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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for January
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Measuring Strain in the Carotid Arteries using DENSE MRI
Wed, Jan 10, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract:
The wall of major arteries undergoes cyclic stretching from the loading of the pulsatile arterial pressure. Atherosclerotic lesions have been shown to localize to regions of excessive stretching of the arterial wall. We developed a displacement-encoded MRI (DENSE) sequence for imaging the motion of the carotid artery wall and mapping the 2D circumferential strain in wall. The sequence utilizes a fully-balanced SSFP readout and achieves 0.6 mm in-plane resolution. Preliminary results in volunteers at 1.5 T and 3.0T support the validity of DENSE mapping of pulsatile strain in the carotid artery wall.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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Stress-Induced Martensitic Phase Transformation and Fracture
Wed, Jan 10, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Samantha DalyCalifornia Institute of TechnologyAbstractNickel-Titanium, commonly referred to as nitinol, is a shape-memory alloy with numerous applications due to its superelastic nature and its ability to revert to a previously defined shape when deformed and then heated past a set transformation temperature. While the crystallography and the overall phenomenology are reasonably well understood, much remains unknown about the deformation and failure mechanisms of these materials. These latter issues are becoming critically important as nitinol is being increasingly used in medical devices and space applications. The talk will describe the investigation of the deformation and failure of nitinol using an in-situ optical technique called Digital Image Correlation (DIC). With this technique, full-field quantitative maps of strain localization are obtained for the first time in thin sheets of nitinol under tension. These experiments provide new information connecting previous observations on the micro- and macro- scale. They show that martensitic transformation initiates before the formation of localized bands, and that the strain inside the bands does not saturate when the bands nucleate. The effect of rolling texture, the validity of the widely used resolved stress transformation criterion, and the role of geometric defects are examined. A detailed investigation of fracture will be presented, including the observed saturation and transformation zones around the cracktip, as well as a determination of the K_IC value for thin sheets of nitinol. A discussion of these results in the context of theoretical models will be provided.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL), Rm 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
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L. L. Handy Colloquium Seminar
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 12:45 AM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Smart Surfactants and Ligands in Pharmaceutical,
Environmental, and Energy Applications Professor Keith P. JohnstonDepartment of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at AustinABSTRACT Smart surfactants and ligands are being designed to (1) perform multiple functions, (2) achieve targeted activity at particular interfaces, and (3) be active at unusual interfaces, for example, in CO2. In pharmaceutical science, one of the key challenges is particle engineering of poorly water soluble drugs to achieve high bioavailability for oral and pulmonary administration. Increasingly, two goals are being pursued simultaneously: (1) control of particle nucleation and growth to achieve the desired particle morphology and (2) rapid wetting and dissolution, and in some cases high levels of supersaturation. Studies of fundamental thermodynamic, transport and interfacial mechanisms are leading to improvements in bioavailability in vivo.
Environmentally benign carbon dioxide-based emulsions may replace toxic organic solvents for pharmaceutical, chemical, materials, and microelectronics processing applications. Surfactants stabilize CO2-in-water emulsions or foams needed to control mobility in CO2-enhanced oil recovery, for producing 60 billion barrels of oil (approximately $6 trillion value). Nonionic methylated branched hydrocarbon surfactants emulsify up to 90% CO2 in water with polyhedral cells smaller than 10 microns, with the potential for excellent mobility control.
An emerging understanding of the role of surfactants in charging and stabilization mechanisms for colloids in low-permittivity solvents (dielect. const. < 5) will help advance a variety of applications including electrophoretic displays and electrophoretic deposition of nanocrystals to form superlattices. On the basis of novel experimental measurements for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic TiO2, a general mechanism is presented to describe particle charging in terms of preferential partitioning of cations and surfactant anions between the particle surface and reverse micelles in the bulk solvent. The design of smart surfactants and ligands for nano- and micron-sized emulsions and particle dispersions is in its infancy, and many new concepts will be developed for pharmaceutical, environmental, and energy applications.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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Jianbai Wang
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
"An Integrated Position-Sensing System for a MEMS-based Cochlear Implant"Nearly 100,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants to date, where a bundle of wire electrodes (16-22) is inserted into the cochlea to electrically stimulate receptors in the auditory nerve, restoring hearing to the profoundly deaf. Replacing the traditional wire electrodes with MEMS-based higher-density thin-film arrays may not only allow significantly higher frequency discrimination but can also permit the inclusion of additional features such as position sensing (and eventually control).
A thin-film electrode array integrated with position sensors has been developed for a cochlear prosthesis. The array was fabricated using bulk micromachining technology, and it contains embedded poly-silicon piezoresistive sensors for wall contact and position in order to minimize tissue damage during array insertion and achieve deep implants after insertion. Nine position sensors are distributed at the tip and along the 8mm-long electrode array, and these sensors correspond to approximate gauge factors of 10-20, permitting array tip position to be determined within 50µm and providing wall contact output signals of more than 50mV at the tip. Moreover, parylene-silicon-dielectric electrodes were developed, improving the flexibility and maintaining enough robustness to facilitate the modiolus-hugging shape definition by a polymeric backing device.
The WIMS ERC is developing an implantable MEMS-based cochlear prosthesis using a hybrid electrode array. A custom integrated circuit (ASIC) mounts on the rear of a 32-site thin-film electrode array, interfacing with a hermetically-packaged WIMS microcontroller and wireless chip over an 8-lead polymeric cable. The 2.4mm x 2.4mm ASIC chip operates from 5V and performs command validation, stimulus generation, sensor selection, 5b offset compensation, and signal conditioning (amplification and band-limiting).
