SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for March
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Detecting paralinguistic information from speech and language for clinical applications: Algorithms and information limits
Wed, Mar 01, 2017 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Visar Berisha, Arizona State University
Talk Title: Detecting paralinguistic information from speech and language for clinical applications: Algorithms and information limits
Abstract: The ability to share our thoughts and ideas through spoken
communication is fragile. Even the simplest verbal response requires a
complex sequence of events. It requires thinking of the words that best
convey your message; sequencing these words appropriately; and then
sending signals to the muscles required to produce speech. The slightest
damage to the brain areas that orchestrate these events can manifest in
speech and language problems. These disturbances offer a window into
brain functioning. In the first part of this presentation, I will
present an overview of a number of projects where we use interpretable
measures of speech and language production as proxies for cognitive and
motor health. The algorithms behind this work have practical utility in
clinical applications and can help answer basic research questions
related to dysarthric speech production.
In the second part of the talk, I will discuss new results from
non-parametric statistical signal processing that allow us to
characterize the information limits in speech. In contrast to existing
methods based on machine learning, this work provides a framework to
answer fundamental questions such as 'What are the bounds on how well I
can recover a parameter of interest from speech?' or 'How well should an
optimally trained classifier work for a particular application?'
Biography: Visar Berisha is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State
University with a joint appointment in the School of Electrical Computer
and Energy Engineering and the Department of Speech and Hearing Science.
Prior to joining ASU, Berisha was a research scientist at MIT Lincoln
Laboratory and then Principal Research Engineer for a Fortune 500
company. His research interests include speech analytics, statistical
signal processing, and information theory. Much of his recent work spans
all three of these fields to answer basic questions related to the
limits of information in speech. His research has led to many academic
publications, several licensed patents, and a revenue-positive startup
company. Berisha's work has been featured in the Science section of the
New York Times, on National Public Radio, and a number of other national
media outlets.
Host: Shrikanth Narayanan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tanya Acevedo-Lam/EE-Systems
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
MHI CommNetS Seminar
Wed, Mar 01, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Arpan Chattopadhyay, USC
Talk Title: Sequential decision algorithms for as-you-go deployment of wireless relay network along a line
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: We are motivated by the need, in some applications, for impromptu or as-you-go deployment of wireless sensor networks. A person walks along a line, starting from a sink node (e.g., a base-station), and proceeds towards a source node (e.g., a sensor) which is at an a priori unknown location. At equally spaced locations, he makes link quality measurements to the previous relay, and deploys relays at some of these locations, with the aim to connect the source to the sink by a multihop wireless path. In this paper, we consider two approaches for impromptu deployment: (i) the deployment agent can only move forward (which we call a pure as-you-go approach), and (ii) the deployment agent can make measurements over several consecutive steps before selecting a placement location among them (the explore-forward approach). We consider a very light traffic regime, and formulate the problem as a Markov decision process, where the trade-off is among the power used by the nodes, the outage probabilities in the links, and the number of relays placed per unit distance. We obtain the structures of the optimal policies for the pure as-you-go approach as well as for the explore-forward approach. We also consider natural heuristic algorithms, for comparison. Numerical examples show that the explore-forward approach significantly outperforms the pure as- you-go approach in terms of network cost. Next, we propose learning algorithms for the explore-forward approach and the pure as-you-go approach, based on single and two timescale Stochastic Approximation, which asymptotically converge to the set of optimal policies, without using any knowledge of the radio propagation model. We demonstrate numerically that the learning algorithms can converge (as deployment progresses) to the set of optimal policies reasonably fast and, hence, can be practical model-free algorithms for deployment over large regions. Finally, we demonstrate the end-to-end traffic carrying capability of such networks via field deployment.
Biography: Arpan Chattopadhyay obtained his B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India in the year 2008, and M.E. and Ph.D in Telecommunication Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in the year 2010 and 2015, respectively. Then he worked as a postdoc in the group DYOGENE of INRIA/ENS Paris. He joined EE department, USC as a postdoc from November 2016. His host is Prof. Urbashi Mitra. His research interests include optimization, learning and control of wireless networks and cyber-physical systems.
