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Events for February 16, 2016
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MHI Distinguished Visitor Talk
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Petros Maragos, School of E.C.E., National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Talk Title: Action and Gesture Recognition in Human-Robot Interaction
Abstract: In this talk we will present some advances from our research in the EU project MOBOT which generally aims at the development of an intelligent active mobility assistance robot. We will focus on one of its main goals: to provide multimodal sensory processing capabilities for human action recognition. Specifically, a reliable multimodal information processing and action recognition system needs to be developed, that will detect, analyze and recognize the human user actions based on the captured multimodal sensory signals and with a reasonable level of accuracy and detail for intelligent assistive robotics. One of the main thrusts in the above effort is the development of robust and effective computer vision techniques to achieve the visual processing goals based on multiple cues such as spatiotemporal RGB appearance data as well as depth data from Kinect sensors. Another major challenge is the integration of recognizing specific verbal and gestural commands in the considered human-robot interaction context. In this presentation we summarize advancements in three tasks of the above multimodal processing system for human-robot interaction (HRI): action recognition, gesture recognition and spoken command recognition. More information, related papers and current results can be found in http://cvsp.cs.ntua.gr and http://robotics.ntua.gr.
Biography: Petros Maragos received the Diploma in E.E. from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 1980 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech, Atlanta, in 1982 and 1985. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he worked for eight years as professor of electrical engineering affiliated with the Harvard Robotics Lab. In 1993, he joined the faculty of the School of ECE at Georgia Tech. During periods of 1996-98 he had a joint appointment as director of research at the Institute of Language and Speech Processing in Athens. Since 1998, he has been working as a professor at the NTUA School of ECE. He has held a visiting scientist position at MIT LIDS in fall 2012. He is currently the Director of the NTUA Division of Signals, Control and Robotics, and the Director of the Intelligent Robotics and Automation Lab. His research and teaching interests include signal processing, systems theory, pattern recognition, image processing and computer vision, audio and speech/language processing, cognitive systems, and robotics. In the above areas he has published numerous papers, book chapters, and has also co-edited three Springer research books, one on multimodal processing and interaction and two on shape analysis. He has served as: Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. on ASSP, IEEE Trans. on PAMI, and editorial board member and guest editor for several journals on signal processing, image analysis and vision; co-organizer of several conferences and workshops, including VCIP 1992 (GC), ISMM 1996 (GC), VLBV 2001 (GC), MMSP 2007 (GC), ECCV 2010 (PC), ECCV 2010 Workshop on Sign, Gesture and Activity, EUSIPCO 2012 (TC), 2011 & 2014 Dagstuhl Symposia on Shape, 2015 IROS Workshop on Cognitive Mobility Assistance Robots; member of the IEEE committees on DSP, IMDSP and MMSP. He is currently organizing EUSIPCO 2017 (GC).
His is the recipient or co-recipient of several awards for his academic work, including a 1983 Sigma Xi best thesis award, a 1987-1992 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, a 1988 IEEE SPS Young Author Best Paper Award, a 1994 IEEE SPS Senior Best Paper Award, the 1995 IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Award, the 1996 Pattern Recognition Society's Honorable Mention Award, the EURASIP 2007 Technical Achievement Award for contributions to nonlinear signal, image and speech processing, and the Best Paper Award of the IEEE CVPR-2011 Gesture Recognition Workshop. He was elected a Fellow of IEEE in 1995 and a Fellow of EURASIP in 2010 for his research contributions.
Host: Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan, Theodora Chaspari, and Zisis Skordilis
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tanya Acevedo-Lam/EE-Systems
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CS Colloquium: Haipeng Luo (Princeton) -Optimal and Adaptive Online Learning
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Haipeng Luo , Princeton
Talk Title: Optimal and Adaptive Online Learning
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Online learning is one of the most important and well-established learning models in machine learning. Generally speaking, the goal of online learning is to make a sequence of accurate predictions "on the fly" when interacting with the environment. Online learning has been extensively studied in recent years, and has also become of great interest to practitioners due to its applicability to large scale applications such as advertisement placement and recommendation systems.