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ericka Lieberknecht
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Story Telling Alice: Presenting Programming as a Means to the End of Storytelling
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Caitlin KelleherPost-doctoral Researcher Carnegie Mellon UniversityAbstract:
The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) estimates that the number of incoming college students intending to major in computer science has dropped by 70% since 2000, despite the fact that the projected need for computer scientists continues to grow. Increasing the numbers of female students who pursue computer science has the potential both to help fill projected computing jobs and improve the technology we create by diversifying the viewpoints that influence technology design. Numerous studies have found that girls begin to turn away from math and science related disciplines, including computer science, during middle school. By the end of eighth grade, twice as many boys as girls are interested in pursuing science, engineering, or technology based careers.In this talk, I will describe the development of Storytelling Alice, a programming environment that gives middle school girls a positive first experience with computer programming. Rather than presenting programming as an end in itself, Storytelling Alice presents programming as a means to the end of storytelling, a motivating activity for a broad spectrum of middle school girls. More than 250 girls participated in the formative user testing of Storytelling Alice. To determine girls' storytelling needs, I observed girls interacting with successive versions of Storytelling Alice and analyzed their storyboards and the programs they developed. To enable and encourage middle school girls to create the kinds of stories they envision, Storytelling Alice includes high-level animations that enable users to program social interaction between characters, a gallery of 3D objects designed to spark story ideas, and a story-based tutorial presented using Stencils, a novel tutorial interaction technique.To determine the impact of the storytelling focus on girls' interest in and success at learning to program, I conducted a study comparing the experiences of girls introduced to programming using Storytelling Alice with those of girls introduced to programming using a version of Alice without storytelling features (Generic Alice). Participants who used Storytelling Alice and Generic Alice were equally successful at learning basic programming concepts. However, I found that users of Storytelling Alice show more evidence of engagement with programming. Storytelling Alice users spent 42% more time programming and were more than three times as likely to sneak extra time to continue working on their programs (51% of Storytelling Alice users vs. 16% of Generic Alice users snuck extra time). I will conclude by discussing future directions for introducing programming through storytelling as well as other potential contexts for storytelling.Bio:
Caitlin Kelleher is currently a post-doctoral researcher in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Randy Pausch. Caitlin was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Nancy Levien
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Protein Mobility, Filtering, and Separation in Model Cell Membranes
Fri, Jan 12, 2007 @ 01:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Graduate SeminarProtein Mobility, Filtering, and Separation in Model Cell MembranesDr. Susan Daniel
Department of Chemistry
Texas A&M UniversityAbstract
Investigating how biomolecules behave in cell membranes gives us insight that can be used
to create better assays, sensors, and devices that mimic the cell surface. Applications for
these devices include rapid combinatorial analysis of drug targets, biosensors for toxin
detection, and proteomics research. Solid-supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) are an excellent
platform for mimicking the surface chemistry of cells. However, there are several drawbacks
to these platforms. First, proteins can lose their mobility in these systems, impairing their
function. Second, there is no good way to discriminate between analytes that bind to the
same surface ligand within these platforms. Third, separation, purification, and formation of
arrays of membrane species is difficult, impeding the progress of rapid combinatorial
assaying of membrane proteins.
Results will be presented on studies conducted to understand these issues and strategies to
overcome them. By investigating the behavior of protein-protein interactions on SLBs, we
found that protein-packing influences the point at which diffusion is arrested in these systems.
To improve binding specificity, we devised a system for size-selective discrimination of
protein analytes that bind to the same ligand, by incorporating poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)
lipopolymers into SLBs. Using our platform, we were able to achieve discrimination of
several orders of magnitude. Finally, we developed a technique to separate membrane
species within an SLB: bilayer chromatography. Results will be presented that show our
separation method is sensitive enough to differentiate isomers of dye-labeled lipids and is
currently being extended to the separation of membrane proteins.
Friday, January 12, 2007
1:00 p.m.
HED 116
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited to Attend.Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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Honors Program Colloquium: Experience of an Engineering-Turned-Attorney
Fri, Jan 12, 2007 @ 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lecture given by Dr. Farzad Naiem, Vice President and General Council of John A. Martin & Associates, Inc.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Honors Program Participants and Faculty
Contact: Erika Chua
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Materials Science Seminar - Microbial fuel cell operation for electricity generation
Fri, Jan 12, 2007 @ 02:45 PM - 04:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Microbial fuel cell operation for electricity generationZhen HeDepartment of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering
Washington University in St. LouisWe have developed upflow microbial fuel cells (UMFC) that simultaneously can clean wastewater and produce electricity. By sufficiently utilizing the inner volume of the anode and minimizing the space between electrodes the power output of the UMFC was improved from 3 to 25 W/m3. We are also working on harvesting electric energy from natural waters (e.g. river and ocean), with a novel design of a rotating cathode in a sediment microbial fuel cell to improve oxygen availability to the cathode. Finally, we have adopted a bacterium found in the normal human gut microbial community whose genome has been sequenced as a model anode biocatalyst to study its genomic variations using DNA chips. First year MASC students are required to attend.
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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DSMC modeling of near-continuum flows
Tue, Jan 16, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Ye.A. BondarInstitute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Novosibirsk 630090, RussiaThe recent activity of Computational Aerodynamics Lab (ITAM, Novosibirsk, Russia) on statistical simulation of high-temperature near-continuum rarefied flows is reviewed. An accurate prediction of these flows, such as those behind the shock wave formed about a space vehicle at high altitudes, requires the use of adequate models of physical and chemical processes - so-called real gas effects, and effective numerical procedures. Current challenges and problems pertaining to the development, validation and application of such models are discussed. A novel approach to statistical simulation of high-temperature nonequilibrium chemical reactions is described. Vibrationally specific dissociation cross sections are found as solutions of an integral equation whose right side contains a two-temperature reaction rate constant. The approach is illustrated by an example of the model of high-temperature dissociation of nitrogen. All stages of model implementation are considered in detail, namely, the mathematical basis, analysis of the model by comparisons with conventional models both at the level of cross sections and at the level of macroscopic reaction rates, and particular applications to computations of near-continuum reacting flows by the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method.