Host: Prof. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Big Data, Streaming Graphs, and the Need for Innovations in Architecture
Fri, Mar 03, 2017 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Peter Kogge, University of Notre Dame
Talk Title: Big Data, Streaming Graphs, and the Need for Innovations in Architecture
Abstract: This talk will start with some insights gleaned from looking at real-world big data problems and how they are affected by architecture. The Emu migrating thread architecture is then introduced and compared. A general template for integrated big graph batch and streaming analytic processing is developed, and key graph operations, especially streaming, listed. A discussion follows on how the Emu architecture meshes well with such a dual-mode computing template, with some specific emphasis on machine learning functions.
Biography: Peter M. Kogge received his Ph.D. in EE from Stanford in 1973. From 1968 until 1994 he was with IBM's Federal Systems Division, and was appointed an IBM Fellow in 1993. In August, 1994 he joined the University of Notre Dame as first holder of the endowed McCourtney Chair in Computer Science and Engineering. He has served as both Department Chair and Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow, a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at JPL, and a founder and Chief Scientist of Emu Solutions, Inc. His research interests are in massively parallel computing paradigms, processing in memory, and the relationship between massive non-numeric applications, emerging technology, and computer architectures.
He holds over 40 patents and is author of two books, including the first text on pipelining. His Ph.D. thesis led to the Kogge-Stone adder used in many microprocessors. Other projects included EXECUBE - the world's first multi-core processor and first processor on a DRAM chip, the IBM 3838 Array processor which was for a time the fastest floating point machine marketed by IBM, and the IOP - the world's second multi-threaded parallel processor which flew on every Space Shuttle. In 2008, he led DARPA's Exascale technology study group, which resulted in a widely referenced report on technologies and architectures for exascale computing, and has had key roles on many other HPC programs. His startup, Emu Solutions, has demonstrated the first scalable system that utilizes mobile threads to attack large-scale big data and big graph problems.
Dr. Kogge has received the Daniel Slotnick best paper award (1994), the IEEE Seymour Cray award for high performance computer engineering (2012), the IEEE Charles Babbage award for contributions to the evolution of massively parallel processing architectures (2014), the IEEE Computer Pioneer award (2015), and the Gauss best paper award for high performance computers (2015).
Host: Viktor Prasanna, EEB 200, prasanna@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Big Data, Streaming Graphs, and the Need for Innovations in Architecture
Fri, Mar 03, 2017 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Peter Kogge, University of Notre Dame
Talk Title: Big Data, Streaming Graphs, and the Need for Innovations in Architecture
Abstract: This talk will start with some insights gleaned from looking at real-world big data problems and how they are affected by architecture. The Emu migrating thread architecture is then introduced and compared. A general template for integrated big graph batch and streaming analytic processing is developed, and key graph operations, especially streaming, listed. A discussion follows on how the Emu architecture meshes well with such a dual-mode computing template, with some specific emphasis on machine learning functions.
Biography: x
Host: Viktor Prasanna, EEB 200, prasanna@usc.edu
Location: 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar Series on Integrated Systems
Fri, Mar 03, 2017 @ 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Scott Powell, VP Engineering at Jariet Technologies
Talk Title: CMOS Digital Microwave
Host: Profs. Hossein Hashemi, Mike Chen, Dina El-Damak, and Mahta Moghaddam
More Information: MHI Seminar Series IS - Scott Powell.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jenny Lin
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems
Mon, Mar 06, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Aranya Chakrabortty, Associate Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Talk Title: Cyber-Physical Challenges for Wide-Area Control of Power Systems
Abstract: In this talk I will present a novel cyber-physical architecture for wide-area control of power systems using massive volumes of Synchrophasor data. The first half of the talk will focus on the computational aspects of the control design, where I will present several recent results on a new design approach called "control inversion". By this approach, very large-dimensional power system models can be projected conveniently into lower dimensional spaces by exploiting the inherent clustering properties of the network dynamics; then, a reduced-order controller is designed for this simple model, and, finally, this controller is projected back to the full-dimensional network for actual implementation. The method not only improves the tractability of the design, but also provides significant savings in the number of communication links needed for feedback. In the second half of the talk, I will shift my attention towards two of the most important challenges in data communication arising in wide-area control- namely, sensitivity to delays and data sparsification. Using the concepts of modal participation factors and relative gain arrays, I will propose a distributed communication architecture by which control centers can implement a sparse realization of wide-area controllers with very little loss in the overall response. I will also describe a co-design strategy by which one can spot the most important generators in the system for the purpose of oscillation damping after any disturbance in real-time, and, thereafter, prioritize the communication of states from these special generators to minimize the overall delay in the feedback path. I will present simulations to illustrate the pros and cons of such data prioritization, and their associated protocol designs. The talk will end with some final remarks about the resilience of these wide-area protocols against denial-of-service and data manipulation attacks.
