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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February
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Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Tue, Feb 02, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Sanjay Govindjee, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Soft and Semi-Soft Elasticity and for Liquid Crystal Elastomers
Abstract: Liquid crystal elastomers present a relatively new and interesting class of materials that display soft and semi-soft elastic behavior as well as viscoelastic behavior. These materials are comprised of liquid crystal molecules together with polymerizing agents to form a final solid that behaves as an elastomeric solid would, as well as like a liquid crystal would. The interaction of these two features provides for a wide and complex range of macroscopically observed phenomena, including for example optical actuation, extreme softness, pattern formation, and high damping to name a few. Because of the wide range of behaviors and the materials highly non-linear properties (material and geometric non-linearities), the modeling of these materials is somewhat challenging. A direct phenomenological approach is generally precluded or only applicable to a small range of loading states. On the other hand, developing models from an atoms-up approach has its own limitations in terms of feasibility. Past efforts mostly involve a compromise and blend of these two approaches, often opaquely, and as such the literature contains a number of different options and viewpoints as to what is important in the modeling of liquid crystal elastomers.
In this presentation, we revisit a number of proposed models for liquid crystal elastomers and try to clearly articulate their meaning. We do this by first examining the fundamental physics associated with the materials constituents. From there we build up, using statistical mechanics arguments, the appropriate structures for describing the materials free-energy functions. This will lead us to an understanding of the meaning of the so-call trace formula for soft elasticity, allowing us to give a precise statement as to what it accounts for and what it does not account for. In particular, we will see that the trace formula is not a strictly entropic result, but rather a hybrid relation. We will also see that the mathematical structure of this energy fails to be quasi-convex and we will discuss the implications of this defect for the solution of boundary value problems with regard to existence of solutions, quasi-convex approximations, and modeling of microstructure evolution. We will next examine microstructural feature of poly-dispersity and see that it gives rise to semi-soft elasticity, and compare and contrast the resulting model structure with a some phenomenological proposals found in the literature for semi-soft elasticity. Time permitting, we will also examine the unique nature of the governing balance laws for these materials which lead to non-symmetric Cauchy stresses.
Biography: Sanjay Govindjee is a Professor of Civil Engineering and the Horace, Dorothy, and Katherine Johnson Endowed Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1993-2006, 2008-present). His main interests are in theoretical and computational mechanics with an emphasis on micro-mechanics, shape memory alloys, and elastomers. Prior to joining Berkeley he worked as an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1991-1993) in Livermore, California. He was also Professor of Mechanics at ETH Zürich (2006-2008) in Zürich, Switzerland.
Sanjay Govindjee obtained a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Physics from Stanford University in 1991 under the guidance of the late Prof. Juan C. Simo and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1987. His S.B. is in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.
Noteworthy honors include a National Science Foundation Career Award, the inaugural 1998 Zienkiewicz Prize and Medal, an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship 1999, a Berkeley Chancellor's Professorship 2006-2011, and a guest Professorship at ETH Zürich 2008-2013. In 2015 he was named a Fellow of the US Association for Computational Mechanics. In 2018 he received a Humboldt-Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Award).
He currently serves as the Principal Investigator and co-Director of the National Science Foundation Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure SimCenter at Berkeley
Host: Dr. Roger Ghanem
Location: Zoom Meeting https://usc.zoom.us/j/97228056404 Meeting ID: 972 2805 6404 Passcode: 864779
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar
Tue, Feb 02, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Giulia Pedrielli, Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Design Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
Talk Title: Black Box Optimization in the Era of Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems
Host: Prof. Julie Higle
More Information: February 2, 2021.pdf
Location: Online/Zoom
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Mork Family Department Spring Virtual Seminars - Corinne Packard
Tue, Feb 02, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Corinne Packard, Colorado School of Mines
Talk Title: III-V PHOTOVOLTAIC SUBSTRATE REUSE USING FRACTURE
Abstract: ZOOM MEETING INFO:
https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?pwd=d0NMenhCNkliR1ZIR1lBamRpZHh1UT09
Meeting ID: 982 2595 2695
Passcode: 322435
Host: Andrea Hodge
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?pwd=d0NMenhCNkliR1ZIR1lBamRpZHh1UT09
More Information: USC Dept Seminars-Spring2021[1].pdf
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Greta Harrison
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?pwd=d0NMenhCNkliR1ZIR1lBamRpZHh1UT09
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CAIS Seminar: Daniel Leightley (King’s Centre for Military Health Research) - Drinks: Ration: Managing Alcohol Misuse by Automation
Wed, Feb 03, 2021 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Daniel Leightley, King's Centre for Military Health Research and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre
Talk Title: Drinks: Ration: Managing Alcohol Misuse by Automation
Series: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series
Abstract: Technological advances within smart phone devices are creating new innovative routes to improve monitoring, delivery, and effectiveness of clinical interventions. In this talk, I will present Drinks: Ration, a smart phone app designed to reduce alcohol misuse in veterans through the application of machine learning and behavioral change theory. This combination enables us to personalize both the content of Drinks: Ration and messaging to promote healthy lifestyle changes in the armed forces community.
Register in advance for this webinar at:
https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_87CjZnUESYaB5Z1MR18KwA
After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Dr. Daniel Leightley is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the King's Centre for Military Health Research and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. His research focuses on the interface between machine learning and mobile health technologies, specifically focused on diagnosis, treatment, intervention and management of physical and mental health conditions.
