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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for January
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EE Seminar
Thu, Jan 03, 2019 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Anup Basu, PhD, Professor, University of Alberta
Talk Title: Perceptually Motivated Multimedia
Abstract: In this talk we will discuss how biological motivation can help develop better and more robust image processing and computer vision algorithms. More specifically we will outline multi-camera motion estimation, active camera calibration, foveated image/video/3D compression, and the role of spatially varying sensing in 3D perception and depth reconstruction. We will also try to draw similarities between these algorithms and biological processing and understanding of images. We will also briefly discuss some of the recent research in our lab in medical imaging, surgical planning and other application areas.
Biography: Anup Basu received his Ph.D. in CS from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He o/riginated the use of foveation for image, video, stereo and graphics communication in the early 1990s; an approach that is now widely used in industrial standards. He also developed the first robust (correspondence free) 3D motion estimation algorithm using multiple cameras, a robust (and the first correspondence free) active camera calibration method, a single camera panoramic stereo, and several new approaches merging foveation and stereo with application to 3D TV visualization and better depth estimation. His current research applications include 3D/4D Image Processing and Visualization especially for medical applications, Multimedia in Education and Games, and Wireless 3D Multimedia transmission. He has been a Professor in the CS Department at University of Alberta since July 1999. He has also been a Visiting Professor, at University of California, Riverside; Guest Professor, at Technical University of Austria, Graz; Director, Hewlett-Packard Imaging Systems Instructional Lab.; Visiting Prof. in INSA, Lyon and Telecomm Paris; and an NSERC-AITF Research Chair.
Host: Jay Kuo
More Information: Basu Seminar Announcement.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gloria Halfacre
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Processing Data Where It Makes Sense In Modern Computing Systems: Enabling In-Memory Computation
Thu, Jan 10, 2019 @ 03:45 PM - 05:45 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Onur Mutlu, ETH Zurich, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Processing Data Where It Makes Sense In Modern Computing Systems: Enabling In-Memory Computation
Abstract: Today's systems are overwhelmingly designed to move data to computation. This design choice goes directly against at least three key trends in systems that cause performance, scalability and energy bottlenecks: 1) data access from memory is already a key bottleneck as applications become more data-intensive and memory bandwidth and energy do not scale well, 2) energy consumption is a key constraint in especially mobile and server systems, 3) data movement is very expensive in terms of bandwidth, energy and latency, much more so than computation. These trends are especially severely-felt in the data-intensive server and energy-constrained mobile systems of today.
At the same time, conventional memory technology is facing many scaling challenges in terms of reliability, energy, and performance. As a result, memory system architects are open to organizing memory in different ways and making it more intelligent, at the expense of slightly higher cost. The emergence of 3D-stacked memory plus logic as well as the adoption of error correcting codes inside the latest DRAM chips are an evidence of this trend.
In this talk, I will discuss some recent research that aims to practically enable computation close to data. After motivating trends in applications as well as technology, we will discuss at least two
promising directions: 1) performing massively-parallel bulk operations in memory by exploiting the analog operational properties of DRAM, with low-cost changes, 2) exploiting the logic layer in 3D-stacked memory technology in various ways to accelerate important data-intensive applications. In both approaches, we will discuss relevant cross-layer research, design, and adoption challenges in devices, architecture, systems, applications, and programming models. Our focus will be the development of in-memory processing designs that can be adopted in real computing platforms and real data-intensive applications, spanning machine learning, graph processing and genome analysis, at low cost. If time permits, we will also discuss and describe simulation and evaluation infrastructures that can enable exciting and forward-looking research in future memory systems, including Ramulator and SoftMC.
Biography: Onur Mutlu is a Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich. He is also a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, where he previously held Strecker Early Career Professorship. His current broader research interests are in computer architecture, systems, and bioinformatics. A variety of techniques he, along with his group and collaborators, has invented over the years have influenced industry and have been employed in commercial microprocessors and memory/storage systems. He obtained his PhD and MS in ECE from the University of Texas at Austin and BS degrees in Computer Engineering and Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He started the Computer Architecture Group at Microsoft Research (2006-2009), and held various product and research positions at Intel Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices, VMware, and Google. He received the inaugural IEEE Computer Society Young Computer Architect Award, the inaugural Intel Early Career Faculty Award, US National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Carnegie Mellon University Ladd Research Award, faculty partnership awards from various companies, and a healthy number of best paper or "Top Pick" paper recognitions at various computer systems, architecture, and hardware security venues. He is an ACM Fellow "for contributions to computer architecture research,
especially in memory systems", IEEE Fellow for "contributions to computer architecture research and practice", and an elected member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea). For more information, please see his webpage at https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/.