Location: Laufer Library, RRB 207
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
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A Physical Approach to Multiple Antenna Communication
Tue, Jan 16, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKER: Professor Massimo Franceschetti, UC San DiegoAbstract: In multiple antenna (MIMO) systems communication is performed through the act of propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves. EM research typically focuses on the physical aspects of propagation, while information theory (IT) focuses mainly on the communication aspects, often considering random channel models. In this talk we attempt to address the gap between these two approaches. We formally relate the concept of information transmission to the amount of diversity that EM waves can carry. Such diversity lies in two different dimensions: time and space. The classical view of Shannon's information theory considers only the time dimension along with its transformed counterpart: the frequency spectrum. However, Shannon's theory can also be applied to the space dimension which, analogous to time, becomes a capacity bearing object.The spatial information content can be quantified in a similar fashion than its temporal counterpart, by reducing the inverse problem of field reconstruction to a communication problem in space, and determining the relevant communication modes of the channel by rigorously applying the sampling theorem on the field's vector space.One consequence, for narrow-band frequency transmission, is that space and time can be decoupled, leading to a space-time information duality principle in the computation of the capacity of the radiating system. Interestingly, in the case of wide-band frequency transmission, a much more complex scenario arises, as it turns out that time and space cannot be decoupled and they jointly characterize the wave's information content.Bio: Massimo Franceschetti is assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of University of California at San Diego. He received the Laurea degree, magna cum laude, in Computer Engineering from the University of Naples in 1997, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1999, and 2003. Before joining UCSD, he was a post-doctoral scholar at University of California at Berkeley for two years.Prof. Franceschetti 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 (jointly with profs. J. Bruck and L. J. Shulman) for best paper in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation; and an NSF CAREER award in 2006.He has held visiting positions at at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and the University of Trento in Italy.His research interests include random networks for communication, wave propagation in random media, and control over networks. He is currently associate guest co-editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, special issue on relay and cooperation in networks and the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, special issue on Communication and Control.Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu
Location: Frank R. Seaver Science Center (SSC) - 319
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Multimedia Fingerprinting for Tracing Traitors
Wed, Jan 17, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Min Wu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Maryland, College ParkHost: Antonio OrtegaAbstract:
Technology advancement has made multimedia content widely available and easy to process. These benefits also make it easy for unauthorized duplication, manipulation, and redistribution of multimedia content, prompting the need of multimedia forensics research to facilitate evidence gathering in digital world. Digital fingerprinting is one of the emerging forensics technologies to help identify users who have legitimate access to content but may use it for unintended purposes, such as unauthorized redistribution. Unique imperceptible labels, known as digital fingerprints, are inserted in different copies of the same content before giving to each user. For multimedia data, digital fingerprints can be put into the content using conventional robust embedding techniques, which are typically concerned with surviving attacks mounted by an individual. Advances in communication and networking have also made it easy for adversaries to work together. A group of users with differently marked versions of the same content may collaborate to collectively mount attacks against the fingerprints. These so-called collusion attacks provide adversaries with a cost-effective method to remove the fingerprints and circumvent the traitor-tracing mechanism.
In this talk, I will present our recent research on anti-collusion fingerprinting for multimedia data. Through jointly considering the encoding, embedding, and detection of fingerprints, our techniques can help collect digital-domain evidence and pinpoint to the sources of leak among millions of users. Applications of such multimedia forensic tools range from military and government operations to piracy deterrence in Hollywood and other entertainment industry.Biography:
Dr. Min Wu received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering and the B.A. degree in economics in 1996 from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China (both with the highest honors), and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 2001. Since 2001, she has been on the faculty of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute of Advanced Computing Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Dr. Wu's research interests include information forensics and security, multimedia signal processing, and multimedia communications. She co-authored two books and holds five U.S. patents on multimedia security and communications. She is a co-recipient of two Best Paper Awards from the IEEE Signal Processing Society and EURASIP, respectively. She also received a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2002, a TR100 Young Innovator Award from the MIT Technology Review Magazine in 2004, and a U.S. ONR Young Investigator Award in 2005. [URL: http://www.ece.umd.edu/~minwu/]Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Hernandez
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Characterization and Yield behavior of UFG, Nano-Twinned Copper
Wed, Jan 17, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Andrea M. Hodge Materials ScientistNanoscale Synthesis and Characterization
LaboratoryLawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, CA Yield point drops are a classic non-uniform plastic deformation process in solids. As stated by Johnston and Gilman in their classic work on single crystal Lithium Fluoride, the yield point drop phenomena in crystalline solids is clearly dependant on the availability of necessary mobile dislocations to support the plastic deformation process. In this talk, the presence of a yield point will be related to materials with nanocrystalline, ultrafine-grained (UFG) and evenly distributed nanoscale features (i.e. twins). Specifically, tensile tests performed on high purity (99.999%) copper foils (170 m thick), processed by magnetron sputtered multilayer technology, demonstrate reproducible observations of yield points. These type of materials present very low initial dislocation densities, a columnar grain structure (~ 0.55 m width), and uniformly distributed and spaced (? 45 to 50 nm) growth twins with an orientation parallel to the plane of deposition.Location: Seaver Science Library, Room 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
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Storytelling with Testimony
Wed, Jan 17, 2007 @ 06:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
During the fall semester, the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education collaborated in the mounting of a freshman seminar that provided students with the opportunity to work with the rich archive of survivor testimonies from the Shoah Foundation Institute. Students learned how to conceptualize and create their own testimony clip reels. This event will feature a screening of student-produced reels, followed by a discussion with students and Shoah Foundation Institute staff about the process of working with survivor testimonies. A pizza reception will follow.
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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From Nanomedicine to Regenerative Medicine
Thu, Jan 18, 2007 @ 12:30 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Inorganic-Biochemistry Seminar"From Nanomedicine to Regenerative Medicine"Dr. Ki-Bum LeeThe Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology The Scripps Research InstituteThursday, January 18, 2007
12:30 PM
OHE Room 122Scientific Community is InvitedLocation: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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DNA Origami
Thu, Jan 18, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Paul W.K. RothemundSenior Research FellowCaltechAbstract:
A key goal for bottom-up nanofabrication has been to generate structures whose complexity matches that achieved by top-down methods. Towards this goal, DNA nanotechnology provides an attractive route. Here I describe a method for folding long single strands of DNA into arbitrary two dimensional target shapes using a raster fill technique. Self-assembled in a one-pot reaction from the 7 kilobase genome of phage M13mp18 and more than 200 synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides, the shapes are roughly 100 nm in diameter and nearly 5 megadaltons in mass. (For comparison the eukaroytic ribosome, one of nature's most complex molecular machines, is 4.2 megadaltons in mass.) Experimental shapes approximate target shapes, such as a 5-pointed star, with a resolution of 3.5 to 6 nm and may be decorated by arbitrary patterns at 6 nm resolution to form words or images.