Host: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS)
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/ WN_87CjZnUESYaB5Z1MR18KwALocation: Online Zoom Webinar
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/ WN_87CjZnUESYaB5Z1MR18KwA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar
Wed, Feb 03, 2021 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ye Zhao, The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Robust Planning and Decision-making for Safe Legged Locomotion
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Our society has witnessed the advancement of legged locomotion autonomy and mobility, but they have not become prevalent as autonomous driving and wheeled robot mobility. One crux is the lack of robust, scalable, and real-time planning and decision-making algorithms for these highly complex legged machines with contact-rich behaviors. To address this issue, symbolic planning, logic-based formal method, and distributed optimization are promising yet underexplored for locomotion problems. This talk will present three unique perspectives to quantify uncertainties and reason about robustness in task and motion planning algorithms for highly dynamic legged locomotion. I will start with temporal-logic-based reactive motion planning for whole-body dynamic locomotion in constrained environments and propose robust metrics to enable resilient contact decisions. Following this direction, I will present our recent task planning framework with belief tracking for safe locomotion in partially observable environments. In the end, I will talk about contact-aware trajectory optimization methods that parameterize terrain uncertainties for robust cost design to enhance risk-sensitive locomotion performance.
Biography: Ye Zhao is an Assistant Professor at The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. He works on planning and decision-making algorithms of highly dynamic and contact-rich robots. He is especially interested in challenging locomotion and manipulation problems with formal guarantees on robustness and autonomy. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, and received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016. At Georgia Tech, he leads the Laboratory for Intelligent Decision and Autonomous Robots (LIDAR) (http://lab-idar.gatech.edu/). He is also affiliated with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) and the Decision and Control Laboratory (DCL).
Host: Feifei Qian and Pierluigi Nuzzo
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiALocation: Online
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 03, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ali Khosronejad, Stony Brook University
Talk Title: Saliva Particle Transport during Cough & Breathing: Insights on Effective Social Distancing & Face Wearing Gained by LES
Abstract: The Coronavirus disease outbreak of 2019 has been causing significant loss of life and unprecedented economical loss throughout the world. Social distancing and face masks are widely recommended around the globe in order to protect others and prevent the spread of the virus through breathing, coughing, and sneezing. To expand the scientific underpinnings of such recommendations, we carry out high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations of unprecedented resolution and realism to elucidate the underlying physics of saliva particulate transport during human cough and normal breathing with and without facial masks. Our simulations: (a) are carried out under both a stagnant ambient flow (indoor) and a mild unidirectional breeze (outdoor) (b) incorporate the effect of human anatomy on the flow (c) account for both medical and non-medical grade masks; and (d) consider a wide spectrum of particulate sizes. We show that during indoor coughing some saliva particulates could travel up to 0.48 m, 0.73 m, and 2.62 m for the cases with medical-grade, non-medical grade, and without facial masks, respectively. Thus, in indoor environments either medical or non-medical grade facial masks can successfully limit the spreading of saliva particulates to others. Under outdoor conditions with a unidirectional mild breeze, however, leakage flow through the mask can cause saliva particulates to be entrained into the energetic shear layers around the body and transported very fast at large distances by the turbulent flow, thus, limiting the effectiveness of facial masks.
Biography: Short Bio:
1995 -“ 99 BS, Hydraulic Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
1999 -“ 2001 MS, Hydraulic Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
2001 -“ 2006 PhD, Hydraulic Engineering, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
2004 -“ 2005 Research Assistant, University of Ottawa, Canada
2006 -“ 2009 Assis. Prof., University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
2006 -“ 2009 Senior Engineer, Dam Rehabilitation Dept., Mahab Ghods Consultant, Tehran, Iran
2009 -“ 2016 Post-Doctoral, St. Anthony Falls Lab., University of Minnesota, Mineapolis, MN
2016 -“ Assis. Prof., Civil Engineering Dept., Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
Published over 40 Journal Articles
PI of research grants from NSF, NIH, Austrian NSF, and California Department of Transportation
Co-PI of research grants from DOE and NYSERDA
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99170932320
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99170932320Location: Online event
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99170932320
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99170932320
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NL SEMINAR-From Human Language to Agent Action
Thu, Feb 04, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jesse Thomason, USC CS/Amazon Alexa
Talk Title: From Human Language to Agent Action
Abstract: There is a usability gap between manipulation capable robots and helpful in home digital agents. Dialog enabled smart assistants have recently seen widespread adoption, but these cannot move or manipulate objects. By contrast, manipulation-capable and mobile robots are still largely deployed in industrial settings and do not interact with human users. Language enabled robots can bridge this gap natural language interfaces help robots and non-experts collaborate to achieve their goals. Navigation in unexplored environments to high level targets like Go to the room with a plant can be facilitated by enabling agents to ask questions and react to human clarifications on the fly. Further, high level instructions like Put a plate of toast on the table require inferring many steps, from finding a knife to operating a toaster. Low level instructions can serve to clarify these individual steps. Through two new datasets and accompanying models, we study human human dialog for cooperative navigation, and high and low level language instructions for cooking, cleaning, and tidying in interactive home environments. These datasets are a first step towards collaborative, dialog enabled robots helpful in human spaces.
Biography: Jesse is starting as an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California in fall 2021, and is currently hanging out at Amazon Alexa AI for a year. Recently, he was a postdoctoral researcher working with Luke Zettlemoyer at the University of Washington. His research focuses on language grounding and natural language processing applications for robotics RoboNLP. Key to this work is using dialog with humans to facilitate both robot task execution and learning to enable lifelong improvement of robots language understanding capabilities. He has encouraged work in RoboNLP through workshop organization at NLP, robotics, and vision conference venues.
