Events
Past Event
The Chicago Cultural Stadium, Lou Raizin, Broadway in Chicago
Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
1:00 PM
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Cohen Commons, 4th Floor, Technological Institute
Details
Speaker: Lou Raizin, President and CEO, Broadway in Chicago
Title: “The Chicago Cultural Stadium”
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1:00 PM CT
Location: Tech, Cohen Commons, 4th Floor
Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/ArtAndRobotics
Abstract: Broadway in Chicago President and CEO Lou Raizin will visit Northwestern to convene people from across the university to learn more about his vision for the Cultural Stadium in Chicago: where he imagines the possibility of linking art and engineering with a kinetic or robotics-related sculpture to inspire wonder in the Loop.
The Cultural Stadium reimagines downtown Chicago as a vibrant, inclusive arena of cultural life—where every street, bridge, and building becomes a stage. Inspired by the scale and spirit of a stadium, the concept brings culture to the forefront through art, live performances, and creative community spaces. With projects like the LaSalle Street transformation, it blends affordable housing, artist studios, and public exhibitions to make culture accessible and alive. This vision calls for structural shifts—zoning, funding, and public-private collaboration—to turn downtown into a bold, living showcase of Chicago’s creativity and diversity. A place where culture isn’t background—it's center stage.
Co-sponsored by McCormick School of Engineering, Arts + Engagement Initiative and Center for Robotics and Biosystems
Bio: Lou Raizin has over 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry. As a founder and the prime mover behind Broadway In Chicago, a joint theatrical venture formed in 2000, his leadership propelled the transformation of Chicago from a short-term stop on “the road” to the third most important city in the world for theater. Encompassing the five premiere theater stages in the city, Broadway In Chicago has presented over 400 productions, bringing an economic impact of over $750 million annually to the City of Chicago and State of Illinois and supporting more than 9,200 local jobs.
Raizin’s focus on economic development, tourism and the support of culture in our City has led to the creation and continued sponsorship of the annual League of Chicago Theatre’s Emerging Theatre Award and the Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards. Mr. Raizin has been named one of Chicago Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Chicagoans and is a tireless advocate for Chicago as a cultural destination, having served as the Board Chair of the Chicago Loop Alliance leading the organization in the creation of Pop Up Art Loop, comprised of over 14 galleries and as well as the installation of a number of major public art projects in the city including the lighting and music display along State Street.
Outside of Broadway In Chicago, Raizin’s focus is often at the intersection of arts, culture and economic development to create jobs in the city. He had long served as Treasurer for Choose Chicago and on the Executive Committee of Choose Chicago and is a Board Member of the Magnificent Mile Association. He previously chaired the Chicago Loop Alliance and the State Street Commission for multiple terms, served as a member of the Economics Club as well as serving as a director of a number of other civic and not-for-profit organizations. He founded and chaired the Board of LUMA8 (Light Up My Arts), the entity that produces the Arts In The Dark Parade and the River Walk Lantern Festival. Raizin also served as the catalyst for both the $12M permanent light art installation on the back wall of the Merchandise Mart and a digital platform for tourism.
Time
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location
Cohen Commons, 4th Floor, Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
Center for Robotics and Biosystems (CRB)
ME512 Seminar Series- Naichen Shi
McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)
3:00 PM
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LR3, Technological Institute
Details
Generative Models for Design and Process Intelligence
Abstract The increasing complexity of modern manufacturing systems calls for new paradigms that tightly integrate data with human expertise and scientific modeling. In this talk, I will present a few recent works that leverage generative models, including diffusion and flow-matching models, to advance design and process intelligence. I will first introduce Coupled Flow Matching, which employs optimal transport and flow-based generative modeling to enable controllable dimension reduction and design. Next, I will discuss the active learning framework enabled by generative diffusion surrogates, which merge prior knowledge with experimental measurements to guide experiment design. I will also introduce our work on diffusion calibration models that combine imperfect computer simulations with real-world measurements. These efforts highlight how generative models can serve as a unifying language to connect data, physics, and humans in the future of manufacturing intelligence.
Bio
Naichen is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences. His
research focuses on integrative data analytics and science-informed AI models.
Naichen received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His work has been
recognized with several honors, including the INFORMS Data Mining Best
Paper Award and the Wilson Prize.
Time
Monday, November 17, 2025 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location
LR3, Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)
ME512 Seminar Series- Anthony Rollett
McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)
3:00 PM
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LR3, Technological Institute
Details
Abstract:
We provide an overview of a recent NASA University Leadership Initiative project entitled “Development of an Ecosystem for Qualification of Additive Manufacturing Processes and Materials in Aviation”. This work demonstrated the dependence of fatigue on defect structures in AM Ti-6Al-4V. Our current NASA Science & Technology Research Institute “Institute for Model-Based Qualification & Certification of Additive Manufacturing (IMQCAM)” is creating a numerical digital twin (DT) for predicting fatigue as a function of process parameters. The key result of a systematic variation across power-velocity space was that the defect number density was anti-correlated with fatigue life. The fatigue-based process window was much narrower compared to typical reports and explainable in terms of observed variations based on spatter rates and intermittent lack of melt pool overlap. We report on recent developments in modeling microstructure, texture and pores along with variations in heat treatment. We conclude that establishing a qualified materials process is feasible via an efficient survey of a limited domain of process space. Linking models together in the DT requires substantial effort in terms of data exchange. In terms of predictability of fatigue, the limited data suggests that the scatter in life is smallest in the long crack (Paris Law) regime, intermediate for short cracks and largest for crack nucleation. This provides an important background for Uncertainty Quantification (UQ), which is a major focus for the IMQCAM team and which has already revealed a significant sensitivity to compositional variations, for example.
Support from multiple agencies is gratefully acknowledged, including NASA, DOE/BES, DOE/NNSA, ONR, NSF, OEA, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Ametek. I am indebted to my many collaborators.
Bio:
I have been a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University since 1995. I am also the Co-Director of the NextManufacturing Center on additive manufacturing. Previously, I worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. I spent nine years in management with four years as a Group Leader (and then Deputy Division Director) at Los Alamos, followed by five years as Department Head at CMU (up to 2000). I have been a Fellow of ASM since 1996, Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) since 2004 and Fellow of TMS since 2011. I received the Cyril Stanley Smith Award from TMS in 2014, was elected as Member of Honor by the French Metallurgical Society in 2015 and then became the US Steel Professor of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science in 2017. I received Cyril Stanley Smith Award from the International Conference on Recrystallization and Grain Growth in 2019 and the Hans Bunge Award from the Intl. Conf. on Textures of Materials (ICOTOM) in 2024. I was an International Francqui Professor (Belgium) in 2022 and I received the ASM Gold Medal and was promoted to University Professor, both in 2024. My research focuses on processing-microstructure-properties relationships with interests in additive manufacturing, the measurement and prediction of microstructural evolution, the relationship between microstructure and properties, especially three-dimensional effects, texture & anisotropy and the use of synchrotron x-rays.
Time
Monday, February 2, 2026 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location
LR3, Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
McCormick - Mechanical Engineering (ME)