Enabled by a program for laying out complicated designs and, utilizing inexpensive unpurified oligodeoxynucleotides, this method helps move DNA nanotechnology from the realm of research towards that of engineering.
The ability to create arbitrary shapes provides a new route to the bottom-up nanofabrication of complex nano-scale devices and instruments.
Physicists and materials scientists should be able to use DNA origami to arrange optical, electronic, and mechanical components into novel materials or even an integrated "nano-laboratory" of their choosing.
Biologists may be able to use these structures to position proteins and other biomolecules in precise arrangements to study their coupling. Indeed these structures may be thought of as a versatile "nanobreadboard", a simple platform for creating arbitrary nanostructures.Bio:
Paul W.K. Rothemund is a graduate of Caltech, where he dual majored in biology and computer science. His undergraduate project in information theory resulted in one of the first designs for a DNA computer---a DNA Turing machine---and became one of the first patents for DNA computation.
He has a long-standing interest in problems at the interface of biology, chemistry, and computer science: he would like to understand what parts of biology may be best viewed as computation and he would like to turn the process of chemical synthesis into an exercise in programming. After receiving his Ph.D. under Leonard Adleman at the University of Southern California, he was awarded a Beckman postdoctoral fellowship and returned to Caltech to work with professor Erik Winfree on algorithmic self-assembly of DNA. Dr. Rothemund currently continues this work as a senior research fellow at Caltech. In 2006 he was awarded the Foresight Institute's Feynman Prize for nanotechnology.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Nancy Levien
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Honors Program Colloquium: Restoration of Hearing by Electrical Stimulation
Fri, Jan 19, 2007 @ 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lecture given by Dr. Bob Shannon, Department Head of Auditory Implants and Perception in the House Ear Institute, and Adjunct Professor at USC.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Faculty and Honors Program Students
Contact: Erika Chua
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Alternative Sources of Energy: Identifying and studying the feasibility of promising sources
Fri, Jan 19, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:Dr. Matin Lackpour
Ph.D., P.E.
DWP, Fleet Engineering, Los Angeles, CAAbstract
The alternative sources of energy are renewable energy sources which have been proven to be technically and economically feasible for commercial production. They are mainly available as nonpollutant electric power source. Nevertheless, quantifying the cost of energy from power generating technologies such as alternative source of energy is very essential to comparing their economic characteristics to those of competing technologies such as fossil fuels, and to determine the impact on consumers. Although a great deal has been done to determine the feasibility of alternative sources of energy, there is a degree of confusion regarding which source is the most feasible source for a particular climate, and which methodology should be practiced to compute cost of energy, how different methodologies compare and differ, how cost of energy is presented, and how these cost estimates are applied or utilized. This presentation will illustrate and aim at a quick review of the feasibility, commercial availability, environmental issues, possible political, legal and ethical issues, as well as institutional management issues of wind energy as a viable alternative source of energy which environmentally is friendly and benign.To achieve the goal of this seminar, the presentation will try to identify three compelling issues regarding wind energy as the most promising source of energy. The three major questions which will be addressed are: (a) What is the most promising alternative source of energy of Southern California among wind energy, ocean energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy? (b) Does the most promising source of energy identified have economic feasibility? (c) Does the most promising source of energy identified have commercial availability?
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Electrophoresis of Highly Charged Colloids
Fri, Jan 19, 2007 @ 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
THE MORK FAMILY DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE Presents a Joint Seminar with the
USC Quantum Information and Condensed Matter Physics
ByDr. Apratim ChatterjiUniversity of TorontoELECTROPHORESIS OF HIGHLY CHARGED COLLOIDSABSTRACTUsing computer simulations, the electrophoretic motion of a positively charged colloid (macroion) in an electrolyte solution is studied in the framework of the primitive model. In this model, the electrolyte is considered as a system of negatively and positively charged microions (counterions and coions, respectively) that are immersed into a structureless medium. Hydrodynamic interactions are fully taken into account by applying a hybrid simulation scheme, where the charged ions (i.e., ~ macroion and electrolyte), propagated via molecular dynamics (MD), are coupled to a Lattice Boltzmann (LB) fluid. In a recent electrophoretic experiment by Martin-Molina et al. [J. Phys. Chem. B 106, 6881 (2002)], it was shown that, for multivalent salt ions, the mobility µ initially increases with charge density reaches a maximum and then decreases with further increase of . The aim of the present work is to elucidate the behavior of µ at high values of . Even for the case of monovalent microions, we find a decrease of µ with . A dynamic Stern layer is defined that includes all the counterions that move with the macroion while subject to an external electrical field. We find that the number of counterions in the Stern layer, q0, is a crucial parameter for the behavior of µ at high values of . The previous contention that the increase in the distortion of the electric double layer (EDL) with increasing leads to the lowering of µ does not hold for high . In fact, we show that the deformation of the EDL decreases with increase of . The role of hydrodynamic interactions is inferred from direct comparisons to Langevin simulations where the coupling to the LB fluid is switched off. Moreover, systems with divalent counterions are considered. In this case, at high values of the phenomenon of charge inversion is found.January 19, 2007
2:00 PM
(Refreshments will be served at 1:45 PM)
SSL 150**ALL FIRST YEAR MATERIALS SCIENCE MAJORS ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND**
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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BME Seminar Series
Mon, Jan 22, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
"Discrete and Rhythmic Movement as Basic Building Blocks of Motor Control in Humans and Humanoids"Stefan Schaal, PhD
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Neuroscience
USC Computational Learning and Motor Control
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Adam Wyatt
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Heterogeneous Congestion Control
Tue, Jan 23, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract:Homogeneity of price is an implicit yet fundamental assumption underlying price based resource allocation theory. In this talk, we study the effects of relaxing this assumption by examining a concrete engineering system (network with heterogeneous congestion control protocols). The behavior of the system turns out to be very different from the homogeneous case and can potentially be much more complicated. A systematic theory is developed that includes all major properties of equilibrium of the system such as existence, uniqueness, optimality, and stability. In addition to analysis, we also present numerical examples, simulations, and experiments to illustrate the theory and verify its predictions.Bio:Dr. Ao Tang's research interests include protocol design for wireless and wireline networks, networked control and dynamical systems, optimization theory, and stochastic processes and networks.