Host: Xuehai Qian, xuehai.qian@usc.edu
More Information: 19.01.10 Onur Mutlu_CENG Seminar.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Brienne Moore
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PhD Defense
Fri, Jan 11, 2019 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yijia Ma , Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Chemical Recycling of Amine/Epoxy Composites at Atmospheric Pressure
Abstract: Because of the increasing demand for lightweight structures in aerospace, automotive, and wind energy industries, the global market size for carbon fiber polymer composites is anticipated to reach $ 35 billion by 2020. Carbon fibers from end-of-life composites retain properties nearly equivalent to virgin fibers, yet few are recovered and/or reused due to a lack of viable recycling technologies. This absence of recovery/recycling is especially true for thermoset composites that undergo irreversible cure reactions. At the present juncture, composite recyclability is essential to the sustainability of the growing composite industry. Without a robust and effective method to recycle composites and complete the material life-cycle, these materials will not be able to compete with steel and aluminum in mass market applications, for which recycling rates are already high.
The objective of my research is to develop an effective chemical recycling method for cleavage of polymer matrices using moderate conditions (atmospheric pressure and moderate temperature) and safe chemicals that can recover near-virgin quality fibers and potentially useful polymer components. These features are critical to practical, large-scale composite recycling, but have not been reported to date. My investigation focuses on amine-cured epoxies, which is the most widely used polymer matrix in high-performance composites.
Findings indicated that acid digestion was an effective dissolution process for highly crosslinked amine/epoxy composites. Near-virgin quality carbon fibers in the original fabric form were recovered after digestion. The reaction mechanism for acid digestion was identified, and target catalysts were evaluated to accelerate the reaction rate. Furthermore, a parametric study that investigated the relationship between composite properties and matrix dissolution rate was performed, and key parameters affecting the dissolution rate were identified. Data showed that the major rate-limiting factor for acid digestion was the diffusion rate, rather than the chemical reaction rate. Two strategies to enhance the diffusion rate -“ pre-treatment and mechanical shredding -“ were evaluated, and both were effective. Lastly, I recovered the decomposed matrix residues from chemical solutions after acid digestion and demonstrated routes for reusing the matrix residues in virgin resin formulations, effectively closing the recycling loop.
Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family
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W.V.T. Rusch Honors Colloquium
Fri, Jan 11, 2019 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: James Moore, Professor USC Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Price School of Public Policy
Talk Title: LA Metropolitan Transportation Authority Budget Follies: How to Spend Billions and Reduce Transit Use
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Monica De Los Santos
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Nature and Infrastructure Harmony – Reliable methods, resilient systems, and sustainable designs under extreme hazard events: Seismic Hazards
Fri, Jan 11, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chukwuebuka C. Nweke, Ph.D., UCLA
Talk Title: Nature and Infrastructure Harmony -“ Reliable methods, resilient systems, and sustainable designs under extreme hazard events: Seismic Hazards
Abstract:
Natural hazards expose vulnerabilities in current civil infrastructure. This has been demonstrated over the years by earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, and tsunamis. The aftermath of seismic events in particular have been catastrophic in terms of socio-economic cost as evidenced by the 2010 -“ 2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, the September 2018 earthquake event that decimated Palu, Indonesia, and many other occurences. Potential solutions may exist at the intersection of Reliable, Resilient, and Sustainable (RRnS) engineering that may facilitate the development of a new generation of infrastructure that embraces rather than combats with nature and its uncertainties. Traditional design standards focus on life safety, but performance-based standards are being adopted, albeit slowly. Still, these performance-based engineering methods often utilize an ergodic (global) approach in contrast to a non-ergodic (site-specific) approach, potentially leading to systems with limited resilience and large uncertainties in design demand and capacity. My research efforts aim to investigate innovative means to characterize hazard demands and capacity through constitutive and empirical modeling, as well as provide adaptable (bio-inspired) solutions to improve infrastructure performance.