Host: Jon May and Mozhdeh Gheini
More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: https://youtu.be/vSLk1T48WToLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://youtu.be/vSLk1T48WTo
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petet Zamar
Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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CS Distinguished Lecture: Ayanna Howard (Georgia Institute of Technology) - Hacking the Human Bias in the Robotics Machine
Thu, Feb 04, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ayanna Howard, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Hacking the Human Bias in the Robotics Machine
Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series
Abstract: People tend to overtrust sophisticated computing devices, including robotic systems. As these systems become more fully interactive with humans during the performance of day-to-day activities, the role of bias in these human-robot interaction scenarios must be more carefully investigated. Bias is a feature of human life that is intertwined, or used interchangeably, with many different names and labels -“ stereotypes, prejudice, implicit or subconsciously held beliefs. In the digital age, this bias has often been encoded in and can manifest itself through AI algorithms, which humans then take guidance from, resulting in the phenomenon of excessive trust. Trust conveys the concept that when interacting with intelligent systems, humans tend to exhibit similar behaviors as when interacting with other humans; thus, the concern is that people may under-appreciate or misunderstand the risk associated with handing over decisions to an intelligent agent. Bias further impacts this potential risk for trust, or overtrust, in that these systems are learning by mimicking our own thinking processes, inheriting our own implicit biases. Consequently, the propensity for trust and the potential of bias may have a direct impact on the overall quality of the interaction between humans and machines, whether the interaction is in the domains of healthcare, job-placement, or other high-impact life scenarios. In this talk, we will discuss this phenomenon of integrated trust and bias through the lens of intelligent systems that interact with people in scenarios that are realizable in the near-term.
Register in advance for this webinar at:
https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FtvySGKTReuCvZr_2cpAeQ
After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Ayanna Howard, Ph.D. is the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Professor and Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also holds a faculty appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and serves on the Board of Directors for the Partnership on AI and Autodesk. Dr. Howard's career focus is on intelligent technologies that must adapt to and function within a human-centered world. Her work, which encompasses advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), assistive technologies, and robotics, has resulted in over 250 peer-reviewed publications in a number of projects - from healthcare robots in the home to AI-powered STEM apps for children with diverse learning needs. To date, her unique accomplishments have been highlighted through a number of awards and articles, including highlights in USA Today, Upscale, and TIME Magazine, as well as being recognized as one of the 23 most powerful women engineers in the world by Business Insider and one of the Top 50 U.S. Women in Tech by Forbes. In 2013, she also founded Zyrobotics, which develops STEM educational products to engage children of all abilities. Prior to Georgia Tech, Dr. Howard was a Senior Robotics Researcher and Deputy Manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has also served as the Associate Director of Research for the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Chair of the Robotics Ph.D. program, and the Associate Chair for Faculty Development in ECE at Georgia Tech.
Host: Heather Culbertson
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FtvySGKTReuCvZr_2cpAeQLocation: Online Zoom Webinar
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FtvySGKTReuCvZr_2cpAeQ
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Tue, Feb 09, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yu Hou, Civil Engineering Ph.D. Candidate, Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Talk Title: An Innovative Approach to RGB Point Cloud and Thermal Information Data Fusion for Building Thermal Map Modeling Using Aerial Images: Fusion Performance Results under Different Experimental Conditions
Abstract: Three-dimensional thermal mapping provides many benefits for auditing building energy performance when compared with 2D thermal images that provide only limited representation. However, the current thermal mapping approaches have accuracy and efficiency tradeoffs when modeling large areas using aerial images. In particular, low-resolution thermal images make it harder to obtain a high-quality thermal mapping model. To avoid using low-definition thermal images to reconstruct building thermal models and improve the performance of large-area thermal mapping, we proposed a thermal and RGB data fusion framework for thermal mapping. This presentation aims to explain how different experimental conditions on the proposed fusion approach affected the results. The evaluated conditions included different camera altitudes (60 meters and 35 meters), distinct camera angles (45 degrees and 30 degrees), diverse flight path designs (mesh grid and Y path), and various building styles (university campus buildings and buildings in a central city area). The results demonstrated that different performances of conducting the proposed data fusion approach under different conditions were observed, and the study provides suggestions for using this approach in such conditions.
Biography: Yu Hou is a Ph.D. candidate working with Dr. Lucio Soibelman. He received his M.S. degree in construction management from China University of Mining and Technology. He joined USC in 2016 and earned a M.S. degree in computer science from USC in 2019. He is expected to graduate in May 2021. His research focuses on improving building energy efficiency by automatically detecting heat loss and moisture areas on building envelopes from 3D thermographic models reconstructed by drone-based thermal images.