He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the California Institute of Technology.
He received the INFORMS George B. Datzig Dissertation Award in 2006 for his thesis work titled "Heterogeneous Congestion Control Protocols".
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shane Goodoff
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Microwave Applications of Metamaterial Structures
Tue, Jan 23, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Munushian Lecture Series
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical EngineeringSEMINAR
"Microwave Applications of Metamaterial Structures"Tatsuo ItohUniversity of California, Los AngelesMetamaterials are artificial or man-made structures that have properties not found in naturally existing materials. The most unusual metamaterials are the Left-Handed ones, also called Double Negative or Negative Refractive Index materials, which are characterized by simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability. Many interesting EM propagation phenomena result from the negativeness of the constitutive parameters. For instance, the phase and the group velocities are anti-parallel in a Left-Handed substance. Fundamental theoretical research as well as research on possible revolutionary applications for microwave and RF circuits is underway at various organizations. Although the technology is still in its infancy, novel practical developments have already been proposed. The talk will contain a brief historical account, fundamental concepts, adaptation to microwave environment and emerging applications for antennas, passive components and active circuits with unique features at microwave frequencies.Tatsuo Itoh received the Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1969. He worked at University of Illinois, SRI, University of Kentucky, AEG Telefunken in Germany and The University of Texas at Austin. In January 1991, he joined the UCLA as Professor of Electrical Engineering and holder of the TRW Endowed Chair in Microwave and Millimeter Wave Electronics. He has visiting appointment with University of Leeds, UK. Dr. Itoh is a Fellow of the IEEE, served as the Editor of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques for 1983-1985, was President of the MTT Society in 1990 and was a founding Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters from 1991 through 1994. He was elected as an Honorary Life Member of MTT Society in 1994. He was the Chairman of Commission D of the URSI for 1993-1996. He received a number of awards including Shida Award from Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Japan and Japan Microwave Prize, IEEE Third Millennium Medal and IEEE MTT Distinguished Educator Award. He is a member of National Academy of Engineering. He was Distinguished Microwave Lecturer for IEEE MTT Society on Microwave Applications of Metamaterial Structures for 2004 - 06. He has over 1000 publications and generated 66 Ph.D's in the area of microwave and millimeter-waves, computational electromagnetics, antennas, microwave photonics.EBG and Negative Index Materials.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ericka Lieberknecht
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Marshall School of Business Deans Business Breakfast Series with Ronald Sugar
Wed, Jan 24, 2007 @ 07:00 AM - 09:00 AM
Viterbi School of Engineering Alumni
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
The USC Marshall School of Business has extended a special invitation to all Viterbi School of Engineering Alumni to atted their Dean's Business Breakfast Seminar.This month's seminar has a very special Engineering twist featuring Ronald Sugar, Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Corporation, as the guest speaker. Please join Dean Gilligan and local business leaders at this lively monthly forum to discuss business and industry trends with top CEOs.To RSVP or for more information please call the Marshall Events information line at 213-821-5277 or visit http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/corporateRelations.cfm?doc_id=7122
Location: Tower Hall (TOW) - n and Gown
Audiences: VSoE and Marshall School of Business Alumni
Contact: Kirstin Strickland
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Anemonphilous (Wind-Dispersed) Pollen: Allergenic and Dynamic Bioaerosol Particles
Wed, Jan 24, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:Dr. Richard Flagan,
Department of Chemical EngineeringCaltechAbstract:Pollen has long been linked to asthma, but pollen grains are too large to penetrate beyond the nasal region when inhaled. We have been investigating the mechanisms that enable the allergens found in these large particles to enter the lower airways where they can trigger asthmatic attacks. Botanists have observed that pollen ruptures when immersed in water, spilling its cytoplasmic material. They further hypothesized that the pollen fragments released in this process can be entrained into the air to form an allergenic, respirable aerosol. This rupture, which was observed by Brown in the early investigations of Brownian motion, results from osmotic pressure differences between the cytoplasmic fluids and the surrounding water. Our investigations have identified the special circumstances that allow such small particles to be entrained into the air. Our studies of pollen and pollen allergen release mechanisms have also revealed remarkable mechanisms of pollen release that challenge previous understanding of the limits to forces and motions attainable by living organisms.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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In Search of Fast and Robust Adaptation
Wed, Jan 24, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Naira HovakimyanDepartment of Aerospace and Ocean EngineeringVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State UniversityAbstract: The history of adaptive control systems dates back to early fifties, when the aeronautical community was struggling to advance aircraft speeds to higher Mach numbers. In November of 1967, X-15 launched on what was planned to be a routine research flight to evaluate a boost guidance system, but it went into a spin and eventually broke up at 65,000 feet, killing the pilot Michael Adams. It was later found that the onboard adaptive control system was to be blamed for this incident. Exactly thirty years later, fueled by advances in the theory of nonlinear control, Air Force successfully flight tested the unmanned unstable tailless X-36 aircraft with an onboard adaptive flight control system. This was a landmark achievement that dispelled some of the misgivings that had arisen from the X-15 crash in 1967. Since then, numerous flight tests of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) weapon retrofitted with adaptive element have met with great success and have proven the benefits of the adaptation in the presence of component failures and aerodynamic uncertainties. However, the major challenge related to stability/robustness assessment of adaptive systems is still being resolved based on testing the closed-loop system for all possible variations of uncertainties in Monte Carlo simulations, the cost of which increases with the growing complexity of the systems. This presentation will give an overview of the limitations inherent to the conventional adaptive controllers and will introduce a new thinking for adaptive control design that leads to fast and robust adaptation with provable control specifications and guaranteed stability/robustness margins. Various applications will be discussed throughout the presentation to demonstrate the tools and the concepts.
