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Events for January 17, 2014
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquim
Fri, Jan 17, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Paul Ronney, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Talk Title: Serendipity and Contrarianism in Research: Hit 'Em where They Ain't
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
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Epstein Institute / ISE 651 Seminar Series
Fri, Jan 17, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jim Dai, Professor of Operations Research, Cornell University The Chandler Family Chair of ISyE, Georgia Tech (on leave)
Talk Title: "Maximum Pressure Policies for Stochastic Processing Networks"
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar Series
Abstract: Stochastic processing networks model complex systems including semiconductor wafer fabrication lines, networks of data switches, and large-scale call centers. Key performance measures of such a network include throughput and average cycle time. Elements of an operational policy may include input control, sequencing, and routing; the choice of such a policy can dramatically affect network performance.
I will first demonstrate that even in simple networks, commonly used operational policies such as first-in-first-out sequencing may perform badly, failing to achieve even "throughput optimality." I will then introduce a family of policies known as maximum pressure policies. Such a policy needs only local or semi-local congestion information to be implemented. Often, its implementation does not require arrival rate information which can be difficult to be estimated reliably.
Next, I will focus on two appealing properties of maximum pressure policies. (1) These policies are shown to be throughput optimal, regardless of the processing network's topology or parameter values. (2) Such a policy is further shown to asymptotically minimize a certain diffusion-scaled quadratic holding cost when the network satisfies a heavy traffic condition and a complete resource pooling condition. Finally, I will discuss some recent research progress on these policies.
Jim Dai is currently on leave from Georgia Tech. This talk is based on joint works with Wuqin Lin at Kellogg School of Business of Northwestern University.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2014
SEELEY G. MUDD HALL (SGM) ROOM 601
2:00 â⬓ 3:30 PM
Biography: Jim Dai is a professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE) of Cornell University. He is currently on leave from his Edenfield Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he has been a faculty member for 22 years. He is a Special Term Professor at Tsinghua University and a Visiting Professor in Decision Sciences at National University of Singapore. For more than twenty years, he has worked on stochastic models arising from communications, manufacturing, and service systems that include data switches, semiconductor wafer fabrication lines, call centers, and healthcare-delivery systems.
Jim Dai received B.A. and M.S. degrees from Nanjing University and a Ph.D. degree from Stanford University, all in mathematics. He is an elected fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an elected fellow of Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). His awards for research contributions include the Best Publication Award in 1997 and The Erlang Prize in 1998, both from the Applied Probability Society of INFORMS. He delivered the Markov Lecture at INFORMS national meeting in October 2012. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Mathematics of Operations Research, a past Area Editor for Operations Research, and a past Series Editor for Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science.
Research Interests
Stochastic processing networks, Fluid and Diffusion models of queuing networks, Impulse, singular and drift controls of diffusions, Customer contact center management, Patient flow management in hospitals, Semiconductor wafer manufacturing, Airline Revenue management, Algorithm trading, and Orderbook dynamics.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Dai.doc
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 601
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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NL Seminar- Mohsen Taheriyan: "A Graph-based Approach to Learn Semantic Descriptions of Data Sources"
Fri, Jan 17, 2014 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mohsen Taheriyan, USC/ ISI
Talk Title: "A Graph-based Approach to Learn Semantic Descriptions of Data Sources"
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Abstract: Semantic models of data sources and services provide support to automate many tasks such as source discovery, data integration, and service composition, but writing these semantic descriptions by hand is a tedious and time-consuming task. Most of the related work focuses on automatic annotation with classes or properties of source attributes or input and output parameters. However, constructing a source model that includes the relationships between the attributes in addition to their semantic types remains a largely unsolved problem. In this talk, we present a graph-based approach to hypothesize a rich semantic description of a new target source from a set of known sources that have been modeled over the same domain ontology. We exploit the domain ontology and the known source models to build a graph that represents the space of plausible source descriptions. Then, we compute the top k candidates and suggest to the user a ranked list of the semantic models for the new source. The approach takes into account user corrections to learn more accurate semantic descriptions of future data sources. Our evaluation shows that our method produces models that are twice as accurate than the models produced using a state of the art system that does not learn from prior models.