Host: Dr. Burcin Becerik
Location: Zoom Meeting https://usc.zoom.us/j/97228056404 Meeting ID: 972 2805 6404 Passcode: 864779
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar
Tue, Feb 09, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Xuegang (Jeff) Ban, Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington
Talk Title: Microscopic Dynamic Network Traffic Control with Drivers' Route Choice Behavior
Host: Prof. Jong-Shi Pang and Prof. Maged Dessouky
More Information: February 9, 2021.pdf
Location: Online/Zoom
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar
Wed, Feb 10, 2021 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ricardo G. Sanfelice, Computer Engineering, University of California at Santa Cruz
Talk Title: Hybrid Feedback Control with Robotic Applications
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Hybrid systems have become prevalent when describing complex systems that mix continuous and impulsive dynamics. For instance, in cyber-physical systems, continuous dynamics usually govern the evolution of the physical variables in the system, while impulsive (or discrete) behavior is typically due to events in the control algorithm or in the communication network. A mathematical framework comprised of differential and difference equations/inclusions with constraints will be introduced to model, analyze, and design such systems. An appropriate notion of solution and basic properties on the system data will be introduced. Tools for the analysis and synthesis of robust hybrid feedback control systems will be presented. The talk will provide an overview of tools guaranteeing asymptotic stability, invariance, safety, robustness, and the satisfaction of temporal logic specifications. Recent development on hybrid model predictive control and relevant robotic applications will be highlighted.
Biography: Ricardo G. Sanfelice is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at Santa Cruz, CA, USA. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 2004 and 2007, respectively, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. During 2007 and 2008, he was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and visited the Centre Automatique et Systemes at the Ecole de Mines de Paris for four months. Prof. Sanfelice is the recipient of the 2013 SIAM Control and Systems Theory Prize, the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Air Force Young Investigator Research Award, the 2010 IEEE Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award, and the 2012 STAR Higher Education Award for his contributions to STEM education. He is Associate Editor for Automatica and has served as Chair of the Hybrid Systems Technical Committee from the IEEE Control Systems Society. He is Director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Research Center at UCSC. His research interests are in modeling, stability, robust control, observer design, and simulation of nonlinear and hybrid systems with applications to robotics, power systems, aerospace, and biology.
Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo, nuzzo@usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiALocation: Online
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 10, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gen(ret) Ellen Pawlikowski, USC
Talk Title: Learning From the Past
Abstract: Department of Defense acquisition programs are the means that new capabilities are developed, acquired and fielded to support military operations. These programs can span decades as they often include evolving complex systems of systems. New practitioners (program managers and engineers) tend to get overwhelmed and at the same time discover that the tools to apply such information to their current task are deficient or lacking. In todays world of ever growing complexity and increasingly compressed timelines, there is seldom enough time to gain the depth and breadth of experience needed. This recognition provides the impetus to leverage case studies as an experience accelerator. Case studies provide tools for acquisition practitioners to learn from the experience of those program managers and systems engineers that preceded them. This presentation provides a foundation for conducting and using case studies in systems engineering and management.
Biography: General (retired) Ellen M Pawlikowski is an independent consultant providing expertise on strategic planning, program management, logistics, and research and development. She is the Judge Widney Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. She serves on the Boards of Directors for the Raytheon Company, Intelsat SA, Applied Research Associates, and SRI International. Ellen Pawlikowski was the third woman to achieve the rank of General in the US Air Force. In her last assignment, she served as Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The command employs some 80,000 people and manages $60 billion annually, providing the Air Force with research and development, life cycle systems management, test and evaluation, installation support, depot maintenance and supply chain management.
She entered the Air Force in 1978 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ. She then attended the University of California at Berkeley as a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation fellow and received a Doctorate in chemical engineering in December 1981.
General Pawlikowski's career has spanned a wide variety of technical management, leadership and staff positions. She commanded five times as a general officer, commanding the MILSATCOM Systems Wing, the AF element of the National Reconnaissance Office, AF Research Laboratory, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and Air force Materiel Command. She also served as the program director and program executive officer for several multibillion dollar military system acquisitions.
General Pawlikowski is nationally recognized for her leadership and technical management acumen. Among her recognitions are the Women In Aerospace Life Time Achievement Award, the NDIA Peter B Teets Award, and the Air Force Association Executive Management Award. She is a Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Fellow of the Directed Energy Professional Society, and a member of the National Academy of Engineers.
Ellen Pawlikowski was born in Bloomfield, NJ and currently resides in Macon, GA.
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94332388706
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94332388706Location: Online event
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94332388706
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94332388706
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Advanced Manufacturing Seminar Series
Fri, Feb 12, 2021 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Steven Nutt, USC
Talk Title: Aerospace-Grade Composites Without Autoclaves - A New Paradigm for Prepregs
Abstract: Composite parts for aerospace structures have traditionally traveled through the autoclave en route to service. The journey begins when sheets of prepreg (fibers pre-impregnated with polymer resin) are laid onto a contoured tool in specified orientations, then cured by heating. The pressures provided during autoclave cure cycles have ensured consistent yields of low-defect laminates that meet the exacting performance and safety standards of the aerospace industry. The process robustness imparted by the use of autoclaves has fostered confidence amongst engineers, greatly expanding the deployment of composite materials. Examples of the widespread use include the 787 and A350 all-composite aircraft, as well as military aircraft and space vehicles. However, expanded use has created demand for increased production rates, and thus engineers have sought ways to bypass autoclaves, albeit without sacrificing material quality. The search has spawned the advent of vacuum-bag-only (VBO) prepregs designed to be cured in conventional ovens, which in principle should accelerate production throughput and reduce costs. In this seminar, basic principles involved in the design, use, and production of VBO prepregs will be presented, as well as perspectives on opportunities for future developments.
Biography: Prof. Nutt is the M.C. Gill Professor and founding director of the M.C. Gill Composites Center at the University of Southern California (USC). He joined USC in 1994, and his group focuses on understanding physical and chemical processes occurring during the manufacture of composite materials.