Location: Seaver Science Library, Room 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
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Handling Transient Errors in Logic Circuits
Thu, Jan 25, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING - DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIESAbstract:Transient faults caused by external radiation or internal electrical noise are common in integrated circuits (ICs). They normally do no permanent physical damage, but they can produce complex logical errors that require probabilistic analysis techniques. The shrinking of ICs in accordance with Moore's Law is increasing susceptibility to errors of this type. Moreover, many of the nanotechnologies proposed to replace or supplement conventional ICs also have behavior, both normal and faulty, that is inherently probabilistic. In this talk, I will review transient faults and their impact. I will then discuss a method of modeling transient faults and a computational framework based on probabilistic transfer matrices for analyzing transient faults and errors in logic circuits.Bio: John P. Hayes is Professor of EECS at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he holds the Claude E. Shannon Chair of Engineering Science. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of computer-aided design and testing; VLSI circuits; fault-tolerant systems; ad-hoc networks; and quantum computing. He received the B.E. degree from the National University of Ireland, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, all in electrical engineering. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, he was a faculty member at USC. Hayes was the founding director of Michigan’s Advanced Computer Architecture Laboratory (ACAL). He has authored numerous technical papers, several patents, and five books. He received the Michigan’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1999 and the Humboldt Foundation’s Research Award in 2004. Hayes is a Fellow of both IEEE and ACM.HOSTS: Prof. Mel Breuer & Prof. Sandeep Gupta
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - ontology Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Rosine Sarafian
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Developing Tools that Enhance Interactive Experiences and Their Development Porcess
Thu, Jan 25, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Magy Seif El-NasrPenn State UniversityCollege of Information Sciences and TechnologyAbstract:
The game industry is becoming a multi-billion dollar industry with revenues overcoming those of the movie industry. Recently, thousands of people around the world camped out in front of stores for days to be the first to own a Play Station 3 and/or Nintendo Wii. As the game industry matures, the tools used by designers and developers to build such games also mature. These tools are gaining importance as they not only result in better, faster developed games, but find unforeseen and excited uses outside their "native" industry – in training, health therapy, and education. In education in particular, these tools can be used as an infrastructure for course projects, helping reinforce many computer science and math concepts through learning by design or by doing. Still, many of these tools are limited. For example, the current visual design tools used to develop these interactive experiences have several limitations: they are (1) time- and labor- intensive, (2) rigid, as they do not adapt well to changes in physical and dramatic configuration of scenes forcing designers to preset these variables, and (3) designed based on control of timing and pacing which are not static as they depend on users' actions. My research focuses on developing tools that address these problems. In this talk, I will focus the discussion on one of these tools, specifically, a lighting design tool, called ELE (Expressive Lighting Engine), that I developed based on cinematic and theatric lighting design theories. ELE addresses the aforementioned problems by adding: (i) a high-level authoring tool to cut down the content development time and (ii) a constraint optimization system built based on cinematic and theatric techniques to adapt the lighting, accounting for context, timing, and gameplay/interaction, thus presenting a better adaptable solution to a dynamic environment. Such a tool is useful for enhancing the design and development process as well as the quality of interactive experiences, which include interactive entertainment, training simulations, and health therapy environments. I have also utilized the power of such tools in my classes to emphasize learning by design. Bio:
Dr. Seif El-Nasr is an assistant Professor in College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, where she directs the Real-time Aesthetic and Experience Lab. She earned her Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University in Computer Science and her master's degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University. Dr. Seif El-Nasr received several grants and awards. The awards she received include 2nd best paper award at the International Conference of Virtual Storytelling 2003, student best paper award at the Autonomous Agents conference 1999, and Leadership Excellence Award from Texas A&M University. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Game Development, the International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation, and ACM Computers in Entertainment; she has chaired and organized several workshops including, American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Interaction Entertainment, which has recently became its own conference AIIDE (Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment) and Design of Interactive Systems (DIS) Workshop called 'On the Process of Game Design'. She was a special theme editor for the Journal of Game Development special issue on Game Design Research. Her research work includes designing and developing tools that enhance the engagement of interactive environments used for training, education, and entertainment. She developed several classes, including Game Design and Development, Design of Immersive Environments, Interactive Narrative, and Software Engineering. In all her classes she promotes creativity and project-based learning through the use of the tools she built in her research augmented with game engines. URL: http://faculty.ist.psu.edu/SeifEl-Nasr/.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Nancy Levien
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Cooperative Networking - Searching For Algorithms in Logarithms
Thu, Jan 25, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKER: Prof. Mehul Motani, National University of SingaporeABSTRACT: In the last 50 or so years, information theory has helped to characterize many fundamental limits of communications and has driven innovation at the physical layer. Moving up the protocol stack, networking for wireline networks is fairly mature but wireless networks have advanced in a somewhat ad-hoc manner. One of the main challenges is that nodes in wireless networks can interact and cooperate in complex ways, often blurring the line between physical and network layer functions. In this talk, I will describe some of my research work which falls broadly in the area of cooperative networking for wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. On one hand, we look to network information theory to help us understand the limits of communication and cooperation in networks, e.g., relay, multiple relay, and interference channels. On the other hand, we design algorithms and protocols for cooperative networking, e.g., for multichannel MAC, directional antennas and collaborative signal processing. Combining these two approaches, we describe how information theory in a network setting can suggest efficient approaches to routing for cooperative relaying.BIO: Mehul Motani is currently an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He graduated with a PhD from Cornell University, focusing on information theory and coding for CDMA systems. Prior to his PhD, he was a member of technical staff at Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, New York for over four years. Recently he has been working on research problems which sit at the boundary of information theory, communications and networking, including the design of wireless ad-hoc and sensor network systems. He was awarded the Intel Foundation Fellowship for work related to his PhD in 2000 and nominated for the Best Teacher award at NUS. He is on the organizing committees for ISIT 2006 & 2007 and has served on the technical program committees of MobiCom 2007 and many other conferences. He participates actively in IEEE & Sigmobile/ACM and has served as the secretary of the IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors.Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Honors Program Colloquium: Road to Space -- The First Thousand Years
Fri, Jan 26, 2007 @ 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lecture given by Professor Mike Gruntman, Chair of the Astronautics and Space Technology Division of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Faculty and Honors Program Students
Contact: Erika Chua
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Corrective Action at Tiered-Permitted Hazardous Waste Facilities
Fri, Jan 26, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:John Geroch
P.G.