Host: Dr. Lucio Soibelman
Location: Ray R. Irani Hall (RRI) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Salina Palacios
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Fall 2018 Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Mon, Jan 14, 2019 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dominique Duncan, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Analytic tools for identifying biomarkers of epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury using multi-modal data and virtual reality to correct segmentation errors in MRI
Abstract: The first part of my talk focuses on identifying biomarkers that can predict epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury (TBI). This project, The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBioS4Rx), is a multi-site, international collaboration including a parallel study of humans and an animal model, collecting MRI, EEG, and blood samples. The development of epilepsy after TBI is a multifactorial process and crosses multiple modalities. Without a full understanding of the underlying biological effects, there are currently no cures for epilepsy. This study hopes to address both issues, calling upon data generated and collected at sites spread worldwide among different laboratories, clinical sites, in different formats, and across multicenter preclinical trials. Before these data can even be analyzed, a central platform is needed to standardize these data and provide tools for searching, viewing, annotating, and analyzing them. We have built a centralized data archive that will allow the broader research community to access these shared data in addition to analytic tools to identify and validate biomarkers of epileptogenesis in images and electrophysiology as well as in molecular, serological, and tissue studies.
The second part of this talk focuses on crowdsourcing manual validation of algorithmically-segmented brain volumes using virtual reality. One of our imaging workflow processes involves algorithmic segmentation of the scans into labeled anatomical regions using FreeSurfer software. Since this automation cannot yet achieve perfect accuracy, we are working on transforming the way this is accomplished using VR technology to deal with the volumes directly in 3D space, which has been shown to be more efficient and intuitive.
Biography: Dominique Duncan is an assistant professor of Neurology at the USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute in the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI). She began working at LONI in 2015 as a postdoctoral scholar with Dr. Arthur Toga. Dr. Duncan's background spans mathematics, engineering, and neuroscience. She double majored in Mathematics and Polish Literature as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and minored in Computational Neuroscience. She earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering at Yale University. In her PhD thesis, she analyzed intracranial EEG data using nonlinear factor analysis to identify preseizure states of epilepsy patients. After graduation, she was a professor of Mathematics at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China for a summer program where she taught Calculus 2, Calculus 3, and Linear Algebra to undergraduate students. She then took a postdoctoral position in Neurology at the Stanford University School of Medicine as well as one in Mathematics at UC Davis, where she developed an algorithm based on diffusion maps to classify Alzheimer's patients using MRI. Her current projects include combining machine learning and crowdsourcing segmentation error corrections in neuroimaging data using virtual reality, developing analytic tools to identify biomarkers of epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury, and building a multi-modal data repository for human invasive recordings.
Host: Mihailo Jovanovic, mihailo@usc.edu
More Info: http://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2019Spring/duncan.html
More Information: 19.01.14 Dominique Duncan CSCUSC Seminar.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Brienne Moore
Event Link: http://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2019Spring/duncan.html
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Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar - Distinguished Lecture Series
Tue, Jan 15, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Susannah Scott, Department of Chemical Engineering , University of California - Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Modeling active sites in heterogeneous catalysts for olefin polymerization and metathesis
Abstract: Kinetic analysis and in situ spectroscopic methods have long been used to characterize catalysts, and are essential to our understanding of how these materials behave under reaction conditions. Recent explorations of simple and complex oxides as heterogeneous catalysts using a combination of unconventional non-isothermal kinetic methods and operando spectroscopies have revealed that active sites respond rapidly to variations in the redox environment. In particular, IR spectroscopy of adsorbed CO and X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Pd K-edge were used to obtain complementary information about surface and the sub-surface states in PdOx nanoparticles during lean CO oxidation for three distinct activity regimes: low, intermediate and high conversion. A change in the oxidation state of surface Pd atoms coincides with a first-order kinetic phase transition associated with light-off and extinction. These findings inspired the redesign of simple oxide catalysts as complex oxides to stabilize the most active phase.