The overall goal of the talk will be to pinpoint some of the most challenging CPS problems for today's grid where power engineers can largely benefit from collaborations with communication engineers, computer scientists, and numerical analysts. The content will highlight my recent works with PhD students Nan Xue and Abhishek Jain at NC State, as well as my work with Dr. Anuradha Annaswamy and her postdocs from MIT.
Biography: Aranya Chakrabortty received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in 2008. Following that he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington Seattle, for a year. From 2009 to 2010, he was an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University. Since 2010, Aranya has joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of North Carolina State University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research interests are in the general area of power system dynamics, modeling, stability, and control, with a special focus on wide-area monitoring and control using Synchrophasors. He is a senior member of IEEE, and currently serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2011.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminar
Thu, Mar 09, 2017 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hung-Wei Tseng, NC State University
Talk Title: Modernizing Storage Systems for Big Data Applications
Abstract: Existing high-speed non-volatile storage systems leverage entrenched system stack developed for magnetic hard disk drive, leading to suboptimal performance and under-utilized system resources. As data set sizes of applications keep increasing, using conventional system stack for modern storage devices becomes a new performance bottleneck. For example, a database system can spend 80% of time in just fetching data from the storage system, leaving precious computing resource idle at the same time.
To improve the performance of serving data from storage systems, we need to revisit the block-based storage interface designed for slower, magnetic disk drives. In this talk, Hung-Wei will share his experience in modernizing the hardware/software interface for storage systems and achieve performance gain in computer systems. Hung-Wei will introduce his research projects including: (1) HippogriffDB, a GPU-based database system that balances the huge gap between the throughputs of the GPU and the SSD. (2) Morpheus-SSD that utilizes computing resources inside storage devices to create more efficient applications. (3) KAML that modernizes the conventional block-based I/O with a keyvalue-like interface.
Biography: Hung-Wei is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NC State University where he is now leading the Extreme Storage & Computer Architecture Laboratory. Prior to joining NCSU, Hung-Wei was a postdoctoral scholar of the Non-volatile Systems Laboratory with Professor Steven Swanson and a lecturer of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, San Diego. His thesis work with Professor Dean Tullsen, data-triggered threads, was selected by IEEE Micro "Top Picks from Computer Architecture" in 2012.
Host: Murali Annavaram
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Viterbi Distinguished Lecture
Thu, Mar 09, 2017 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Peter Shor, MIT
Talk Title: Capacities for Quantum Communication Channels
Series: Viterbi Lecture
Abstract: In 1948, Shannon discovered his famous formula for the capacity of a communication channel. This formula does not apply, however, to channels with significant quantum effects. For quantum channels, the question of capacity is much more complicated, as there are different capacities for sending classical information and for sending quantum information. We will discuss the capacities of quantum channels, and survey the historical development of the subject.
Biography: Peter Shor received a B.S. in Mathematics from Caltech in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from M.I.T. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he took a job at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and stayed at AT&T until 2003. In 2003, he went to M.I.T., where he is the Morss Professor of Applied Mathematics.
Until 1994, he worked on algorithms for conventional computers and did research in probability and combinatorics. In 1994, after thinking about the problem on and off for nearly a year, he discovered an algorithm for factoring large integers into primes on a quantum computer (still hypothetical, but steadily becoming less so). Since then, he has mainly been investigating quantum computing and quantum information theory.
Among other awards, he has received the Nevanlinna Prize, the Goedel prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences.
