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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for December
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Real-Time Brain-Machine Interface Architectures: Neural Decoding from Plan to Movement
Thu, Dec 01, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Maryam M. Shanechi, Harvard Medical School, MIT EECS, Massachusetts General Hospital
Talk Title: Real-Time Brain-Machine Interface Architectures: Neural Decoding from Plan to Movement
Abstract: Developing brain-machine interfaces (BMI) that aim to enable motor function in patients with movement disabilities is an active area of research in computational neuroscience and neuroengineering. BMIs work by recording the neural activity, mapping or decoding it into a motor command, and then controlling a device such as a robotic arm. Research in this area has largely focused on the problem of restoring the original motor function. However, performance of such BMIs needs to be significantly improved before they become clinically viable. Moreover, while developing high-performance BMIs with the goal of matching the original motor function is indeed valuable, a compelling goal is that of designing BMIs that can surpass original motor function. In this work, I first develop a novel real-time BMI for restoration of natural motor function and then introduce a BMI architecture aimed at enhancing original motor function. I demonstrate the successful implementation of both these designs in rhesus monkeys.
To facilitate the restoration of lost motor function, I develop a two-stage decoder to decode jointly the target and trajectory of a reaching movement.
First, the decoder predicts the intended target from the spiking activity prior to movement. Second, it combines the decoded target with the spiking activity during movement to estimate the trajectory. The second stage uses an optimal feedback-control design that emulates the sensorimotor processing underlying actual motor control and directly processes the spiking activity using point process modeling in real time. I show that the two stages of the BMI result in a significantly more robust and accurate estimation of movement than is possible by using either stage alone or by using common regression approaches.
To enable enhancement of the original motor function, I introduce a real-time concurrent BMI architecture for performing complex tasks that involve a sequence of planned movements. In contrast to a traditional BMI, in this architecture, the BMI decodes all the elements of the sequential motor plan concurrently from working memory prior to movement. This in turn allows the BMI to analyze the complete sequence before action and find potential ways to perform the task more effectively, such as more quickly, than is possible by natural movement. I demonstrate the feasibility of such a concurrent architecture and that indeed sequential motor plans can be decoded simultaneously, accurately, robustly, and in advance of movement.
Biography: Maryam M. Shanechi received the B.A.Sc. degree with honors in
Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2004 and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2006 and 2011, respectively. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow with joint appointments at Harvard Medical School, MIT EECS, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research interests are at the interface of computational neuroscience, statistical signal processing, and
information and control theories. She has received various awards for academic achievement including the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) gold medal and the Wilson Medal. She is the recipient of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) doctoral fellowship and the Hewlett-Packard (HP) doctoral scholarship.
Host: Alice C. Parker
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. -
Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Dec 02, 2011 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Reid Harrison, Intan Technologies, LLC
Talk Title: Designing Low-Power Integrated Circuits for Neural Sensing Applications
Host: Hossein Hashemi
More Information: Seminar_Speaker_Harrison_2011_12_2.pdf
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. -
When Information Technology, Music and Medicine Converge
Mon, Dec 05, 2011 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ye Wang, Ph.D., Computer Science Department, National University of Singapore (NUS)
Talk Title: When Information Technology, Music and Medicine Converge
Abstract: With the continuing advances in the Internet technology, there has been abundant music (e.g., from YouTube, iTune etc.) available to ordinary users. How to organize/categorize music to enable effective search or recommendation for healthcare applications becomes an important research problem. We are particularly interested in music information retrieval (MIR) and Sound and Music Computing (SMC) technologies which can make the traditionally expensive music therapy (MT) affordable for patients with limited resources to cope with chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s and stroke. In this talk, I will introduce a few computer supported music therapy (CSMT) projects at National University of Singapore, followed by live demos and a discussion of possible research collaborations, available PhD scholarships and research positions.
Biography: Ye Wang is a tenured Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He established and directed the Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Lab at NUS School of Computing. Before joining NUS he was a Member of the Technical Staff at Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland for 9 years. His research interests are in the area of Mobile Computing, and Sound and Music Computing (SMC), in particular Sound Analysis and Music Information Retrieval (MIR). He is especially interested in developing novel applications/systems for music edutainment and e-Health, as well as determining their effectiveness via subjective and objective evaluations. His most recent research involves the design and evaluation of systems to support 1) therapeutic gait training using rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS), and 2) ear training and singing practice via meaningful feedbacks. In the current academic year he is having his sabbatical leave at the School of Computer Science, Fudan University (17th October 2011 – 16th January, 2012), and at Harvard Medical School (1st February – 31st July 2012).
Host: Prof. C.-C. Jay Kuo
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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. -
Ph.D. Defense
Tue, Dec 20, 2011 @ 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Joshua Train, Computer Engineering
Talk Title: Routing Fountains: Leveraging Broadcast Channels to Improve The Dissemination of Control Information For Large Inter-Domain Networks
Abstract: The utility of a large inter-domain network depends on neighboring networks exchanging routing control information and using that information to compute next-hop forwarding decisions. While this approach of hop-by-hop information dissemination has proven very useful for the incremental expansion of the Internet, it is limited in providing the necessary performance to accommodate for future network growth, mobility, and security.
To address these challenges, we present a novel architecture that leverages broadcast channels for disseminating routing information. The key components of our architecture are devices called `Routing Fountains’ that perform the task of collecting routing information from each of the participant networks and then simultaneously redistributing this information back to the greater set of networks through a wide area broadcast channel, like a satellite downlink. By complementing existing routing infrastructures with Routing Fountains, we augment the route distribution graph in a way that: 1.) Drastically reduces the number of transmissions needed to communicate routing updates, 2.) Provides synchronization to the route distribution process, and 3.) Facilitates the validation of routing data. Our architecture is designed to augment and therefore coexist with current routing infrastructures so that incremental performance gains can be achieved without disruption to existing infrastructures.
Utilizing a broadcast based architecture provides compelling opportunities to improve the performance of today’s inter-domain routing architectures. To demonstrate the utility of this approach we have applied it to the following three inter-domain routing tasks: 1.) Distributing routing updates across the entire Internet topology, 2.) Facilitating minimal loss network transitions for mobile networks while maintaining shortest path connectivity, and 3.) Protecting against the distribution of fictitious routing information. The results from our Internet graph and routing traffic analysis, simulations, and testbed prototypes demonstrate that utilizing broadcast channels has remarkable value in improving the performance and robustness of existing route distribution infrastructures, even when only a subset of the larger network is actively receiving the broadcasted information.
Biography: Josh Train received a M.S. (2002) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Biola University in 2001. He is currently employed by The Aerospace Corporation and leads a team of researchers investigating topics including network modeling, satellite networking, networking security, and high speed data processing.
Host: Prof Raghu Raghavendra (Chair)
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Janice Thompson
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.