Host: Dr. Sharada
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Jan 15, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Hosam Mahmoud, The George Washington University
Talk Title: Node Degrees in a Random Network
Host: ISE Department
More Information: January 15, 2019.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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AME Seminar
Wed, Jan 16, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Maziar Hemati, University of Minnesota
Talk Title: Flow control a la mode
Abstract: Biological flyers and swimmers have a great capacity for interacting with their fluid environments. This ability is demonstrated through the agility, efficiency, and environmental awareness exhibited by numerous creatures, including birds, fish, and insects. While human-engineered systems have benefited from biological inspiration, the performance gains realized have often fallen short of their full potential. A primary limitation to attaining further improvement has been a scarcity of reliable low-dimensional fluid dynamics models, which are often needed (1) to determine the state of a complex flow from available on-board sensors (i.e., flow sensing), and (2) to exploit that knowledge to determine and execute a best course of action for achieving a desired objective (i.e., feedback control). In this talk, we will consider modal decomposition strategies aimed at obtaining low-dimensional dynamical systems models from empirical data. In particular, we will present recent advances in techniques tailored to extract descriptive insights and predictive models from large, streaming, and noisy datasets. The second half of the talk will present a dynamic mode shaping perspective for feedback flow control synthesis. The perspective will be used to highlight a fundamental performance limitation inherent to standard observer-based control structures, suggesting that flow reconstruction from sensor measurements may be inadvisable in some flow control applications.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
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Control-System Interactions in Cyber-Physical Infrastructures
Wed, Jan 16, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sandip Roy , School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University
Talk Title: Control-System Interactions in Cyber-Physical Infrastructures
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Cyber- technologies are enabling a new paradigm for control in modern infrastructure networks, centered around client-catered and mission-adaptive decision-making. While this new paradigm holds remarkable promise, it also brings forth fundamental new challenges in infrastructure controls engineering, including growing democratization of control authority, increasing vulnerability to cyber attacks and failures, dependence on ad hoc sensing, and concern about system-wide cascading events. In this talk, the new paradigm and attendant challenges in infrastructure-network control are illustrated in two very different application domains: deployment of new wide-area controls to damp oscillations in the bulk power grid, and management of emergent antibiotic-resistant emergent infections at multiple scales. Then, a research program for assessing and designing infrastructure controls is envisioned, which is based on understanding interactions among control systems in dynamical networks. Specifically, four directions of work are overviewed: 1) input-output (channel) analysis for dynamical networks, 2) control-channel interaction assessment, 3) channel-preserving model reduction, and 4) ad hoc sensing-based control. Preliminary theoretical results and contributions to several application domains, including the two motivating applications, are presented.
Biography: Sandip Roy is a Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University. His research is concerned with developing techniques for the estimation and control of network dynamics, and applying these techniques to support the wide-area management of cyber-physical infrastructures. This research has yielded algorithms and decision-support software that are being prototyped in the United States air traffic management system and the Western U.S. power grid. Recently, he has been also interested in developing network-controls techniques for epidemiological and neuroscience applications. The outcomes of the research are described in about 70 journal papers and 130 conference papers across multiple disciplines.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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CAIS Seminar: Kobi Gal (Ben-Gurion University) - Supporting Interactions in Online Groups: A New Challenge for AI
Wed, Jan 16, 2019 @ 04:15 PM - 05:15 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Kobi Gal, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Harvard University
Talk Title: Supporting Interactions in Online Groups: A New Challenge for AI
Series: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series
Abstract: Advances in network technologies and interface design are enabling group activities of varying complexities to be carried out, in whole or in part, over the internet (e.g., citizen science, Massive Online Open Courses [MOOC] and questions-and-answers sites). The need to support these highly diverse interactions brings new and significant challenges to AI: how to design efficient representations for describing online group interactions, how to provide incentives that keep participants motivated and productive, and how to provide useful, non-intrusive information to system designers to help them decide whether and how to intervene with the group's work. Dr. Gal will describe two ongoing projects that address these challenges in the wild, and discuss the potential societal and ethical implications of this work.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Dr. Ya'akov (Kobi) Gal is a faculty member of the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and an associate of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. His work investigates representations and algorithms for making decisions in heterogeneous groups comprising both people and computational agents. He has worked on combining artificial intelligence algorithms with educational technology towards supporting students in their learning and teachers to understand how students learn. He has published over 60 papers in highly refereed venues on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to the learning and cognitive sciences.