Host: Center for Advanced Manufacturing
More Info: Please register for this webinar at: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZxgMTiUmR6qUWLVuvT-HLg
More Information: Adv Mfg Seminar S21_Steven Nutt.pdf
Location: Online event
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: Please register for this webinar at: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZxgMTiUmR6qUWLVuvT-HLg
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Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Tue, Feb 16, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Chung-Yuen (Herbert) Hui, Proessor, Cornell University
Talk Title: The role of surface stress on the mechanical behavior of soft solids
Abstract: Soft solids are ubiquitous: gels, foams, biomaterials, rubbers, and the stuff that makes up our very bodies. They are orders of magnitude more compliant than conventional engineering materials (e.g., stiff materials such as metals and ceramics). For this reason, the mechanical behavior of stiff solids is controlled by the resistance to bulk deformation: elasticity, plasticity, and the like; the mechanical role of the surface is utterly negligible, as noted by Gibbs. However, the surface of common soft solids carries considerable stress, just as liquids have a surface tension. Consequently, for soft solids, the pervasive influence of surface stress has required re-thinking a wide range of mechanical phenomena and properties. In this talk, I will show examples of phenomena where surface stress has radically changed mechanical behaviour. For example, how small particles interact with soft substrates can be governed more by surface stress than by the elasticity of the substrate. Surface stress can modify adhesion on rough surfaces by flattening them. The contact angle in partial wetting is no longer always governed by Young equation -“ it depends on the surface stress of the solid substrate as well as its elasticity.
Biography: Dr. Chung-Yuen(Herbert)Hui is the Joseph-Ford Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering(MAE)of Cornell University. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison majoring in Physics and Mathematics. He received his Master degree in Applied Math and Ph.D.degree in Solid Mechanics from Harvard. He joined the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics(TAM)at Cornell University in 1981 and stayed until 2010, when TAM became part of MAE. His primary research interest is Physics and Mechanics of materials. His recent research is primarily focused on adhesion science, fracture mechanics and mechanics of soft matter. He was the Chairman of Gordon Conference on Adhesion in 2010 and received the Adhesion Society Award for Excellence in Adhesion Science in 2011. He enjoys teaching and received several teaching awards including Tau-Beta-Pi Excellence in Teaching Award.
Host: Dr. Qiming Wang
Location: Zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97228056404; Meeting ID: 972 2805 6404: Passcode: 864779
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar
Tue, Feb 16, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Guanghui (George) Lan,, Associate Professor, The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Advancing Stochastic Optimization for Reinforcement Learning
Host: Dr. Meisam Razaviyayn
More Information: February 16, 2021.pdf
Location: Online/Zoom
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Mork Family Department Spring Virtual Seminars - David Bahr
Tue, Feb 16, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David Bahr, Purdue University
Talk Title: LOW DENSITY MATS AND FOAMS WITH METAL COMPONENTS OR HOW STRONG IS THAT SQUISHY METAL THING?
Abstract: ZOOM MEETING INFO:
https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?pwd=d0NMenhCNkliR1ZIR1lBamRpZHh1UT09
Meeting ID: 982 2595 2695
Passcode: 322435
More Information: USC Dept Seminars-Spring2021[1].pdf
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Greta Harrison
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar
Wed, Feb 17, 2021 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mallik Tatipamula, CTO of Ericsson Group Function Technologies and Architectures
Talk Title: Harnessing the Power of 5G, Edge Computing & AI/ML for Industrial IoT Applications
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: This session begins with an update on 5G technology, standards and global network rollouts. Then it will present future technology evolution and research challenges at the intersection of "5G, edge computing and AI/ML" for realizing a distributed multi-cloud to address Industrial IoT applications. It will conclude with a discussion on research opportunities over the next decade for 5G as well as early 6G research areas.
Biography: As a CTO of Ericsson Group Function Technologies and Architectures, Dr. Mallik Tatipamula leads the evolution of Ericsson's technology, and champions the company's next phase of innovation and growth driven by 5G Distributed Multi-Cloud Deployments. He also leads O-RAN and early 6G technology efforts. Prior to Ericsson, he held several leadership positions at F5 networks, Juniper networks, Cisco, Motorola, Nortel, and the Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai). During 30 years of professional career, he has played a unique leadership role in delivering industry's most powerful innovations, standards contributions, products/solutions, and early real-world deployments, working with telecom operators as well as academia, to accelerate the architectural transitions in the telecom industry. He has identified strategic opportunities and implemented programs with a multi-billion dollars impact, launching over 50 products/solutions that are deployed in global telecom networks to enable major network transitions from 2G to 5G. Since 2011, he has been a visiting professor at King's College London, where world's first 5G network was demonstrated together with Ericsson and Vodafone. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET, UK). He received several awards, including "Univ. of California, Berkeley's Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation Award," the "CTO/Technologist of the year" award by World Communications Awards, the "IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award," the "IET Achievement medal in telecommunications", and and the "CTO of the year from Silicon Valley Business Journal (2019-2020)".
He has a Ph.D. in Information and Communications Engineering from the Univ. of Tokyo, Japan, a Master's degree in Communication Systems from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, and a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from NIT, Warangal, India. He mentored over 100 undergrad/graduate students, delivered 400+ keynote/invited talks, co-authored 2 books, 100+ publications/patents, and served on 40+ IEEE conferences committees. He has been involved in developing industry-academia partnerships in Canada, US, UK and India and serves on several advisory boards including Global Semiconductor Alliance, Gartner/Evanta CIO Council, London Digital Twin Research Center, and the Center for Growth Markets at Univ. of California, Berkeley.