Host: Professor Sandeep K. Gupta
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/547084462Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/547084462
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar Series on Integrated Systems
Fri, Mar 10, 2017 @ 02:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Timothy O. Dickson, Research Staff Member, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Breaking from Tradition: New Approaches in CMOS Wireline Transceivers for 28-56Gb/s Serial Links
Host: Profs. Hossein Hashemi, Mike Chen, Dina El-Damak, and Mahta Moghaddam
More Information: MHI Seminar Series IS - Timothy Dickson.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jenny Lin
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems
Mon, Mar 20, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Brian Munsky, Assistant Professor, Colorado State University
Talk Title: Identification of stochastic models to predict single-cell gene regulation dynamics
Abstract: Stochastic fluctuations can cause identical cells or individual molecules to exhibit wildly different behaviors. Often labeled "noise," these fluctuations are frequently considered a nuisance that compromises cellular responses, complicates modeling, makes predictive understanding and control all but impossible. However, if we computationally examine fluctuations more closely and carefully match them to discrete stochastic analyses, we discover virtually untapped, yet powerful sources of information and new opportunities. In this talk, I will present our collaborative endeavors to integrate single-cell and single-molecule experiments with precise stochastic analyses to gain new insight and quantitatively predictive understanding for signal-activated gene regulation. I will explain how we experimentally quantify transcription dynamics at high temporal and spatial resolutions; how we use precise computational analyses to model this data and efficiently infer biological mechanisms and parameters; how we predict and evaluate the extent to which model constraints (i.e., data) and uncertainty (i.e., model complexity) contribute to our understanding. We will examine how different data statistics (e.g., expectation values versus probability densities) contribute to model bias and uncertainty, and we will show how these affect predictive power. Finally, we will introduce a new approach to compute the Fisher Information Matrix, and we will illustrate its application for the improved design of single-cell experiments.
Biography: Dr. Munsky received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2008. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Munsky worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory -” as a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow (2008-2010), as a Richard P. Feynman Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Theory and Computing (2010-2013), and as a Staff Scientist (2013). In 2014, he joined the Colorado State University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the School of Biomedical Engineering, in which he is now an Assistant Professor. Dr. Munsky is best known for his discovery of Finite State Projection algorithm, which has enabled the efficient study of probability distribution dynamics for stochastic gene regulatory networks. Dr. Munsky's research interests are in the integration of discrete stochastic models with single-cell experiments to identify predictive models of gene regulatory systems. Dr. Munsky was the recipient of the 2008 UCSB Department of Mechanical Engineering best Ph.D. Dissertation award, the 2010 Leon Heller Postdoctoral Publication Prize, and the 2012 LANL Postdoc Distinguished Performance Award for his work in this topic. Dr. Munsky became a Keck Scholar in 2016. Dr. Munsky is the contact organizer of the internationally recognized, NIH-funded q-bio Summer School (q-bio.org), where he runs a course on single-cell stochastic gene regulation.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Improved Myocardial Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion Imaging
Tue, Mar 21, 2017 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hung Phi Do, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Improved Myocardial Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion Imaging
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: Coronary artery disease (CAD) affects more than 15.5 million Americans and causes approximately 310,000 deaths per year. Several different diagnostic tests are performed to diagnose and manage this disease. One of the most common is perfusion stress testing, primarily performed using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or first-pass cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). These methods require the use of ionizing radiation or exogenous contrast agents that carry associated risks to patients, especially those who require frequent assessment or have kidney dysfunction. Myocardial arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a promising MRI-based perfusion imaging method that can quantitatively measure myocardial tissue perfusion without the use of ionizing radiation or exogenous contrast agents. Its feasibility has been previously demonstrated by our lab, however several challenges remain, including low sensitivity, coarse spatial resolution, and limited spatial coverage. The contributions of this dissertation are (1) improving sensitivity, (2) exploring clinical applications, and (3) developing a new and advantageous labeling method for myocardial ASL.
Biography: Hung Phi Do is a Physics Ph.D. student working under the supervision of Prof. Nayak at the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Laboratory. His research focuses are MR physics and MR pulse sequence development for quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance. He received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2014, a Diploma in Physics from the International Center for Theoretical Physics in 2009, and a B.S. in Physics from the Hanoi National University of Education in 2007.
