus on surgical knots, with a particularly high risk of failure in clinical settings, including complications such as massive bleeding or the unraveling of high-tension closures. Our research reveals a striking and robust power law, with a general exponent, between the mechanical strength of surgical knots, the applied pre-tension, and the number of throws, providing new insights into their operational and safety limits. These findings could have potential applications in the training of surgeons and enhanced control of robotic-assisted surgical devices.
Thu, 13 Jun 2024
16:00
16:00
L4
TBC
Dr Ivan Guo
(Monash University, Melbourne)
Further Information
Please join us for reshments outside the lecture room from 1530.
Fri, 14 Jun 2024
14:00 -
15:00
L3
Fri, 14 Jun 2024
15:00 -
16:00
L5
The bifiltration of a relation, extended Dowker duality and studying neural representations
Melvin Vaupel
(Norweign University of Science and Technology)
The join button will be published 30 minutes before the seminar starts (login required).
Abstract
To neural activity one may associate a space of correlations and a space of population vectors. These can provide complementary information. Assume the goal is to infer properties of a covariate space, represented by ochestrated activity of the recorded neurons. Then the correlation space is better suited if multiple neural modules are present, while the population vector space is preferable if neurons have non-convex receptive fields. In this talk I will explain how to coherently combine both pieces of information in a bifiltration using Dowker complexes and their total weights. The construction motivates an interesting extension of Dowker’s duality theorem to simplicial categories associated with two composable relations, I will explain the basic idea behind it’s proof.
Tue, 19 Nov 2024
16:00
16:00