|
Professor: Michael Zyda
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://gamepipe.usc.edu
Description: We are building an online game for a research sponsor, an online game instrumented with human behavioral models.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: strong programmer in C++
Comments: we are looking for self-starters interested min working with a collaborative group.
|
|
Professor: Gerard Medioni
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://iris.usc.edu/~medioni
Description: Detection and tracking of objects in video.
Search and retrieval of objects from video.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Good math and programming skills
Comments: none
|
|
Professor: Suya You
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://graphics.usc.edu/~suyay/
Description: The project is to develop to an mobile Augmented Reality (AR) system on mobile devices such as mobile phone, PDA, and UMPC. AR is an advanced visualization technology for enhancing a person's view of the real world with computer generated graphics (text label annotation, virtual object overlay, etc). The AR metaphor of displaying information in the spatial context of the real world has a wide range of applications.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Programming skill is desirable
Comments: Reference:
Azuma, Ronald T. “A Survey of Augmented Reality”, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 6, 4, August 1997, pp. 355 - 385
|
|
Professor: Craig Knoblock
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://www.isi.edu/~knoblock
Description: I'm looking for students to work on two topics:
* Building Geospatial Mashups -- we are creating tools for building mashups by example. This allows a user to create an integrated application across multiple online sources by demonstrating the desired result. I'm looking for a student to extend this to building geospatial mashups.
Automatic Discovery and Modeling of Online Sources -- we have a current project to discover and build semantic models of online sources. I'm looking for a student to help improve the techniques for semantic typing as well as to apply and evaluate the techniques in new application domains.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Experience programming in Java
Comments: Looking for summer interns that are interested in pursuing an advanced degree at USC after completing their undergraduate degree.
|
|
Professor: Jean-Pierre Bardet
Department: Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental
Website: www.usc.edu/cee
Description: Modeling of resilience of transportation systems in megacities.
Background:
Transportation systems in Megacities are very complicated networks which are subjected to increasing demands resulting in traffic congestion; the expansions of these networks are also subjected to environmental constraints. When these complicated and overloaded systems are subjected to extreme events, such as earthquakes, they may respond in nonlinear ways, and exhibit cascading failures onto other interdependent systems, e.g., power systems.
Objective:
Investigate the resilience (ability to rebound from rapid extreme events) of the transportation network in Los Angeles, focusing on the movement of goods from the Port of Los Angeles.
Tasks:
1. Review of literature: transportation network modeling; risk assessment; fragility curves for components; passage from components to network systems in risk assessment; existing modeling for transportation risk assessment, e.g., REDARS.
2. Numerical simulation: perform REDARS simulations for earthquake events in Los Angeles.
3. Report: preparation of report summarizing literature review, simulation results and conclusions
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: GIS, Statistics
Comments: NA
|
|
Professor: Jean-Pierre Bardet
Department: Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental
Website: www.usc.edu/cee
Description: Experimental investigation of sand-fiber mixtures for synthetic sport surfaces
Background:
Synthetic surfaces are gradually replacing traditional soil surfaces in horseracing and other sports. They consist of sand filler coated with microcrystalline wax, synthetic fibers and rubber tire chips. Their properties are optimized based on biomechanics measurements so that to provide an optimum combination of performance and safety. These surfaces are to work and be processed under various weather conditions (temperature and rains)
Objective:
Investigate the performance of synthetic materials in the laboratory and characterize the optimum mixture composition for performance and formability.
Tasks:
1. Review of literature: wax-coated particles; wax properties including viscosity and adhesion to mineral surfaces; adhesion additives; measurement of hydrophobicity; biomechanical measurements and optimum soil properties; cationic and anionic polymer emulsions; rubber fibers.
2. Laboratory investigation: measurement of compaction characteristics and associated permeability and stress-strain behaviors for various mixture composition; measure adhesion between sand particles and wax; effects of wax blends on mixture behavior.
3.Report: preparation of report summarizing literature review, experimental results and conclusions.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Soil mechanics
Comments: NA
|
|
Professor: Jean-Pierre Bardet
Department: Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental
Website: www.usc.edu/cee
Description: Toward a better understanding of megacities
Background
Megacities are currently defined as those cities with populations greater than 10 millions. Based on this definition, there are currently 15 megacities in the world, Los Angeles and New York being the two in the United States. However there are many urban centers of several million inhabi-tants that share common and similar problems with megacities. Urban systems reach some critical thresholds beyond which they respond nonlinearly with unpredictable consequences.