Biography: Mohsen's webpage: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~taheriya/
Host: Yang Gao
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Marina Del Rey, Conf Rm- #1135
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series - Spring 2014
Fri, Jan 17, 2014 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Donald Lie, Texas Tech University
Talk Title: Design of Silicon-Based Envelope-Tracking Power Amplifiers (ET-PA) for Highly-Efficient Broadband Wireless Applications; also a Briefing on Medical Electronics Research in My Group
Abstract: The latest broadband wireless (4G/WLAN) standards utilize inherent spectral-efficient modulation schemes with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR) and wide signal bandwidth, which demand high linearity RF power amplifier (PA) design techniques that can offer excellent power-added efficiency (PAE) at both the maximum peak power and the power back-off levels to provide power saving. As suggested by the recent market trends and the literature, the dynamic power-supply modulation techniques (e.g., the envelope-elimination-and-restoration (EER) and the envelope-tracking (ET) schemes) are among the most effective methods for RF PA efficiency enhancement at both peak and back-off output power modes for various DoD and commercial applications. I would, therefore, present some of the latest design techniques, research, and market trends of high efficiency supply-modulated RF PAs, with emphasis on the silicon-based ET-PA design done in my group. I will also provide a brief highlight on some of the medical electronics research in my group.
Biography: Donald Y.C. Lie (S’86âM’87âSM’00) received his B.S.E.E. degree from the National Taiwan University in 1987, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (minor in applied physics) from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1990 and 1995, respectively. He has held technical and managerial positions at companies such as Rockwell International, Silicon-Wave (now Qualcomm), IBM, Microtune Inc., SYS Technologies, and Dynamic Research Corporation (DRC). He is currently the Keh-Shew Lu Regents Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, and also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He has brought in multi-million dollars research funding and also designed real-world commercial communication products sold internationally. He was a Visiting Lecturer to the ECE Department, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) during 2002-2007 where he taught upper-division and graduate-level classes and affiliated with UCSD’s Center of Wireless Communications (CWC) and co-supervised Ph.D. students. Dr. Lie has been serving on the Executive Committee of the IEEE Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), SiRF, MWSCAS, TSWMCS, and also on various Technical Program Committees (TPCs) for IEEE RFIC Symp., VLSI-DAT, ISCAS, PAWR, IEEE-NIH LiSSA, BIOCAS, etc. Dr. Lie has been awarded with the US NAVY SPAWAR SSC San Diego “Center Team Achievement Award”, Spring 2007; won 3 DRC Silver Awards of Excellence, 2005-2007; received IBM "FIRST" chairman patent award, 2001-2002 and Rockwell International’s “FIRST” engineering awards, 1996-1998. He and his students have won several Best Graduate Student Paper Awards and Best Paper Awards in international conferences in 1994, 1995, 2006, 2008 (twice), 2010 (twice), 2011, 2012, and 2013. Dr. Lie has been serving as an Associate Editor of IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters (MWCL) since 2010, and as the Associate Editor-in-Chief (EiC) for the Open Journal of Applied Biosensor (OJAB) and on the Editorial Board of i-manager’s Journal on Electrical Engineering. He was a Guest Editor of IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) in 2009, the Special Topic Editor for IEEE MWCL in 2012. He has consulted for several IC design companies and an international research institute, and also for one of the best IP/Patent laws firms in the world. Dr. Lie has co-founded the NoiseFigure Research Inc. with his former student Dr. Lopez, and has coauthored over 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and holds six U.S. patents. Dr. Lie’s group has published three most downloaded TOP 100 papers on the IEEE Xplore⢠in Sept, 2012, June 2012, and Sept. 2009, respectively. His research interests are: (1) power-efficient RF/Analog IC and System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design and test; and (2) interdisciplinary and clinical research on medical electronics, biosensors, and biosignal processing.
Host: Hossien Hashemi, Mike Chen, Mahta Moghaddam, Sushil Subramanian
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Sushil Subramanian
Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
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Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Jan 17, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Kelly T. Sanders, Astani CEE Faculty
Talk Title: Evaluating the efficacy of water conservation strategies through changes in the power sector
Abstract:
This presentation explores the effect of increasing the valuation of water through market levers as a mechanism to induce water savings from thermoelectric power plants the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' (ERCOT) electric grid. To do so, a unit commitment and dispatch model was utilized to simulate power generation, wholesale generation costs, water withdrawals, and water consumption across a set of increased cooling water costs ranging from 10 to 1,000 USD per acre-foot. This set of cooling water costs was applied to 1) the water consumed for power generation via evaporation and 2) the entire volume of water withdrawn for cooling. Results suggest that water withdrawals for cooling thermoelectric power plants in ERCOT can be reduced by as much as 75%, while water consumption can be reduced by 23% by imposing a fee for water. However, to achieve these water savings, wholesale electricity generation costs might increase as much as120% based on 2011 fuel costs and generation characteristics.
Although conventional long-term water supply projects tended to be more cost-effective than water management through shifts in power generation, the electric grid demonstrates short-term flexibility that conventional water supply projects do not. Thus, there might be conditions under which the grid could be effective at ââ¬Åsupplying" water, particularly during emergency drought conditions.
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
