Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for October
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Spatial Power Combining Techniques for Microwave and mm-Wave PAs - Integrated Systems Seminar
Fri, Oct 03, 2008 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Seminar by Dr. Michael DeLisio, CTO, Wavestream CorporationApplications of solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs) have been limited by the amount of power an individual MMIC amplifier can provide. One way to overcome this limitation is to combine the outputs of several solid-state amplifier chips together. Traditional solid-state amplifier approaches use binary combining of many solid-state MMICs, often resulting in heavy, inefficient, and expensive equipment whenever single-chip capabilities are greatly exceeded. Another approach is to spatially combine the outputs of several chips within a single-mode waveguide. Spatial power combining has very low combining losses, reducing the size, weight, DC power draw, and cost of reaching the target output power. This talk will discuss the two approaches to spatial power combining have recently been used to develop waveguide-based solid-state power amplifiers. The Grid Amplifier, which operates at mm-wave frequencies, uses a single output stage chip patterned with an array or grid of transistor pairs. The Deck Amplifier, which operates at microwave frequencies, stacks up cards containing traditional MMIC amplifier chips for spatial combining. Both achieve high power density and high efficiency without compromising ease of manufacture.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Hossein Hashemi
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. -
Working in Big Companies, Small Companies, and Academia
Fri, Oct 10, 2008 @ 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKERS: Profs. Michelle Povinelli and Robert ScholtzWebsite: http://ee.usc.edu/news/practical-guide/* Pizza will be provided by the EE Department.*Abstract: This free-form discussion with a new junior faculty member and
an (old) senior faculty member will give you ample time to ask those
questions that have been nagging you about career choices, doing
research, and anything else that comes to mind! And find out about the
engineer who became a President and what he thought of his profession.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
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. -
The Natural Mathematics that Arises in Investment and Information Theory
Thu, Oct 16, 2008 @ 02:15 PM - 03:20 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Distinguished Lecturer SeriesDistinguished Lecture by: Dr. Thomas Cover - Stanford UniversityABSTRACT:
Optimizing the growth rate of investment is considered a controversial investment goal, perhaps because it is an asymptotic criterion or perhaps because its implementation requires maximizing the expected logarithm of wealth and its implicit suggestion of log utility. Whatever the reason, we shall reverse the argument by focusing on the natural mathematics of the solution rather than the appropriateness of the question. Maybe graceful mathematics is an indication of the right approach.We find that growth optimality is characterized by expected ratio optimality, by competitive one-shot optimality, by Martingale processes and an associated asymptotic equipartition theorem. It also yields Black Scholes option pricing as a special case and leads naturally to so called universal portfolios that perform as well to first order in the exponent as the best constant rebalanced portfolio in hindsight. Finally we will relate the quantities arising in investment to their counterpart quantities in information theory.BIO:
Thomas Cover, the K.T. Li Professor of Engineering at Stanford, does research in information theory, communication theory and statistics, and is the coauthor of the textbook, Elements of Information Theory. He was Lab Director of the Information Systems Laboratory in Electrical Engineering from 1989 to 1996. He has been the contract statistician for the California State Lottery and a consultant to AT&T Laboratories and IBM. He received the 1990 Claude E. Shannon Award in information theory and has also received the IEEE Neural Network Council's Pioneer Award in 1993 for his work on the capacity of neural nets. He received the 1997 IEEE Richard M. Hamming medal for contributions to information, communication theory and statistics and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently working on network information theory and the interplay between information theory and investment.Lecture:
SAL 101, 2:15PMReception:
SAL Lobby, 3:30PMLocation: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
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. -
Integrated Systems Seminar Series - Dr. Ronald Pogorzelski, JPL
Fri, Oct 17, 2008 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Coupled Oscillator Based Transmitters and Receivers: Theory and Experiment at JPLFor roughly ten years the Spacecraft Antenna Research Group at JPL has been developing and studying phased array antennas based on a concept of phase control introduced by Professor Robert A. York and his students at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In York's concept, a set of voltage controlled oscillators are coupled with their nearest neighbors in an array and are thus induced to mutually injection lock and oscillate as an ensemble. What York, et al. noted is that in such an ensemble, if one detunes the perimeter oscillators away from the ensemble frequency, one can induce linear phase progressions in the oscillator output signals. Thus, if these signals are used to excite the elements of a phased array antenna, beam agility is achieved. Since in these antennas, the signal sources for the transmit function and the local oscillators and mixers for the receive function are distributed over, and integrated with, the antenna aperture, we have termed these devices "agile beam transmitters and receivers." The JPL work has been both theoretical and experimental. The theoretical work began with a collaboration with the York group in developing a "continuum model" of such oscillator arrays. This model revealed that the dynamic behavior of the phase distribution behaves as a diffusion process. The theory was applied to linear and planar array geometries and to Cartesian, triangular, and hexagonal coupling topologies. The linear and Cartesian arrays were also studied experimentally. Most recently, coupling delay was built into the theoretical treatment resulting in some fascinating Laplace transformations leading to a simple prediction of the impact of such delays on the array dynamics. This presentation will review the development work over the past ten years both theoretical and experimental ending with the most recent work on coupling delays.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Hossein Hashemi
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. -
Integrated Systems Seminar Series - Dr. Sudhakar Pamarti, UCLA
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
"Signal Processing Techniques for the Analog Circuit Designer" - a talk by Dr. Sudhakar Pamarti, Assistant Professor, UCLA
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Hossein Hashemi
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.