Host: Prof. Krishna Nayak
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - PHE223
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
MHI Seminar Series - Visitor Program
Tue, Mar 21, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Magnús Már Halldórsson, Professor at Reykjavik University's School of Computer Science
Talk Title: Algorithms and Models for the Capacity of Arbitrary Wireless Networks
Abstract: At the heart of wireless network operation is the fundamental question of their capacity: How much communication can be achieved in a network, utilizing all the tools and diversity available: power control, scheduling, routing, channel assignment and rate adjustment?
The obvious aims of obtaining general purpose algorithms to solve this question run into two (walls) challenges:
- How to model communication and interference faithfully, and
- How to reason algorithmically in the more accurate models, which are also more intricate and harder to analyze.
We overview recent progress in developing algorithms for capacity and scheduling in the physical (or SINR) model with good performance guarantees on arbitrary networks. In particular, we indicate how many of the complications of the physical models can be abstracted away, at a small cost in performance. We also outline various efforts to add additional realism to the models, while maintaining generality and algorithmic tractability. We conclude with open questions and challenges.
This is based on joint work with Tigran Tonoyan
Biography: Prof. Magnús Már Halldórsson from Reyjkjavik University in Iceland will visit USC in late March 2017. He is a leading expert in algorithms for distributed computing and wireless networks. He has been the Chair of top conferences in the area including PODC 2014 and ICALP 2015. In 2017 he is leading the organization a Dagstuhl conference on "Foundations of Wireless Networking" together with Profs. C. Fragouli (UCLA), K. Jamieson (Princeton) and B. Krishnamachari (USC).
Host: Bhaskar Krishnamachari
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cathy
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
MHI CommNetS
Wed, Mar 22, 2017 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Corey Baker, UC San Diego
Talk Title: When Disaster Strikes: Supplementing Centralized Infrastructure with Opportunistic Communication
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Reliance on Internet connectivity is detrimental where modern networking technology is lacking, power outages are frequent, or network connectivity is sparse or non-existent (i.e., developing countries, natural disasters, and in-field military scenarios). Realization of the limitations resulting from reliance on Internet and cellular connectivity were prevalent in Hurricane Matthew (2016), which killed over 1000 people and destroyed cellular infrastructure. As an alternative, deploying resilient networking technology can facilitate the flow of information in resource-deprived environments to disseminate life saving data. In addition, leveraging opportunistic communication can supplement cellular networks to assist with keeping communication channels open during high-use and extreme situations. This talk will discuss the progress of a research platform and middleware that enables opportunistic communication and in vivo evaluation of delay tolerant routing schemes when the Internet is interrupted or unavailable by leveraging node relationships to create a delay tolerant social network. The solutions discussed in this talk further include applications related to IoT, mobile healthcare, and smart city environments.
Biography: Corey E. Baker, Ph.D., is a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego and is mentored by Professor Ramesh Rao. Dr. Baker's research interests are in the area of cyber physical systems specializing in opportunistic wireless communication for the Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities, smart homes, and mobile health environments. Particularly, Dr. Baker is interested in pragmatic applications and the fundamental issues related to real-world resource availability in today's operating systems for opportunistic wireless communication. Dr. Baker received a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University, a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from California State University, Los Angeles, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida where he was advised by Professor Janise McNair. Corey has served on the board of directors of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) numerous times as a two term National Treasurer and CFO, two term National Treasurer Emeritus, and as the Region 6 Chairperson. Dr. Baker is currently a NSBE Region 6 Finance Zone Advisor. Formerly, Dr. Baker was the official blogger for GEM and blogged about topics to promote success amongst STEM graduate students which included securing graduate school funding, navigating Ph.D. programs, and publishing.