Objectives
The research objective is to develop a more rigorous definition of megacities using various indicators that characterize critical thresholds in various domains, e.g., transportation, energy, population density, water treatment, underground facilities, etc. This study is critical to defining in scholastic terms the field of megacities research, and to distinguishing megacities research from traditional urban research.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Statistics, urban planning
Comments: NA
|
|
Professor: Amy Rechenmacher
Department: Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental
Website: http://www.usc.edu/dept/civil_eng/dept/faculty-staff/faculty-directory/rechenmacher-amy.htm
Description: Multi-scale aspects of localized straining in sheared, dense granular flows. Experiments and experimental imaging are used to evaluate grain-scale behavior associated with granular flow in shear bands in a dense sand. Analytical and numerical techniques are used to analyze micro-and meso-scale kinematics associated with the flow fields. We are working to interpret and elucidate length scales associated with the spatial and temporal patterns seen in the data.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: mechanics of materials, soil mechanics, Matlab or other programming skills
Comments: Student would be involved with all aspects of the project, including running experiments, running and improving analytical programs, data interpretation, and experimental development.
|
|
Professor: C.-C. Jay Kuo
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://viola.usc.edu
Description: Media Communications Lab., led by Prof. C.-C. Jay Kuo in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is devoted to theoretical studies and practical applications of multimedia data processing, communication and networking technologies. Current research activities of the lab include: multimedia data compression, audiovisual content abstraction and management, graphic modeling and rendering, digital content protection and rights management, broadband wireless communications, and embedded media systems. Our research work has contributed to international standards such as JPEG2000, MPEG-4, MPEG-7, H.263++. The lab is also working on emerging interdisciplinary areas that apply information technologies to biological applications such as genome and protein sequence analysis and novel bio-medical signal and image processing techniques.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Engineering Math
Comments: Visiting students should be willing to work with PhD students in a team environment.
|
|
Professor: Gaurav Sukhatme
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://robotics.usc.edu/~gaurav
Description: Research projects in networked robotics, aquatic robotics and embedded systems (specifically cell phones)
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Programming and a few semesters of math
Comments: None
|
|
Professor: Sven Koenig
Department: Computer Science
Website: Programming Pinball Machines
Description: I am looking for students who are
interested in designing and implementing
a software system that allows game
designer to quickly prototype pinball
machines, and then use this system to
develop a novel pinball game and
demonstrate it on an actual pinball
machine. We do have the hardware in
place and have already developed
"quick-and-dirty" sample code for a
simple game.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: ---
Comments: ---
|
|
Professor: Sven Koenig
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://idm-lab.org/project-c.html
Description: Market Mechanisms for Agent Coordination
I am looking for students who are
interested in developing auction
mechanisms for the assignment of tasks
to agents. How to assign and re-assign
targets to robots is a difficult
problem. We are developing a variety of
approaches for this purpose, analyze
their properties, implement them and
then evaluate them experimentally.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: ---
Comments: ---
|
|
Professor: Hossein Hashemi
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~hosseinh/
Description: There are several projects that a strong committed summer intern can contribute to, such as:
- Wireless detection of human biometrics and gait
- Analysis and design of nonlinear dynamical circuits
- Radio-frequency-inspired photonics research
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Math + physics
Comments: None!
|
|
Professor: Bhaskar Krishnamachari
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://anrg.usc.edu
Description: We are looking for undergraduate research interns for projects pertaining to wireless networks, mobile social networks, and sensor networks. Projects span a wide range from deep theory to practical implementation and will be tailored to student interest and ability.
Number of Students: 3
Prerequisites: Strong Programming and/or Mathematical Modeling Skills
Comments: -
|
|
Professor: Marco Papa
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://pollux.usc.edu/~papa/
Description: Development of an iPhone application using Apple Xcode development environment and Objective-C. The project will use SCM (Software Configuration Management) tools for multi-developer tracking of changes. The project will include design, implementation and deployment of an iPhone application.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: an Apple Macbook notebook. iPhone is NOT required.