Host: Milind Tambe
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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CS Colloquium: Zhou Yu (UC Davis) - Grounding Reinforcement Learning with Real-World Dialog Applications
Thu, Jan 17, 2019 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Zhou Yu, UC Davis
Talk Title: Grounding Reinforcement Learning with Real-World Dialog Applications
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Recently with the wide-spread of conversational devices, more and more people started to realize the importance of dialog research. However, some of them are still living in a simulated world, using simulated data such as Facebook bAbl. In this talk, we emphasize that dialog research needs to be grounded with the users' real need. We introduce three user-centered task-oriented dialog systems that are trained by reinforcement learning algorithms. The first system is a dialog systems that utilized reinforcement learning to interleave social conversation and task conversation to promote movies more effectively. The second system is a sentiment adaptive bus information search system. It uses
sentiment as immediate reward to help the end-to-end RL dialog
framework to converge faster and better. The trained dialog policy will also have a user friendly effect. It would adapt to user's sentiment when choosing dialog action templates. For example, the policy will pick template that provides more detailed instructions when user is being negative. This is extremely useful for customer service dialog systems where users frequently get angry. The third system is a task-oriented visual dialog systems. It uses a hierarchical reinforcement learning to track multimodal dialog states
and decide among sub tasks of whether to ask more information or just give an answer. Such system can complete the task more successfully and effectively. We are conducting a further experiment to deploy the system as a shopping assistant.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Zhou is an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department in UC Davis. She received her PhD in the Language Technology Institute under School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. She was recently featured in Forbes as 2018 30 under 30 in Science. Her team won Amazon Alexa Prize 2018 with $500,000 award. (https://developer.amazon.com/alexaprize) She as also received research awards and gifts from various companies, such as Intel, Tencent, Cisco and Bosh.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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W.V.T. RUSCH ENGINEERING HONORS COLLOQUIUM
Fri, Jan 18, 2019 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. George Becker, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UC Riverside
Talk Title: A Quick Tour Through Deep Space
Host: EHP and Dr. Prata
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda McCraven
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PhD Defense
Tue, Jan 22, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Zhuofan Shi , PhD Candidate, Chemical Engineering
Talk Title: The Study of CO2 Mass Transfer in Brine and in Brine-Saturated Mt. Simon Sandstone and the CO2/Brine Induced Evolution of its Transport and Mechanical Properties
Abstract: Emissions of greenhouse gases are thought to contribute to global warming. Geological carbon sequestration (GCS) is currently considered a promising method to mitigate atmospheric CO2 and, thus, to potentially minimize climate change. In this approach, CO2 is injected into the subsurface and is trapped there by three main mechanisms, namely physical trapping, dissolution, and mineral precipitation.
The present work focuses on two important aspects of GCS. First, we study mass transfer and sorption phenomena in brine, which are the key two processes occurring during CO2 dissolution trapping in GCS. We employ pressure-decay experiments to measure CO2 solubility, and mass transfer in water/brine systems at elevated pressures of relevance to CO2 storage operations in saline aquifers together with modeling to delineate and interpret the experimental data. Accurate measurements and modeling of mass transfer in this context are crucial to an improved understanding of the long-term fate of CO2 that is injected into the subsurface for storage purposes. We demonstrate that simple 1-D interpretations based on diffusional transport alone can result in an overestimation of the uptake (diffusivity) by two orders of magnitude. The high-resolution 2-D numerical calculations, on the other hand, agree well with the experimental observations for conditions where natural convection contributes substantially to the overall mass transfer process.
We also study, in addition, rock-fluid interactions and their impact on the transport and mechanical properties of the host rock, which are phenomena relevant to CO2 mineral trapping during GCS. Specifically, the present study investigates the change in the flow-through characteristics, porosity, and the mechanical behavior of Mt. Simon Sandstone samples caused by exposure to brine/CO2. Our experiments show that the porosity of the Mt. Simon samples slightly increases after exposure to CO2/brine, while the permeability increases more substantially (depending on the confining pressure environment). Measurements of the flow-through pore size distribution (PSD) are indicative of significant changes occurring, consistent with the observed increases in permeability. Nitrogen adsorption tests (BET), before and after aging, show a significant loss of pore volume in the mesopore range that is indicative of clay dissolution. Weakening of the materials was observed based on the mechanical properties studied, a result that is consistent with the observed dissolution of clays that play a central role in the cementation of the quartz grains. Finally, the analysis of the brine compositions employed in the aging experiments reveals an increase in the concentration of most cations after incubation with the Mt. Simon cores. This is also consistent with mineral/clay dissolution, confirmed by the porosity, transport, and mechanical property measurements as well as electron microscopy analysis of the same samples.
Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 303
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Jan 22, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Dorit Hochbaum, Professor, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Combinatorial Optimization for Image Segmentation and Large Scale Data Mining
Host: Dr. Maged Dessouky
More Information: January 22, 2019.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Wed, Jan 23, 2019 @ 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Lizhi Sun, Professor, University of California, Irvine
Talk Title: Magnetorheological CNT Nanocomposites and Their Field-dependent Viscoelastic Responses
Abstract: See Attachment
Host: Dr. Qiming Wang
More Information: Seminar Annoucement_LizhiSun.pdf
Location: Ray R. Irani Hall (RRI) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Stochastic Optimal Control – Overview and Recent Advancesces
Wed, Jan 23, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ioannis Exarchos , Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University
Talk Title: Stochastic Optimal Control -“ Overview and Recent Advances
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Stochastic optimal control lies within the foundation of mathematical control theory ever since its inception. Its usefulness has been proven in a plethora of engineering applications, such as autonomous systems, robotics, neuroscience, and financial engineering, among others. Specifically, in robotics and autonomous systems, stochastic control has become one of the most successful approaches for planning and learning, as demonstrated by its effectiveness in many applications, such as control of ground and aerial vehicles, articulated mechanisms and manipulators, and humanoid robots. In computational neuroscience and human motor control, stochastic optimal control theory has been used in the process of modeling the underlying computational principles of the neural control of movement. Furthermore, in financial engineering, stochastic optimal control provides the main computational and analytical framework, with widespread application in portfolio management and stock market trading.
The aim of this talk is to provide an overview on model-based stochastic optimal control and highlight some recent advances in its field. We will briefly present some well-established methods (Differential Dynamic Programming, Path Integral Control), illustrating their differences in approach and restrictive conditions. Motivated by these restrictive conditions, we will then present a novel framework for stochastic optimal control that capitalizes on the innate relationship between certain nonlinear PDEs and Forward and Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDEs), that relaxes some of these conditions. The utility of the proposed method will be demonstrated on some examples of L2- and L1- optimal control, as well as differential games.
Biography: Ioannis Exarchos received his Diploma degree (graduating valedictorian) in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2010. He also received an M.S. degree in Mathematics in 2015, as well as his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering in 2013 and 2017 respectively, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his PhD studies, he was an Onassis Foundation fellowship scholar. His research interests include stochastic optimal control, machine learning applications in control and neuroscience, dynamical systems and system identification, as well as differential game theory. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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AME Seminar
Wed, Jan 23, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paul Plucinsky, Postdoctoral researcher University of Minnesota
Talk Title: Active and architectured structures: From nematic elastomers sheets to rigidly-foldable origami
Abstract: Thin and slender structures exhibit a broad range of mechanical responses as the competition between stretching and bending in these structures can result in buckling, localized deformations like folding, and tension wrinkling. Active and architectured materials also exhibit a broad range of mechanical responses as features that manifest at the micro and mesoscale in these materials result in mechanical couplings at the engineering scale (thermal/electrical/dissipative/. . .) and novel function (e.g., the shape memory effect, piezoelectricity in select metal alloys, the immense fracture toughness of Nacre and like materials,. . .). Given this richness in behaviors, my research
broadly aims to address the following questions: What happens when active and architecture materials are incorporated into a thin and slender structures? Do phenomena inherent to these materials compete with or enhance those inherent to these structures? Does this interplay result in entirely new and unexpected phenomena? And can all this be exploited to design new functionality in engineering systems?
In this talk, I will explore these questions in the context of thin sheets of an active material in nematic elastomer as well as architectured sheets designed to fold continuously as origami. For the latter, I will completely characterize all rigidly and flat-foldable origami, and describe an efficient algorithm to compute their designs and deformations. For the former, I will show that a material instability inherent to nematic elastomers at the micron scale is capable of suppressing a structural instability (wrinkling) at the engineering scale. These results provide novel, yet concrete, design guidance for improving the efficiency solar sails and the performance of other membrane structures (where wrinkling can be an impediment to their functionality), as well as tools to efficiently investigate robust and elegant concepts for deployable space structures, reconfigurable antennas, and soft robotics using origami.
Biography: Paul Plucinsky is a postdoctoral researcher studying the mechanics of Origami, helical structures and shape memory alloys at the University of Minnesota. He attended University of Michigan, receiving a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering (2010) and and Masters of Science in Structural Engineering (2011). He then moved to Caltech, where he received a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering (2017) studying the deformations of thin nematic elastomer sheets. When not folding paper-”and when his Achilles in functioning properly-”you can often find him on the basketball court.
Host: AME Department
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
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Ming Hsieh Institute Visitor Program
Thu, Jan 24, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: H. Vincent Poor, Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University
Talk Title: Fundamentals for Low Latency Communications
Abstract: Information theory provides fundamental insights into communication system capabilities, and the classical theory of Shannon has guided development of such systems over many decades. However, the classical models are based on assumptions of infinite block-length codes and not address situations in which short block lengths are imposed by system design considerations.