Supervising Hazardous Substances Scientist
California Department of Toxic Substances Control
Tiered Permitting Corrective Action Branch, Cypress, CAAbstractCorrective action is the term used by federal and state law to refer to the process for cleanup at hazardous waste facilities. In California DTSC is the agency responsible to implement corrective action at facilities permitted under both state and federal law. DTSC is one of six boards, departments and offices that is part of the California Environmental Protection Agency.This presentation will briefly explain the corrective action process and provide some examples of how DTSC implements this process in the cleanup of hazardous waste facilities. This presentation will also explain how the results of the site investigation are used to develop a conceptual site model in preparation for development of a remedial action plan.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Applications of Nanotechnology: Imaging, Detection and Nanoelectronics
Fri, Jan 26, 2007 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Mihri OzkanAssociate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering
Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering
University of California Riverside Importance of engineering at the nanoscale is more appreciated recently to cure diseases such as cancer or to fabricate devices at the scales off bacteria or virus with improved performance. In my talk, I will be giving number of examples from our recent studies specifically about imaging of nanotherapeutics, DNA sensors and bio-templated electronic devices such as resonant tunneling diode and memory. Firstly, label-free detection of nanoparticle therapeutics for in-vitro applications on human breast cancer cells will be demonstrated using a custom built hybrid AFM/NSOM platform. Different types of operational modes revealed the special placement of iron oxide nanoparticles on breast cancer cells after incubation at varying conditions. This study demonstrated label-free imaging of iron oxide particles and their uptake percentage based on their size and time of incubation. Secondly, multi-segmented nanowires in electrical sensor platform will be introduced with successful demonstrations of presence/absence of complementary DNA sequences inside the test buffer. Lastly, nanodevices synthesized using different bio-templates including DNA, PNA and viruses will be introduced. Electrical characterization of hybrid memory and negative differential resistance will be discussed on quantum dot/virus and SWNT/DNA or PNA hybrids, respectively. Short Biography: Dr. Mihri Ozkan is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UC-Riverside with a research focus in nanotechnology and its applications in biology and engineering. She received her Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC-San Diego and her M.S. degree in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. She has over four years of industrial experience including at Applied Materials, Analog Devices and at IBM Almaden Research Center. Dr. Ozkan is the recipient of number of awards including Army's Young Investigator Award (2006), Distinguished Engineering Educator of the Year Award by the National Engineers' Council (2006), Regents Faculty Excellence Award (2006, 2004, 2002), Emerging Scholar Award by the American Association of University Women (2005), Invited participant to the National Academy's Keck Future Initiatives Conference (2005), Visionary Science Award by the BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology Conference (2003),and "Achievement in Technical Ingenuity" Award by the Inland Empire Economic Partnership (2003). She is an active board member and treasurer in the International Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Her editorial activities include the Journal of Sensors and Actuators B, the Journal of Biomedical Microdevices and the Springer Encyclopedia about BioMEMS and Nanotechnology. She holds more than 25 patent disclosures and about 8 US-patents.Date: Friday, January 26, 2007
Place: HNB 100 (HNB)
Time: 2:30 – 3:30 PM
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ericka Lieberknecht
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SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON ADIABATIC SHEAR BANDING
Fri, Jan 26, 2007 @ 02:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
THE MORK FAMILY DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCEPRESENTS A SEMINAR
BYD. RittelFaculty of Mechanical Engineering Technion
32000 Haifa, IsraelSOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON ADIABATIC SHEAR BANDINGABSTRACT Assessing the dynamic mechanical properties of structural materials is an important stage of the design process of structures that must withstand various impacts. This data is mostly needed for numerical simulation purposes, when the dynamic response and eventual failure of a structure is to be evaluated. In this talk, we will address one specific dynamic failure mechanism, namely adiabatic shear banding. Adiabatic shear banding (ASB) is a catastrophic failure mechanism that may develop in certain ductile materials subjected to dynamic loading. The phenomenon itself consists of a narrow band of sheared material, in which the local temperature may reach a significant fraction of the melting temperature, as a result of thermomechanical coupling effects. As of today, there is an overwhelming disparity between analytical-numerical models related to ASB formation, and experimental evidence aimed at verifying a specific criterion or simply bringing physical evidence. This excludes of course the wealth of information related to microstructural aspects of ASB. The Dynamic Failure Laboratory at Technion has been investigating ASB formation from an experimental point of view. This talk will present new results on ASB formation in metals.
Three specific issues will be addressed, namely:1. A physical criterion for the onset of ASB formation
2. The influence of hydrostatic pressure on ASB formation
3. The influence of geometrical imperfections on ASB formationJanuary 26, 2006
2:45-3:30 PM
(Refreshments will be served at 2:30 PM)
SLH 102**ALL FIRST YEAR MATERIALS SCIENCE MAJORS ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND**
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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BME Seminar Series
Mon, Jan 29, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
"A Novel Tool for Characterizing Temporal Changes at the Biosensor-Brain Tissue Interface"Dan Merrill
Director of Applications Engineering
Alfred Mann FoundationLocation: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Adam Wyatt
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The Shape of Water
Tue, Jan 30, 2007
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Join us for a screening of "The Shape of Water." Filmmaker Kum-Kum Bhavnani will lead a discussion following the screening. http://www.usc.edu/webapps/events_calendar/custom/113/index.php?category=Item&item=0.861414&active_category=Upcoming
Location: Leavey Library Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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CS Distinguished Lecture Series
Tue, Jan 30, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Danny Cohen
Distinguished Engineer
CTO, Sun MicrosystemsTitle: Internet 0 (i0)Abstract: The growing demand for networking embedded devices has been met by a proliferation of incompatible standards that are repeating many of the early mistakes of what became the Internet. What's needed are the original architectural insights of the Internet, rather than their current technological embodiments. This is being done in the Internet 0
(i0) initiative. Just as the Internet introduced internetworking by carrying an IP packet end-to-end, i0 introduces interdevice internetworking by carrying modulation end-to-end. This is done by representing an IP packet in time-domain impulses, self-consistently timed to allow the transient response to settle over the size of the network. i0 addresses the most important performance constraint on providing smart infrastructure for homes, buildings, and factories: the cost of complexity. By bringing IP to the leaf nodes of a network, over any available physical transport, and in a way that is independent of network topology, i0 extends the Internet to the scale required by the trillion-dollar-per-year construction industry. Like the Internet protocol itself, i0 is not optimal for anything but good enough for just about everything.Bio: Danny Cohen is a Distinguished Engineer working on the HPCS Program. Cohen received his PhD from Ivan Sutherland at Harvard University.