Comments: None.
|
|
Professor: Clifford Neuman
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://clifford.neuman.name
Description: Research on topics related to computer security, especially on architectures that utilize trusted computing technologies to improve the security of applications. The project might involve designing distributed application in a way that leverages constrained interconnection between components that form distributed virtual computing systems.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Operating Systems, Networking, Computer Security
Comments: none.
|
|
Professor: Andrea M. Hodge
Department: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Website: http://ame-www.usc.edu/bio/hodge
Description: I am looking for students who want to do hands-on lab work. My group focuses on nanoscale materials processing and mechanical behavior. The project will involve processing, advanced characterization and basic data analysis.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Basic materials science and chemistry courses.
Comments: none
|
|
Professor: Tzung Hsiai
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Website: BME.USC.edu
Description: 1. Cardiovascular Engineering: Micro- and nano-scale sensors to predict acute heart attacks or stroke.
2. Zebrafish cardaic monitoring for antiarrhythmic durg screening.
3. Nanotoxicity and cardiovascular stress
4. Shear Stress, mechanotransduction, and cardiovascualr disease
Number of Students: 4
Prerequisites: Biology, Chemistry, physics, electronics.
Comments: -Students will work with our post-docs and/or assistant reserach professor in our group.
-Students will present at our weekly group meeting and receive critiques for experimental design and data analysis.
-Students are required to allocate 8 hours/day.
-Students are expected to presetn and write a final reports of their findings.
|
|
Professor: Michelle Povinelli
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://nanophotonics.usc.edu
Description: Computational design of nanophotonic devices: the successful applicant will conduct electromagnetic simulations on the USC supercomputer to design novel devices that enable nanoscale control over light. Possible topics include slow light on silicon chips, reconfigurable optical circuits, and using light to reposition nanoscale objects.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Calculus, Electromagnetics, Basic experience with computer and word processing
Comments: Professor Povinelli has an energetic and interactive group of 3 PhD students working to establish a new research laboratory. Our group enjoys access to the 1,893-node USC supercomputer and a state of the art microfabrication facility.
|
|
Professor: Fei Sha
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~feisha
Description: Investigate how to train hidden Markov models, for example, for automatic speech recognition. Topics involve: online optimization, active learning, margin-based training, theoretical analysis of structured prediction problems.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Experience in machine learning and optimization algorithms. Good mathematics background.
Comments: HMMs are important statistical models. They are used in speech processing, computer vision, time series modeling and etc. This is a rich application area.
|
|
Professor: Fei Sha
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~feisha
Description:
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites:
Comments:
|
|
Professor: Fei Sha
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~feisha
Description: Investigate new statistical modeling techniques of speech and audio data. Topics include: parametric and nonparametric bayesian models such as Dirchilet process mixture models, deep layer neural networks, sparse representations.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: strong mathematics backgrounds in linear algebra, statistics and probability, calculus
Comments: This is a very exciting new direction to get into: speech and audio signal processing have been a mature field. However, new machine learning techniques potentially inject ground-breaking ideas.
|
|
Professor: Fei Sha
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~feisha
Description: Investigate transfer learning: how to learn in one domain but transfer knowledge to another domain? This has been a very hard problem for the machine learning community. Several approaches are possible: sharing model prior, sharing features and etc. We will explore them and devise new approaches.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: strong mathematics backgrounds, familiar with machine learning algorithms
Comments: This is an exploratory project: we have a framework that is potentially very interesting but needs careful analysis and implementation.
|
|
Professor: Jim HInes
Department: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Sys
Website: http://www.usc.edu/dept/ise/
Description: We propose creating a skeleton textbook and socio-technical class models for the Systems Thinking SAE 599 course. MediaWiki software could be used to put the book together online in a living format that course faculty and students can add to over time. The MediaWiki software canbe used as-is for freeand put it on a USC webserver to control access to registered users,or make it available for a wider audience. The Vensim software for creating the socio-technical models is also free for educational use.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: None
Comments: None
|
|
Professor: Krishna Nayak
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://sipi.usc.edu/~knayak
Description: Projects in this lab involve the application of modern signal processing techniques to the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Work will include performing supervised experiments on clinical MRI scanners, and implementing and evaluating the performance of novel image reconstruction algorithms.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Digital Signal Processing, MATLAB experience
Comments: (none)
|
|
Professor: Ellis Meng
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Website: biomems.usc.edu
Description: Students are sought in two project areas: (1) electrofluidic neural interfaces and (2)micro drug delivery pumps.