Host: Prof. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Neuro-Gastroenterologic Engineering
Wed, Mar 22, 2017 @ 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Todd P. Coleman, Associate Professor/UCSD
Talk Title: Neuro-Gastroenterologic Engineering
Abstract: The discoordination between the central and autonomic nervous systems is increasingly being identified as playing a key role in affecting neurological, psychiatric, and gastroenterologic problems; the causal role that the enteric nervous system may play in Parkinson's disease serves as an example. However, traditionally, the brain and GI system have been studied scientifically and treated clinically, separately. There is a dearth of approaches to use engineering perspectives to better measure, characterize, and provide actionable insight about the GI system as well as its interplay with the brain. In this talk, we will discuss our recent contributions to address this unmet need. Specifically, we will discuss our recent development of novel methods to assess the GI system with high-resolution multi-electrode surface potential recordings, an approach that non-invasively characterizes propagation velocity and propagation patterns consistent with gastric serosal slow wave myoelectric activity, which had not been accomplished until now. We will also highlight novel applied probability methods to interpret these classes of dynamic multi-channel physiologic datasets, including directed information graphs, a new class of probabilistic graphical models that provides minimal descriptions of causal relationships in multiple time series. To enable the recording of multiple physiologic time series simultaneously and unobtrusively, we will lastly discuss our development of multi-electrode arrays embedded within skin-mounted adhesives for ambulatory monitoring. We will highlight how all of these methods and technologies are being used within the context of neuro-gastroenterologic engineering and how there is transformational potential to improve health, reduce healthcare costs, and advance science.
Biography: Todd P. Coleman received B.S. degrees in electrical engineering (summa cum laude), as well as computer engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Michigan. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in electrical engineering, and did postdoctoral studies at MIT in neuroscience. He is currently an Associate Professor in Bioengineering at UCSD, where he directs the Neural Interaction Laboratory. Dr. Coleman's research has been featured on CNN, BBC, and the New York Times. Dr. Coleman has been selected as a National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lecturer and a TEDMED speaker.
Host: Dr. Sandeep Gupta
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar Series on Integrated Systems
Fri, Mar 24, 2017 @ 02:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Aydin Babakhani, Assistant Professor, Rice University
Talk Title: Silicon-based Integrated Sensors and Systems with On-chip Antennas From Picosecond Pulse Radiators to Miniaturized Spectrometers
Host: Profs. Hossein Hashemi, Mike Chen, Dina El-Damak, and Mahta Moghaddam
More Information: MHI Seminar Series IS - Aydin Babakhani.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jenny Lin
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems
Mon, Mar 27, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Massimo Franceschetti, Professor, University of California San Diego
Talk Title: The value of information in event triggering: can we beat the data-rate theorem?
Abstract: In networked control, data-rate theorems relate the amount of information that the feedback channel between estimator and controller must be able to supply to guarantee stability, to the amount of information requested by the plant. They represent a cornerstone of the theory of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and have been studied for more than a decade. On the other hand, the need to use distributed resources efficiently in CPS has led to event-triggering control techniques based on the idea of sending information in an opportunistic manner between the controller and the plant. After reviewing the basics of the data rate theorems, we illustrate how these are to be modified in the presence of an event-triggered implementation. The main observation is that the act of triggering reveals information about the system's state and can be exploited for stabilization, thus effectively invalidating "classic" formulations of the theorem. An extended formulation reveals a phase transition behavior of the transmission rate required for stabilization as a function of the communication delay. It is shown that for low values of the delay the timing information carried by the triggering events is large and the system can be stabilized with any positive rate. On the other hand, when the delay exceeds a certain threshold that depends on the given triggering strategy, the timing information alone is not enough to achieve stabilization and the rate must begin to grow, eventually becoming larger than what required by the classic data-rate theorem. The critical point where the transmission rate equals the one imposed by the data-rate theorem occurs when the delay equals the inverse of the entropy rate of the plant, representing the intrinsic rate at which the system generates information. At this critical point, the timing information supplied by event triggering is completely balanced by the information loss due to the communication delay.
