Select a calendar:
Filter February Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for February 19, 2015
-
USC Viterbi STEM Spotlight on the Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 08:30 AM - 12:30 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center
Receptions & Special Events
The USC Viterbi STEM Spotlight series focuses on three departments each year. In February, the Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is being spotlighted. On the morning of Thursday, 2/19, middle school students will be visiting the Structure and Spectrophotometer labs for tours. More information on the USC Viterbi STEM Spotlight can be found here: bit.ly/CEEspotlight
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - Structure Teaching Lab & Spectrophotometer Teaching Lab
Audiences: K-12 Schools pre-registered
Contact: Katie Mills
-
CS Colloquium: Guy Rothblum (Stanford) - How to Verify Computations without Reexecuting Them
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Guy Rothblum, Stanford University
Talk Title: How to Verify Computations without Reexecuting Them
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Can we prove the correctness of a polynomial-time computation to a verifier who cannot re-execute the computation on its own? Such proof systems can be used in cloud computing scenarios, allowing weak devices (from phones and tablets to wearable or embedded devices) to delegate work and storage to a third party, without compromising the correctness of delegated computations. I will survey a line of work that answers this question, and constructs proof systems for delegating computations using the machinery of interactive proofs and cryptography.
Biography: Guy Rothblum is a researcher at Stanford University. He has wide interests in theoretical computer science, with a focus on cryptography, privacy-preserving data analysis, security and complexity theory. His research aims to promote a foundational understanding of computing under security, privacy, and reliability concerns.
Dr. Rothblum completed his Ph.D. at MIT, where his advisor was Shafi Goldwasser, and his M.Sc. at The Weizmann Institute of Science, where his advisor was Moni Naor. Until recently, he was a researcher at Microsoft Researchâs Silicon Valley Lab (2011-2014).
Host: Computer Science Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/537213719Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/537213719
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
Epstein ISE Department Seminar
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nathan Kallus, PhD Candidate, Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: From Predictive to Prescriptive Analytics
Abstract:
We combine ideas from machine learning (ML) and operations research and management science (OR/MS) in developing a framework, along with specific methods, for using data to prescribe optimal decisions in OR/MS problems. In a departure from other work on data-driven optimization and reflecting our practical experience with the data available in applications of OR/MS, we consider data consisting, not only of observations of quantities with direct effect on costs/revenues, such as demand or returns, but predominantly of observations of associated auxiliary quantities. The main problem of interest is a conditional stochastic optimization problem, given imperfect observations, where the joint probability distributions that specify the problem are unknown. We demonstrate that our proposed solution methods, which are inspired by ML methods such as local regression (LOESS), classification and regression trees (CART), and random forests (RF), are generally applicable to a wide range of decision problems. We prove that they are computationally tractable and asymptotically optimal under mild conditions even when data is not independent and identically distributed (iid) and even for censored observations. As an analogue to the coefficient of determination R^2, we develop a metric P termed the coefficient of prescriptiveness to measure the prescriptive content of data and the efficacy of a policy from an operations perspective. To demonstrate the power of our approach in a real-world setting we study an inventory management problem faced by the distribution arm of an international media conglomerate, which ships an average of 1 billion units per year. We leverage both internal data and public online data harvested from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Google to prescribe operational decisions that outperform baseline measures. Specifically, the data we collect, leveraged by our methods, accounts for an 88% improvement as measured by our coefficient of prescriptiveness.
This is joint work with Dimitris Bertsimas, MIT.
Biography:
Nathan Kallus is a PhD candidate in operations research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His interests lie at the intersection of optimization, operations, and management with statistics, machine learning, and data science. Nathan holds a BA in Mathematics and BS in Computer Science both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: SEMINAR-Kallus.doc
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
CS Colloquium: Karthik Ramasamy (Twitter)
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Karthik Ramasamy, Twitter
Talk Title: Real Time Analytics @Twitter
Abstract: Real time analytics seems to be a buzz word these days. Twitter identified the need for real time analytics early on and invested in a massive data pipeline that collects, aggregates, processes large volumes of data in real time. At the heart of the pipeline is Twitter Storm, a real-time stream processing engine widely used in Twitter. Storm is used for real-time data analytics, time series aggregation, and powering real-time features like trending topics. In this talk, we will give an overview of real time analytics, discuss the twitter real time data pipeline and how Storm is used for extracting analytics. We will also discuss the challenges we faced and lessons we have learned while building this infrastructure at Twitter.
Biography: Karthik is the engineering manager and technical lead for Real Time Analytics @Twitter. He has two decades of experience working in parallel databases, big data infrastructure and networking. He cofounded Locomatix, a company that specializes in real timestreaming processing on Hadoop and Cassandra using SQL that was acquired by Twitter. Before Locomatix, he had a brief stint with Greenplum where he worked on parallel query scheduling. Greenplum was eventually acquired by EMC for more than $300M. Prior to Greenplum, Karthik was at Juniper Networks where he designed and delivered platforms, protocols, databases and high availability solutions for network routers that are widely deployed in the Internet. Before joining Juniper at University of Wisconsin, he worked extensively in parallel database systems, query processing, scale out technologies, storage engine and online analytical systems. Several of these research were spun as a company later acquired by Teradata.
He is the author of several publications, patents and one of the best selling book "Network Routing: Algorithms, Protocols and Architectures." He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UW Madison with a focus on databases.
Host: Shahram Ghandeharizadeh
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Distinguished Lecture: Colin Wolden (Colorado School of Mines)
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Colin Wolden, Colorado School of Mines, Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Talk Title: Interface Engineering of Advanced Contacts for High Efficiency CdTe Solar Cells
Series: Distinguished Lectures
Abstract: TBA
Host: Prof. Gupta
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Choi
-
Social Media in the Job Search
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Learn ways to utilize technology to find job opportunities, maximize your networking, and building an online presence!
Location: RTH 105
Audiences: All Viterbi Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
-
Schlumberger Info Session
Thu, Feb 19, 2015 @ 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
We invite you to meet with us for an inside look at our Field Engineer and Petrotechnical positions. You will have an opportunity to talk one on one with Schlumberger representatives and learn more about who we are and what we do as an Oilfield Services Company. Food and Beverages will be provided!
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