Notably in this context, latency has become a critical design issue in emerging wireless networking paradigms, such as the Internet of Things and associated applications like autonomous driving, factory automation, etc. This situation has inspired the development of a finite-block-length information theory, with man new results coming in recent years. This talk will review these developments, including fundamental finite-block-length results for the basic models of network information theory. Age of Information, another approach to the fundamental study of latency, will also be discussed briefly.
Biography: H. Vincent Poor is the Michael Henry Strater Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. From 1977, and until joining the Princeton faculty in 1990, he was on the faculty of the University of Illinois. During 2006 - 2016, he served as Dean of Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science. He has also held visiting positions at several other universities, including most recently at Berkeley and Cambridge. Dr. Poor's research interests are in the areas of signal processing and information theory and their applications in wireless networks, energy systems and related fields. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, and other national and international academies. He received the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 2017.
Host: MHI
Location: 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Benjamin Paul
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EEG Characteristics of Major Depressive Disorder Patients with Suicidal Symptoms
Fri, Jan 25, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Lars Benschop, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry Ghent University Hospital in Belgium
Talk Title: EEG Characteristics of Major Depressive Disorder Patients with Suicidal Symptoms
Biography: Lars Benschop is a PhD candidate from the Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) lab at the Ghent University hospital in Belgium. He received his Master's degree in experimental and biological psychology from the University of Ghent.
Lar's research focuses on identifying clinically relevant neural electrophysiological biomarkers in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with a high risk of suicide. His first study applied a cluster-based permutation analysis on EEG spatial-frequency resting-state data to evaluate differences with respect to suicide risk.
Currently, Lars is designing a combined resting state and task-based study in which 90 MDD patients with varying suicide risk will be shown death and life-related concepts (words and pictures) while undergoing EEG. The aim is to replicate the findings of the first study while also expanding into the time-frequency domain to further our understanding of the suicidal brain. Additionally, Lars will be applying machine learning techniques with the goal of differentiating between MDDs with and without suicide risk.
Outside of his research interests, Lars enjoys composing music, scuba-diving, traveling and hiking.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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W.V.T. RUSCH ENGINEERING HONORS COLLOQUIUM
Fri, Jan 25, 2019 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mr. Robert French, Project Management Specialist, The Boeing Company
Talk Title: Musings of an Aerospace Engineering Career Spanning 35+ Years
Host: EHP and Dr. Prata
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda McCraven
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Fall 2018 Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Mon, Jan 28, 2019 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Frank Lewis, http://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2019Spring/lewis.html
Talk Title: Reinforcement learning structures for real-time optimal control and differential games
Abstract: This talk will discuss some new adaptive control structures for learning online the solutions to optimal control problems and multi-player differential games. Techniques from reinforcement learning are used to design a new family of adaptive controllers based on actor-critic mechanisms that converge in real time to optimal control and game theoretic solutions. Continuous-time systems are considered. Application of reinforcement learning to continuous-time (CT) systems has been hampered because the system Hamiltonian contains the full system dynamics. Using our technique known as Integral Reinforcement Learning (IRL), we will develop reinforcement learning methods that do not require knowledge of the system drift dynamics. In the linear quadratic (LQ) case, the new RL adaptive control algorithms learn the solution to the Riccati equation by adaptation along the system motion trajectories. In the case of nonlinear systems with general performance measures, the algorithms learn the (approximate smooth local) solutions of HJ or HJI equations. New algorithms will be presented for solving online the non zero-sum and zero-sum multi-player games. Each player maintains two adaptive learning structures, a critic network and an actor network. The result is an adaptive control system that learns based on the interplay of agents in a game, to deliver true online gaming behavior. A new Experience Replay technique is given that uses past data for present learning and significantly speeds up convergence. New methods of Off-policy Learning allow learning of optimal solutions without knowing any dynamic information. New RL methods in Optimal Tracking allow solution of the Output Regulator Equations for heterogeneous multi-agent systems.