Biography: Massimo Franceschetti received the Laurea degree (with highest honors) in computer engineering from the University of Naples, Naples, Italy, in 1997, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, in 1999, and 2003, respectively. He is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Before joining UCSD, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Berkeley for two years. He has held visiting positions at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, and the University of Trento. His research interests are in physical and information-based foundations of communication and control systems. He is co-author of the book "Random Networks for Communication" published by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Franceschetti served as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2009-2012) and for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems (2013-16) and as Guest Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (2008, 2009). He is currently serving as Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering. He was awarded the C. H. Wilts Prize in 2003 for best doctoral thesis in electrical engineering at Caltech, the S.A. Schelkunoff Award in 2005 for best paper in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2006, an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 2007, the IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2010, and the IEEE Control theory society Ruberti young researcher award in 2012.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
MHI CommNetS seminar
Wed, Mar 29, 2017 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Cédric Josz, Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture (LAAS CNRS)
Talk Title: Application of Polynomial Optimization to Electricity Transmission Networks
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Multivariate polynomial optimization where variables and data are complex numbers is a non-deterministic polynomial-time hard problem that arises in various applications such as electric power systems, signal processing, imaging science, automatic control, and quantum mechanics. Complex numbers are typically used to model oscillatory phenomena which are omnipresent in physical systems. We propose a complex moment/sum-of-squares hierarchy of semidefinite programs to find global solutions with reduced computational burden compared with the Lasserre hierarchy for real polynomial optimization. We apply the approach to large-scale sections of the European high-voltage electricity transmission grid. Thanks to an algorithm for exploiting sparsity, instances with several thousand variables and constraints can be solved to global optimality.
Biography: Cédric Josz is currently pursuing a postdoctoral project under the supervision of Jean Bernard Lasserre in the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture (LAAS CNRS) in Toulouse, France. His work is funded by a European Research Council Advanced Grant and deals with non-convexity in optimization. He received a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Paris VI in 2016 in collaboration with the French transmission system operator (Rte) and the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA).
Host: Prof. Rahul Jain
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
MHI CommNetS seminar
Wed, Mar 29, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Scott Moura, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Increasing Battery Potential: Estimation & Control of Electrochemical Models
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Batteries are ubiquitous. However, today's batteries are expensive, range-limited, power-restricted, die too quickly, and charge too slowly. Batteries are conservatively operated because their control systems treat the internal electrochemical dynamics as a black-box. Given real-time estimates of the electrochemical states, however, one can safely operate batteries near their physical limits, thus significantly enhancing performance beyond current state-of-art battery management systems. This talk reviews recent advancements in enhanced battery performance via estimation and control of PDE electrochemical models.
First, we review battery electrochemistry. Second, we discuss canonical state-of-charge (SOC), state-of-health (SOH), and other so-called SOx estimation algorithms. Third, we present recent theoretical results in state estimation and optimal control with PDE models. Finally, we close with exciting new opportunities for next-generation battery management systems.
Biography: Scott Moura is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of eCAL. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 2011, the M.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 2008, and the B.S. degree from the UC Berkeley, in 2006 - all in Mechanical Engineering. He was a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego in the Cymer Center for Control Systems and Dynamics, and a visiting researcher in the Centre Automatique et Systemes at MINES ParisTech in Paris, France. He is a recipient of the O. Hugo Shuck Best Paper Award, Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award, Hellman Faculty Fellows Award, UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, University of Michigan Distinguished ProQuest Dissertation Honorable Mention, University of Michigan Rackham Merit Fellowship, and Distinguished Leadership Award. He has received multiple conference best paper awards, as an advisor & student. His research interests include control & estimation theory for PDEs, optimization, machine learning, batteries, electric vehicles, and the smart grid.
Host: Prof. Insoon Yang
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Gianluca Lazzi - Thursday, March 30th at 10:30am in EEB 132
Thu, Mar 30, 2017 @ 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Gianluca Lazzi, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Utah
Talk Title: Bioelectromagnetics for Neuroimplants: from Wireless Power and Data Transfer to Direct Neurostimulation
Abstract: During the past decade, we have witnessed remarkable progress in neural implants, and more generally in the development of systems that interface with the human body for recording neural activity or vital signs or stimulating the neural system. The challenges toward the development of true biomimetic systems are daunting: nonetheless, electrical or magnetic systems that can partially restore neural functions or offer therapeutic solutions have recently shown tremendous progress and potential. Prospects for electroneural interfaces to further evolve and offer a viable solution to various disorders are high.