We are developing novel biocompatible microsystems to achieve seamless interfaces between engineered devices and biological systems. Biological systems communicate via exchange of both electrical and chemical signals. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) consisting of integrated microelectrodes and microfluidics will be developed that mimic this multi-modality cellular communication at biological spatial and temporal scales. Four projects are available in the areas of cell culture, membrane-based on-chip separation, electrochemical sensing of neurotransmitters, and mechanical sensors/actuators.
Electrolysis-powered micro-pumps are being developed to deliver nL volumes of drug to directly targeted locations within the eye and in small animals. These devices are capable of being refilled and used repeatedly with only a single implantation surgery. This approach represents a new paradigm in ocular drug delivery that is made possible with biomedical microsystems technology. Approximately two students are sought to assist the team in assembling and testing devices.
Number of Students: 4
Prerequisites: Biomedical, chemical, electrical, or mechanical engineering backgrounds; students with biology, neuroscience, and chemistry backgrounds will also be considered; rising juniors or seniors
Comments: none.
|
|
Professor: Viktor Prasanna
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: ceng.usc.edu/~prasanna
Description: Multi-core architectures, application acceleration and optimization
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: computer architecture
Comments: students interested in high performance computing may also apply.
|
|
Professor: Viktor Prasanna
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: ceng.usc.edu/~prasanna
Description: Web 2.0 application integration
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: programming skills
Comments: some exposure to semantic web standards may be useful.
|
|
Professor: Milind Tambe
Department: Computer Science
Website: http://teamcore.usc.edu/
Description: The Teamcore group does fundamental research in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and in particular multiagent systems where multiple robots, software agents and people interact. We are interested in students that would assist in two separate projects:
(i) Research in game theory and its applications: Game theory is currently being investigated in many different disciplines, and there is now tremendous interest in it in AI. Our major motivating application for game theory research is ARMOR, a randomization software tool to assist law enforcement randomize their patrols and monitoring activities, so potential terrorists will be unable to determine a pattern in their activities. This software is already in use by police at the Los Angeles International Airport; and several other law enforcement agencies are currently interested. Students will help investigate different concepts in game theory, assist in investigating different solution concepts.
(ii) Coordination of multiple robots and human-robot teams: Distributed Markov Decision problems is a very novel and intriguing area of research in AI, and we are among the the leading research groups investigating this technology. Motivating our research are two separate projects where multiple robots or humans and robots must work together and coordinate with each other. While in one case these are very small robots (size of a laptop) in the other case these are larger robots, the size of a motorcycle.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: Programming expertise
Comments: None
|
|
Professor: Jia Grace Lu
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: nami.usc.edu
Description: Our research focuses on the investigation of metals and semiconductors whose size is reduced to the nanoscale (less than 1/1000 of the width of a human hair). The activities include the fabrication of nanostructures using both lithography and self-assembly techniques; characterization of their electrical, optical and magnetic properties; and development of nanoscale systems with future applications in memory and logic circuits, chemical/biological sensors, energy elements, optoelectronic devices, and spintronic devices.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: General physics and introduction to modern physics
Comments: I you possess a keen curiosity to the physical principles, you are welcome to join our explorations.
|
|
Professor: Adam Fincham
Department: Aerospace Mechanical Engineering
Website: http://ae-www.usc.edu/personnel/researchFac/fincham/
Description: The research objective is to construct a prototype wave tank for that applies to a commercial concept for artificial wave generation for the surfing community. Prior research has shown the basic scaling and wave propagation laws. This work was performed in the large recirculating flume located in the RAPP Engineering building. Using ultrasonic wave height gauges and high-speed video students would help validate the theoretical concepts and provide data for further optimization of the novel wave generation technology. The project has close ties to the surfing industry and involves analysis, presentation and demonstration of results to interested parties.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: General mechanical ability. Data analysis
Comments: A background in basic fluid mechanics would be beneficial.
|
|
Professor: Michael G Safonov
Department: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering
Website: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~msafonov
Description: Analyze and implement advanced robust and adaptive control methods using MATLAB. Evaluate for possible use in aircraft and spacecraft control applications.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: Linear control systems, state-space methods, MATLAB
Comments: strong math background required
|