Biography: Member, National Academy of Inventors. Fellow IEEE, Fellow IFAC, Fellow AAAS, Fellow U.K. Institute of Measurement & Control, PE Texas, U.K. Chartered Engineer. UTA Distinguished Scholar Professor, UTA Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Moncrief-O'Donnell Chair at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute. Qian Ren Thousand Talents Consulting Professor, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. Ranked at position 84 worldwide, 64 in the USA, and 3 in Texas of all scientists in Computer Science and Electronics, by Guide2Research. Bachelor's Degree in Physics/EE and MSEE at Rice University, MS in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Western Florida, Ph.D. at Georgia Tech. He works in feedback control, reinforcement learning, intelligent systems, and distributed control systems. Author of 7 U.S. patents, 410 journal papers, 426 conference papers, 20 books, 48 chapters, and 12 journal special issues. He received the Fulbright Research Award, NSF Research Initiation Grant, ASEE Terman Award, Int. Neural Network Soc. Gabor Award 2009, U.K. Inst. Measurement & Control Honeywell Field Engineering Medal 2009. Received AACC Ragazzini Education Award 2018, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Neural Networks Pioneer Award 2012 and AIAA Intelligent Systems Award 2016. IEEE Control Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer. Project 111 Professor at Northeastern University, China. Distinguished Foreign Scholar at Chongqing Univ. China. Received Outstanding Service Award from Dallas IEEE Section, selected as Engineer of the Year by Ft. Worth IEEE Section. Listed in Ft. Worth Business Press Top 200 Leaders in Manufacturing. Received the 2010 IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award and the 2010 UTA Graduate Dean's Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring Award. Elected to UTA Academy of Distinguished Teachers 2012. Texas Regents Outstanding Teaching Award 2013. He served on the NAE Committee on Space Station in 1995.
Host: Petros A Ioannou, ioannou@usc.edu
More Info: http://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2019Spring/lewis.html
More Information: 19.01.28 Frank Lewis CSCUSC Seminar.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Brienne Moore
Event Link: http://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2019Spring/lewis.html
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Jan 29, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Gary Cheng, Associate Professor, Purdue University
Talk Title: Translational Manufacturing for Nano-Engineered Structures with Superior Properties
Host: Prof. Yong Chen
More Information: January 29, 2019.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar - Distinguished Lecture Series
Tue, Jan 29, 2019 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Megumi Kawasaki , School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Oregon State University
Talk Title: Processing of bulk nanostructured materials through the application of high-pressure torsion
Abstract: The processing of metals through the application of severe plastic deformation (SPD) has attracted much attention for the production of ultrafine-grained (UFG) metals and bulk nanostructured materials (BNM). Among the SPD techniques, high-pressure torsion (HPT) provides the potential for achieving true nanometer grains by processing metal disks under a high compressive pressure and concurrent torsion straining. These ultrafine grains in the bulk metals usually show superior mechanical and physical properties. Especially, the development of micro-mechanical behavior is observed after significant changes in microstructure after processing and it is of great importance for obtaining practical future applications of these UFG metals. Moreover, recent studies show the potential for using HPT for the rapid fabrication of nanocomposites. Accordingly, this presentation demonstrates the basic understanding of processing of UFG and BNM by HPT and the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties after HPT on various metallic alloys and metal-matrix nanocomposites. Special emphasis is placed on demonstrating a simple and very rapid synthesis of metal-matrix nanocomposites by HPT at ambient temperature. These synthesized hybrid systems exhibit exceptionally high specific strength through deformation-induced diffusion and the simultaneous formation of a few different intermetallic compounds. These experimental findings suggest a considerable potential for making use of HPT for the introduction of UFG microstructure and fabrication of a wide range of hybrid materials.
Host: Dr. Kassner
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 200
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar Series
Wed, Jan 30, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Babak Hassibi, Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Control and Communication of Cyber-Physical Systems over Low-Power Lossy Links
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Many emerging cyber-physical systems, for example those arising in the internet-of-things, will operate at very low power over lossy communication links. This creates a very tight set of constraints on the transmit power, bit rate, and tolerable delay, which, if not appropriately dealt with, can lead to severe loss of performance. We will describe three novel approaches for addressing the control and communication challenges in such cyber-phyical systems. We study the problem of minimizing an LQG control cost over a rate-constrained channel, the design of tree codes for real-time control over lossy links, and the development of a new modulation scheme for low power blind communications called MOCZ (modulation over conjugate zeros).
Biography: Babak Hassibi is the inaugural Mose and Lillian S. Bohn Professor of Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, where he has been since 2001, From 2011 to 2016 he was the Gordon M Binder/Amgen Professor of Electrical Engineering and during 2008-2015 he was Executive Officer of Electrical Engineering, as well as Associate Director of Information Science and Technology. Prior to Caltech, he was a Member of the Technical Staff in the Mathematical Sciences Research Center at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ. He obtained his PhD degree from Stanford University in 1996 and his BS degree from the University of Tehran in 1989. His research interests span various aspects of information theory, communications, signal processing, control, and machine learning. He is an ISI highly cited author in Computer Science and, among other awards, is the recipient of the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the David and Lucille Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. He is General co-Chair of the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2020).
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