In this talk, we will utilize examples of electric and magnetic neurostimulators, such as the artificial retina to restore partial vision to the blind, cortical neurostimulators, and magnetic peripheral neurostimulators, to introduce advances in computational bioelectromagnetics and physical neurointerfaces that enabled the progress of neurostimulating and neurorecording systems, with particular emphasis on coil-based systems for wireless power and data transfer, direct magnetic neurostimulation, multiscale computational models and methods, and liquid metal based stretchable systems.
Biography: Gianluca Lazzi, PhD, MBA, is a USTAR Professor and the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Utah.
Gianluca is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the AIMBE. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the IEEE Wheeler Award, a R&D100 Award, a URSI Young Scientist Award, the BEMS "Curtis Carl Johnson Award," a NSF CAREER Award and a Whitaker Foundation Young Investigator Award. His research interests are in the fields of bioelectromagnetics, liquid metal electronics, antennas, wireless electromagnetics, and electric and magnetic neurostimulation. He has published over 200 papers in journals, conference proceedings, and books. Gianluca's research work has been featured in publications such as Forbes, the Economist, MSNBC, MIT Technology Review, and several others. Gianluca has been the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) from 2008 to 2013 of one of the leading journals in the field of antennas and propagation, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters (AWPL), which reached nearly 2,000 submissions in 2013 during his tenure - a growth of 400% in submissions. He serves or served IEEE in numerous other roles, including being the Chair of the IEEE Sensors Technical Achievement Award Committee (2011-2012), Chair of the IEEE Sensors Council Fellow Committee (2013-2015), Chair of Publications of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (2013-Present), a member of AdCom of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (2014-Present), and a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE (2011-Present). He was one of the speakers at a recent Grand Challenges in Life Science Symposium, held at the National Academies, which resulted in the position paper "Grand Challenges in Interfacing Engineering With Life Sciences and Medicine" published in IEEE TBME. He was the General Co-Chair of the 2014 IEEE Microwave Symposium on RF and Wireless Technologies for Biomedical Applications (London, UK).
In 2015, Dr. Lazzi cofounded the company Bend LLC with a private equity firm. Bend LLC is focused on the commercialization of liquid metal technology for sensor integration in athletic apparel and consumer electronics.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Munushian Speaker - Mark Horowitz, Friday, March 31st at 2:00pm in EEB 132
Fri, Mar 31, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mark Horowitz, Yahoo! Founders Professor at Stanford University
Talk Title: Innovation in a Post-Moore's Law World
Abstract: For the past half century the world has enjoyed the benefits of many innovations enabled by Moore's Law scaling of silicon technology. While Intel claims that scaling is still healthy, most other organization see issues today, and many more issues ahead. Regardless of whether it has started to happen already, it will eventually stop, and that point is that that far away.
This talk will quickly review the basics behind silicon scaling, the current power problem, and current approaches to continue Moore's Law after scaling slows (think 3-D and new technologies). I will then describe why I am not optimistic about any of the new technologies rescuing Moore's Law (though there has been some interesting progress on the quantum side), and why I think that computing will be CMOS based for the foreseeable future. The net effect, which already exists today, is that the value of electronic technology has moved from being technology driven to be application driven. In an application driven world, successful products include many "cupholders", small low cost additions that improve the user experience, so enabling them is essential.
The rest of the talk is my view of how the design process and the industry must adapt if it wants to continue to create high-value products. In application driven value scenarios, the technologies that win are those that have low development costs, since most ideas fail. This has profound ramifications for both how we design chips, and how we design systems using chips. In both areas we need to enable people to try to create new innovative hardware solutions and to do that requires create enough design scaffolding to enable the equivalents of Apple's IStore/Google Play for hardware design.
Biography: Mark Horowitz is the Yahoo! Founders Professor at Stanford University and was chair of the Electrical Engineering Department from 2008 to 2012. He co-founded Rambus, Inc. in 1990 and is a fellow of the IEEE and the ACM and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Science. Dr. Horowitz's research interests are quite broad and span using EE and CS analysis methods to problems in molecular biology to creating new design methodologies for analog and digital VLSI circuits.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
