Venue: Room A322, Anzhong Building, Zijingang CampusSpeaker:Roman Makhnenko is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Roman received his PhD (2013) degrees in geological and civil engineering from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Currently, Roman is developing the rock mechanics program at Illinois that involves modern high-pressure high-temperature rock testing facilities and new graduate courses on the topic. His ongoing projects include laboratory investigation of geomaterials and processes associated with CO2 storage and experimental and numerical characterization of enhanced geothermal systems.Abstract:Production of renewable and green energy is becoming extremely important because of the projected depletion of fossil fuels and climate change. Enhanced geothermal systems offer new perspective where man-made fractures are created by stimulation methods (primarily hydraulic fracturing) to enhance the permeability of hot rock formations at the depth of at least three kilometers. Proper rock characterization is required, as well as the upscaling that would involve laboratory experiments on size-effect on rock fracturing and numerical modeling of rock mass response. Rock mechanics group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign performs hydraulic fracturing and three-point bending experiments to study size effect on fracture toughness and process zone. Ultrasonic waves and acoustic emission are used to track propagating fractures and the zone of microcracking in front of them. Based on the test data, we demonstrate the suitability of a theoretical relationship between the size of the process zone and specimen size. The model allows estimation of the limiting specimen size, beyond which no further noticeable increase in the fracture toughness and process zone size is observed, and prediction of in-situ crystalline rock behavior to fluid injection.

Venue: Room 224, West 2 Building, Xixi CampusSpeaker: Nianhua GuBusiness ambassador of Hamilton municipal government, Ontario, CanadaAmbassador of China and Canada in Ma'anshan, Anqing, Fuzhou and Jiaxing municipal government, etc.Deputy director of ESL teaching and Research Center, North America, CanadaVice chairman of the Canadian Kongfu Association International Exchange CenterDirector of education consultation center of new century

Venue: Room 520, Tin Ka-ping Building, Xixi CampusSpeaker: Harm Kuper, Professor at Further Education and Educational Management, Free University of Berlin

Venue: Lecture Hall, 1st floor, Chow Yei-ching Science & Technology Building, Yuquan CampusSpeaker: Zhaozheng Yin, Associate Professor, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyAbstract: While a lot of efforts have been spent on developing computer algorithms to solve computer vision and machine learning problems, less attention is paid on the physical image formation process and human-aided discovery. Using biomedical image analysis as an example, I will demonstrate how physics and humans in the loop can benefit the algorithm development and boost the algorithm performance. In the second part of the talk, I will briefly introduce several multidisciplinary projects from my group, including social intelligent computing, infrastructure inspection by robotic exploration, cyber physical systems for smart manufacturing, and human-robot collaboration.

Venue: Room 507, East 1A Building, Zijingang CampusSpeaker: Thomas S. Axworthy is a distinguished senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.  Previously, he served as Senior Policy Advisor and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1984, Dr. Axworthy joined Harvard University as a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.In 1999, he helped to create the Historica Foundation to improve the teaching and learning of Canadian history, becoming its Executive Director until 2005. To recognize his achievements in heritage education (he initiated the Heritage Minutes), civics, and citizenship, in 2003, he became Chair of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University. In 2009, he became President and CEO of the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation.He was awarded an honorary LLD from Wilfrid Laurier University (2003) and the Public Affairs Association Award of Distinction on November 26th, 2008 by the Public Affairs Association of Canada.

Venue: Room 205, Administrative Building, School of Medicine, Zijingang CampusSpeaker: JoAnne Stubbe, the Novartis Professor of Chemistry & Biology at MIT and Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the US National Medal of Science in 2009.

Venue: Room 418, School of Economics, Yuquan CampusSpeaker: Hans Koster, Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAbstract:Online short-term housing rental platforms such as Airbnb or Tujia.com, have grown spectacularly in recent years. We focus on Santa Monica, surrounded by the City of Los Angeles, which has severely restricted short-term rentals of entire homes and apartments. We apply a panel regression-discontinuity design around Santa Monica's border. Its 2015 Home Sharing Ordinance (HSO) reduced listings by 70% and prices of single-family homes by 5.5%, with stronger effects in locations attractive to tourists. We do not find that the HSO affected prices of apartments, which points to the presence of substantial negative external effects of short-term rentals within apartment buildings. These results explain why particularly cities with a high share of renters and apartments tend to oppose Airbnb.

Venue: Room 426, the Main Teaching Building, Xixi CampusSpeaker: Daniel Raichvarg, Professor at University of Burgundy

Venue: Room 205, Administrative Building, School of Medicine, Zijingang CampusSpeaker: Matthew P. Anderson, Associate Professor of Pathology (Neuropathology), Harvard Medical School