Host: Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Pierluigi Nuzzo
Location: Online
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 17, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ian Tobasco, Univ. Illinois Chicago
Talk Title: Simple Rules for the Wrinkle Patterns of Confined Elastic Shells
Abstract: Dried fruits wrinkle for the same reason that leaves and flowers do -” mechanical instabilities arising from a mismatch in lengths. Can such geometric incompatibilities be used to design and control wrinkle patterns at will? This talk will discuss the possibility of designing wrinkle patterns in the large using a recently derived model for the wrinkles of confined elastic shells. After recalling the basic mechanics and introducing our model, we show how it can be solved by hand in many cases to predict the wrinkled topography. Solving this model produces a few geometric rules, which explain the layout of the wrinkle peaks and troughs across examples. These simple rules reproduce the patterns seen in numerous experiments and simulations, even ones that exhibit a surprising coexistence between orderly wrinkles and a more disordered response. Knowing such rules for wrinkles opens the way towards designer wrinkle patterns, with potential applications from flexible electronics to synthetic skins.
Biography: Ian Tobasco is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, and a B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan.
His research on the calculus of variations and partial differential equations concerns problems that sit at the interface of mathematics, physics, and engineering, where advances in pure mathematical analysis can lead to scientific breakthroughs in the lab and vice versa. His recent work involves the use of energy minimization to explain and classify the zoo of wrinkling, crumpling, and folding patterns exhibited by thin elastic sheets. Other interests include the design of optimal transport mechanisms in fluid dynamics and their comparison with naturally occurring turbulent transport, as well as the variational analysis of spin glasses.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97445099108
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97445099108Location: Online event
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97445099108
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97445099108
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CS Distinguished Lecture: Jodi Forlizzi (Carnegie Mellon University) - Designing Human Interaction with Agents and Robots
Thu, Feb 18, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jodi Forlizzi, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Designing Human Interaction with Agents and Robots
Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series
Abstract: Over the last decade, the idea that robots and agents might participate meaningfully in complex group and organizational contexts has developed from a promising vision into a reality. Robots now assist humans in simple tasks such as delivery through complex, high-stakes tasks such as disaster response and surgery. In this talk, I will introduce the discipline of design and describe, with examples from our work, how it is a critical research practice in designing complex agent and robot systems that fit in a number of social and organizational contexts and support all aspects of interaction.
Register in advance for this webinar at:
https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yJnd7cRcTqGnpXIwQQ79hg
After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Jodi Forlizzi is the Geschke Director and a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lead in the School of Computer Science. She is responsible for establishing design research as a legitimate form of research in HCI that is different from, but equally as important as, scientific and human science research. Jodi has advocated for design research in all forms, mentoring peers, colleagues, and students in its structure and execution, and today it is an important part of the HCI community. Her current research interests include designing human-robot interaction as a service and human-AI collaboration in the domains of eldercare, accessibility, human assistance, and overall wellbeing.
Host: Heather Culbertson
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yJnd7cRcTqGnpXIwQQ79hgLocation: Online Zoom Webinar
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yJnd7cRcTqGnpXIwQQ79hg
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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2021 MFD Student Symposium
Fri, Feb 19, 2021
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Various, Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Talk Title: 2021 MFD Student Symposium
Abstract: We are excited to announce that the 2021 MFD Student Symposium will be held on Friday, February 19th 2021. The event will be virtual and held over Zoom. Abstract submission details and deadlines will follow soon.
There are many, many, many more presentation and poster awards to be won this year (thanks to Prof. Ershaghi and Chevron)! We look forward to your participation.
Host: Shaama M Sharada
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Greta Harrison
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Quantum Computing In Industry: A Lockheed Martin Perspective
Fri, Feb 19, 2021 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Joshua Job, Senior Research Scientist, Lockheed Martin
Talk Title: Quantum Computing In Industry: A Lockheed Martin Perspective
Abstract: Quantum computing has boomed in recent years, generating hundreds of millions of dollars of investment from private industry and government. In this talk, we will cover a brief overview of the field of quantum computing, my past research at USC, the industry as a whole, and my work at Lockheed Martin centering on algorithm development, benchmarking analysis, and machine learning applications for quantum computing systems. We will also cover the state of the field, what interests Lockheed Martin and the government have in quantum computing and quantum technologies generally, and the perks and challenges of transitioning from academia to industry.
Biography: Joshua Job got his BS in Physics from Georgia Tech in 2012 and then attended the University of Southern California where he worked in the group of Daniel Lidar researching the theory and applications of quantum annealers and quantum computers generally, graduating with a PhD in Physics in 2018. He then joined the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center where he has continued his work in quantum computing, supporting programs for IARPA, AFRL, Fermilab, the DOE, and internal R&D, focusing on algorithm development and benchmarking analysis of and machine learning in quantum computing systems.
Host: USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/3104488436
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/3104488436WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/3104488436
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Saenz
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/3104488436
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AME PhD Student Seminar
Fri, Feb 19, 2021 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Raye Xie, USC AME PhD Student
Talk Title: Development and Validation of a Body-Force Propulsor
Abstract: This talk introduces a body-force propulsor model that replaces the engine blades with a source volume in CFD to produce the equivalent flow turning, work input, and losses. The motivation for developing this model is to capture the effects of inlet flow non-uniformity on propulsor performance, while using a local formulation appropriate for full-aircraft CFD at a computational cost compatible with design studies. The model is able to capture non-axisymmetric effects and only requires specification of the blade camber and thickness distributions. An inviscid formulation for the body-force was previously found to be capable of predicting the inviscid distortion transfer effects, but losses and blade metal blockage effects were not accounted for. An improved formulation with a blockage component is proposed here and is shown to properly predict the propulsor work. Loss terms are included to model 2D profile losses and secondary flow losses. The proposed model is implemented in the flow solver ADflow and validated against NASA rotor 67 experimental data.