In this talk, I will present novel, optimal and adaptive online learning algorithms for three problems. The first problem is online boosting, a theory of boosting the accuracy of any existing online learning algorithms; the second problem is on combining expert advice more efficiently and adaptively when making online predictions; the last part of the talk is about using data sketching techniques to obtain efficient online learning algorithms that make use of second order information and have robust performance against ill-conditioned data.
Biography: Haipeng Luo is currently a fifth year graduate student working with Prof. Rob Schapire at Princeton. His main research interest is in theoretical and applied machine learning, with a focus on adaptive and robust online learning and its connections to boosting, optimization, stochastic learning and game theory. He won the Wu Prize for Excellence and two best paper awards (ICML and NIPS) in 2015.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Faculty Candidate Seminar
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Private, Private
Talk Title: Machine Learning Tools for Finding Decision-Oriented Patterns in Data
Host: Epstein Department of ISE
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Michele ISE
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CS Colloquium: Baris Akgun (Georgia Institute of Technology) - Robots Interactively Learning and Exploring with People
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Baris Akgun, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Robots Interactively Learning and Exploring with People
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Robots are destined to move beyond the "caged" factory floors towards domains where they will be interacting closely with humans. They will encounter highly varied environments, scenarios and user demands. As a result, end-users
programming robots after deployment will be an important requirement.
In this talk, I will present results of studies with non-expert people teaching robots by demonstration and algorithms developed based on the lessons learned. My main observation is these users concentrate on achieving the goal of the demonstrated skills rather than providing good quality demonstrations. I will describe a learning from demonstration approach that leverages this goal directed behavior of users and is able to continue self-improvement on these learned models after the end-user leaves, an important step toward life-long learning. I will then talk about results of an experiment with non-expert teachers on an interactive approach that incorporates all the methods and algorithms I have introduced thus far. The work presented represents one example in a larger agenda of human-centered learning from demonstration, I conclude with a discussion of grand challenges ahead.
the lecture will be available to stream HERE. Please open link in new tab for best results.
Biography: Baris Akgun is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Robotics from Georgia Institute of Technology under Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andrea Thomaz where he worked on developing algorithms and interactions that enable robots to learn from non-expert teachers and to use their learned information to autonomously get better over time. He received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering in 2010 from METU working on affordance learning and mirror neuron inspired learning from demonstration under Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erol Sahin. .He received his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering with an extracurricular minor in Mechatronics in 2007. His research interests lie at the intersection of human-robot interaction and machine learning for robotics. He is currently working on deploying his developed methodologies in a household setting with non-expert teachers. His research was funded by the NSF and the ONR. He was a recipient of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) scholarship for his M.Sc and the Fulbright Scholarship for his Ph.D.
Host: CS Department
More Info: URL:https://bluejeans.com/213720883
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
Event Link: URL:https://bluejeans.com/213720883
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USC Investment Office Information Session
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
USC Investment Office Intern
DESCRIPTION:
The Investment Office invests on behalf of the University of Southern California. We invest for current and future generations of Trojans by balancing risk and return over asset classes and strategies.
The Investment Office offers internships to students on a part- time basis during the fall and full-time during summer. The internship commitment is approximately ten hours per week in the school year and full time in the summer.
Successful internships can lead to sequential internships and a full-time offer. Approximately four to six USC students hold these positions every semester.
There will be an on campus Information Session on:
Tuesday February 16 in the Viterbi Career Center at 5:00pm
As part of the application, you are required to submit a resume and cover letter using ConnectSC; the application will be open from February 5th to 19th. In the cover letter, make sure you answer the question "Why do you want to intern in the Investment Office?" We encourage you to focus on the "Why". Share what you are passionate about and how that relates to the Investment Office. Explain what you want to do with your life and how the internship will help you realize your ambitions. Also, make clear if you are applying for the spring semester or summer or both. Please do not go over one page for the cover letter.
JOB SUMMARY:
Assists staff with investment activities across asset classes and strategies, which include, but are not limited to:
Analyze portfolio and portfolio investments
Assist with initial and ongoing due diligence of investment managers
Research and evaluate investment strategies
Provide support for ongoing operations
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Interviewing Strategies and Techniques
Tue, Feb 16, 2016 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Students will learn interviewing strategies and techniques to help them do their best during the interview.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