Cohen pioneered visual realtime interactive flight simulation on general purpose computers. Later, he lead projects that pioneered realtime interactive applications over the ARPAnet and the Internet, such as visual flight simulation, packet-voice (aka Voice over IP) and packet-video.
After being on the computer science faculty at Harvard (1969-1973) he joined USC/ISI (1973-1993) where he started many network related projects, including Packet-Voice, Packet-Video, Internet Concepts, MOSIS, FastXchange (e-Commerce), Digital Library, and ATOMIC which was the forerunner of Myrinet. In 1993 he started working on Distributed Interactive Simulation through several projects funded by DoD. In 1994 he cofounded Myricom (with Chuck Seitz et al) which commercialized Myrinet, a high-performance system area network. In 2001 he joined Sun and is working there on optical interconnection.
Cohen served on several panels and boards for DoD, NIH, and NRC, including 5 years on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Air Force. He is a bona fide member of the Flat Earth Society, and a commercial pilot with SEL/MEL/SES ratings.
Danny is still a student of Ivan.Hosted by Gerard MedioniSnacks to be served.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Nancy Levien
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South by Southeast: Indian and Vietnamese Artists
Wed, Jan 31, 2007
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Join us for a panel featuring sociologist and filmmaker Kum-Kum Bhavnani, journalist, memoirist, radio-show host Nguyen Qui Duc and artist Dinh Q. Le. The panel will be moderated by USC critical studies professor Priya Jaikumar.
Location: Parkside Room 1016
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Importance of biofilms in environmental mercury methylation and persistence of enteric bacteria ...
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Importance of biofilms in environmental mercury methylation and
persistence of enteric bacteria in beach sandSpeaker:
Dr. Jennifer Jay,
UCLAAbstract:Microbial research has undergone a significant shift over the last decade, as we now recognize that the majority of bacteria in the environment live in attached communities, or biofilms. This talk concerns the role of biofilms in two research areas relevant to public health: I. The cycling of mercury (Hg) in the environment. In aquatic systems, inorganic Hg is microbially transformed to methylmercury, a very toxic form of Hg(II) that is readily biomagnified through food webs. While it is known that microbial uptake of Hg by planktonic cultures is influenced by the extracellular speciation of Hg in aquatic systems, Hg uptake in biofilm cultures is understudied. Working first with Escherichia coli O55 as a model gram-negative biofilm-forming organism, and then with two coastal wetland isolates of Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, we found that the presence of a biofilm does not alter the relative availability of the dominant Hg species in both sulfidic and oxic conditions. Interestingly, we observed much higher Hg methylation rates in biofilm cultures compared to planktonic cultures. Results on the geochemical controls on Hg methylation at our coastal wetland field site and in wetland mesocosms will also be presented. II. The persistence of enteric bacteria in sediments. Biofilms also play an important role in the survival of enteric bacteria in beach environments. We observed very high levels of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in sediments at enclosed beaches, and both field and laboratory microcosm results support the hypothesis that the quiescent environment rather than sediment characteristics can explain the elevated sediment FIB levels observed at enclosed beaches.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Optimization in Complex Fluid Mechanics Problems Using the Surrogate Management Framework
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Alison Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow Stanford University Stanford, CA As computational tools mature in accuracy and ability to handle complex phenomena, their impact on solving significant engineering problems will grow. Along with the increase in fidelity of numerical simulations comes a need for development of optimization tools. Optimization applied to fluid mechanics encompasses some of the most challenging aspects of both sub jects, often requir-ing advanced numerical methods for fluid mechanics simulations, combined with non-traditional optimization methods. This talk will focus on new methodologies for optimization of airfoil shapes to reduce trailing-edge noise in turbulent flow. We will then briefly discuss how these optimization tools are being transferred to the field of cardiovascular bioengineering, where they have potential to impact surgical design for both congenital and acquired cardiovascular disease. In optimization for aeroacoustics, or flow generated noise, time accurate computations such as large-eddy simulation (LES) are required to resolve the range of spatial and temporal flow scales relevant to noise generation. The large computational cost coupled with the difficulty in computing gradients of cost functions makes optimization using traditional methods particularly challenging. In this work, we have developed a methodology to optimize the shape of a hydrofoil trailing-edge in order to minimize the aerodynamic noise propagated to the far field. The optimization method applied in this problem is a tailored version of the surrogate management framework (SMF) (Booker et al., 1999). Several novel adaptations to this method have made it more suitable for the trailing- edge problem, particularly for constrained optimization. Optimization has been performed to suppress the laminar vortex-shedding noise from acous-tically compact airfoils as well as the broadband noise from turbulent flow over an acoustically non-compact airfoil. For optimization in turbulent flow, LES is used for source field computations. Several optimal shapes have been identified, which result in significant reduction of trailing-edge noise in both laminar and turbulent flow with reasonable computational cost. The results of this study demonstrate the successful coupling of shape optimization to a time-accurate turbulent flow calculation, and validate the use of a novel methods for constrained optimization. The SMF optimization method is currently being applied to optimize cardiovascular geometries that are representative of surgeries and diseased states. These problems share several challenges in common with the trailing-edge noise problem, particularly the importance of computing the unsteady flow field and a large computational cost. We will discuss how the tools that were developed for the trailing-edge problem can be effectively coupled to blood flow simulations in order to impact surgery design and improve understanding of cardiovascular disease. Finally, we will discuss future work in the area of optimization and simulation in cardiovascular medicine, including coronary artery bypass grafting, peripheral vascular disease, and the identification of principles of optimality in vessel branching patterns.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) Rm 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