Biography: Tianbo (Raye) is a PhD student supervised by Dr. Alejandra Uranga. His research focuses on engine/propulsor modeling in high-fidelity simulations and full-aircraft simulations. Raye has a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a M.S. from USC.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96549200347?pwd=Uytmd05JbE5qQnRzeEpDSVBXL2ZFZz09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Franks
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96549200347?pwd=Uytmd05JbE5qQnRzeEpDSVBXL2ZFZz09
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Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Tue, Feb 23, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jin Wen, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University
Talk Title: Data Driven Smart Buildings
Abstract: Please see attachment.
Host: Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber
More Information: J. Wen_Abstract-Bio 2232021.pdf
Location: Zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97228056404; Meeting ID: 972 2805 6404: Passcode: 864779
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Recyclable, Scalable, Self-cleaning Cellulose-fiber-based Composites for Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling
Tue, Feb 23, 2021 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yi Zheng, Professor at Northwestern University
Talk Title: Recyclable, Scalable, Self-cleaning Cellulose-fiber-based Composites for Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling
Series: Photonics Seminar
Host: Electrical and Computer Engineering: Wade Hsu, Mercedeh Khajavikhan, Michelle Povinelli, Constantine Sideris, and Wei Wu
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqcuuprD4oE9ZVf6lwC_KIX9-3i55nMAMV
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jennifer Ramos/Electrophysics
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqcuuprD4oE9ZVf6lwC_KIX9-3i55nMAMV
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ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar
Tue, Feb 23, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yu Ding, Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University
Talk Title: Data Science for Wind Energy: Power Curve Modeling and Production Performance Analysis
Host: Prof. Qiang Huang
More Information: February 23, 2021.pdf
Location: Online/Zoom
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Mork Family Department Spring Virtual Seminars - Jamey Young
Tue, Feb 23, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jamey Young, Vanderbilt University
Talk Title: 13C FLUX ANALYSIS IN METABOLISM RESEARCH: FROM CELLS TO IN VIVO MODELS
Abstract: ZOOM MEETING INFO:
https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?pwd=d0NMenhCNkliR1ZIR1lBamRpZHh1UT09
Meeting ID: 982 2595 2695 • Passcode: 322435
Host: Nick Graham
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Greta Harrison
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98225952695?
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Medical Imaging Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2021 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yannick Bliesener, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Measurement Uncertainty in DCE-MRI of Brain Tumors
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: Abnormal vasculature is a common symptom of many diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and brain cancer. Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) enables assessment of relevant neurovascular parameters by monitoring time-varying enhancement patterns in tissue after intra-venous contrast agent injection. The method has the potential to provide powerful biomarkers for brain tumors, including vascularity, blood brain barrier leakage, tumor progression vs regression, and probability of survival prediction. However, it is challenged by low precision. This talk will discuss my attempts to quantify and improve the accuracy and precision of high-resolution whole brain DCE-MRI of brain tumors.
Biography: Yannick Bliesener is a Ph.D. candidate in the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Laboratory at the University of Southern California. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany, before joining the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research focuses on the development and improvement of algorithms for DCE-MRI and real-time speech MRI. Specifically, he is concerned with the detection and alleviation of error sources to enhance reproducibility and repeatability of quantitative MRI.
Host: Krishna Nayak, knayak@usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94148553754Location: Online
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94148553754
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2021 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Baihong Jin , Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Incipient Anomaly Detection with Machine Learning
Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things
Abstract: Anomaly detection techniques are important in system health monitoring applications (e.g., fault detection and disease diagnosis). By recognizing suspicious patterns in data, anomaly detection models can tell whether a system has degraded from the normal operating condition into a faulty or diseased state. To avoid unnecessary losses, it is desirable to have a way to identify incipient anomalies, i.e. to detect potential problems in their early stages of development. In buildings, early detection of incipient faults can help reduce maintenance and repair costs, save energy, and enhance occupant comfort. In healthcare, if incipient diseases can be discovered early, effective treatments can be applied and can prevent diseases from progressing into more severe stages. We will show that ensemble learning methods can give improved performance on incipient anomalies and identify common pitfalls in these models through extensive experiments on two real-world applications-”detection of chiller faults and diagnosing diabetic retinopathy diseases. A theoretical analysis that compares the two popular strategies for extracting uncertainty information will also be given. We will also discuss how to design more effective ensemble models for detecting incipient anomalies.
Biography: Dr. Baihong Jin is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California, Berkeley, where he received his PhD degree. Before that, he received a B.S. degree in microelectronics from Peking University, Beijing, China. Baihong is also a research affiliate in the Energy Technologies Area at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Baihong's research interests include machine learning, fault management, and anomaly detection techniques, with a focus on their applications in energy cyber-physical systems and healthcare AI. Baihong is a recipient of the Lotfi A. Zadeh Prize for his dissertation research at UC Berkeley.
Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo, nuzzo@usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiALocation: Online
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qk4-7AthThudso7LXs2OiA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2021 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Giovanna Bucci, Bosch
Talk Title: Mesoscale Modeling for Next Generation DNA Sequencing and Sustainable Energy
Abstract: There is great potential for genome sequencing to enhance patient care through improved diagnostic sensitivity and more precise therapeutic targeting. The opportunity to detect repetitive regions and structural variation in the genome has incentivized the development of long-read DNA sequencing. Nano-channel analysis is one of the emerging strategies for non-optical DNA sequencing. However, high cost, low throughput, and low accuracy have so far limited the adoption of long-read technologies. In this work, mesoscale modeling tools are employed to simulate the mechanics of DNA loading and reading, and predict the statistics of polymer-chain conformation under confinement. A workflow was developed to quantify competing requirements of efficiency and accuracy and extract metrics that guide design optimization. Several design variables (geometry, electric field, materials and interfaces, buffer solution, etc.) can be tuned to achieve high throughput base-pair detection. This multi-dimensional design space offers a great opportunity for modeling to provide understanding and accelerate innovation.
Finally, I will provide an overview of my recent work in energy storage/conversion technologies, with a brief discussion of a new theoretical and computational framework to study electrochemical instability and coarsening of catalyst nano-particles.
Biography: Giovanna Bucci is a Senior Research Engineer in the Energy Technologies Division at Bosch, where she has been responsible for the mesoscale modeling of aging in Li-ion batteries and in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Currently, she leads a modeling effort to optimize the design of a DNA sequencing device based on nano-confinement.
Giovanna began her career in the field of computational solid mechanics, with an emphasis on fracture and large-scale simulation. She worked on next-generation energy storage devices, with postdocs at Brown University and in the Carter/Chiang research group at MIT DMSE. Her analyses have established design rules for silicon anodes, and identified failure-tolerant battery microstructures and operating conditions. In recognition of her cross-disciplinary accomplishments, she received the 2015 Rising Stars in Nuclear Science and Engineering award at MIT.
Giovanna took her Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics from the Politecnico di Milano and her M.S. and B.S. in Architecture from Università di Pavia.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95442736433
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95442736433Location: Online event
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95442736433
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95442736433
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NL Seminar-Insights from Re-evaluating NLP Systems
Thu, Feb 25, 2021 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Robin Jia, USC CS
Talk Title: Insights from Re-evaluating NLP Systems
Series: NL Seminar
Abstract: *This Talk Will Not Be Recorded*
Although large pre trained models have achieved exceptional results on standard NLP benchmarks, it is clear that they are still far from actually understanding natural language. This gap highlights the need to develop and embrace more challenging settings for evaluation. In this talk, I will present work that re evaluates seemingly high performing NLP systems and derives insights on how these systems can be further improved. First, we will evaluate models under extreme label imbalance, a phenomenon that creates unavoidable train test mismatch. Here, collecting training data adaptively leads to dramatic improvements over static data collection. Second, we will grapple with adversarial perturbations label preserving transformations that can trigger surprising model errors. We will develop training methods to make models certifiably robust to combinatorially large families of perturbations. Finally, we will assess the utility of automatic evaluation metrics for comparing NLG systems. We will show that metrics can be surprisingly competitive with evaluation schemes that rely on human annotators, and highlight reduction of statistical bias against particular NLG systems as an important future direction.
Biography: Robin Jia will be an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Southern California starting in Fall 2021. Currently, he is a visiting researcher at Facebook AI Research, working with Luke Zettlemoyer and Douwe Kiela. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where he was advised by Percy Liang.
He is interested broadly in natural language processing and machine learning, with a particular focus on building NLP systems that are robust to distribution shift. Robins work has received an Outstanding Paper Award at EMNLP 2017 and a Best Short Paper award at ACL 2018.
Host: Jon May and Mozhdeh Gheini
More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: NALocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only: This Talk Will Not Be Recorded
WebCast Link: NA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petet Zamar
Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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CS Distinguished Lecture: Rada Mihalcea (University of Michigan) - Moving Away from One-Size-Fits-All Natural Language Processing
Thu, Feb 25, 2021 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Rada Mihalcea, University of Michigan
Talk Title: Moving Away from One-Size-Fits-All Natural Language Processing
Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series
Abstract: The typical approach in natural language processing is to use one-size-fits-all representations, obtained from training one model on very large text collections. While this approach is effective for those people whose language style is well represented in the data, it fails to account for variations between people, and often leads to decreased performance for those in the minority. In this talk, I will challenge the one-size-fits-all assumption, and show that (1) we can identify words that are used in significantly different ways by speakers from different cultures; and (2) we can effectively use information about the people behind the words to build better natural language processing models.
Register in advance for this webinar at:
https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_05SDnJisSNa9_iJj-5PLfw
After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Rada Mihalcea is the Janice M. Jenkins Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan and the Director of the Michigan Artificial Intelligence Lab. Her research interests are in computational linguistics, with a focus on lexical semantics, multilingual natural language processing, and computational social sciences. She serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journals of Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluations, Natural Language Engineering, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, and Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics. She was a program co-chair for EMNLP 2009 and ACL 2011, and a general chair for NAACL 2015 and *SEM 2019. She currently serves as ACL President. She is the recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers awarded by President Obama (2009), an ACM Fellow (2019) and a AAAI Fellow (2021). In 2013, she was made an honorary citizen of her hometown of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Host: Xiang Ren
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_05SDnJisSNa9_iJj-5PLfwLocation: Online Zoom Webinar
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_05SDnJisSNa9_iJj-5PLfw
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
