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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February
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CANCELLED
Mon, Feb 03, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Arati Prabhakar, Director, DARPA Talk
Wed, Feb 05, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Arati Prabhakar, Director, DARPA
Talk Title: Next: Breakthrough Technologies for National Security
Abstract: The DARPA Director will elucidate what the Agency does for our nation, how it does it, how it thinks about its mission in the context of today’s realities and the future that it’s building by creating the next generation of technology to give Defense leaders more options for tomorrow’s missions.
Biography: Arati Prabhakar is the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Dr. Prabhakar has spent her career investing in world-class engineers and scientists to create new technologies and businesses. Her first service to national security started in 1986 when she joined DARPA as a program manager. She initiated and managed programs in advanced semiconductor technology and flexible manufacturing, as well as demonstration
projects to insert new semiconductor technologies into military systems. As the founding director of DARPA’s Microelectronics Technology Office, she led a team of program managers whose efforts spanned these areas, as well as optoelectronics, infrared imaging and nanoelectronics.
In 1993 President William Clinton appointed Dr. Prabhakar director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
where she led the 3,000-person organization in its work with companies across multiple industries.
Dr. Prabhakar moved to Silicon Valley in 1997, first as chief technology officer and senior vice president at Raychem, and later vice president and then president of Interval Research. From 2001 to 2011, she was a partner with U.S. Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. Dr. Prabhakar identified and served as a director for startup companies with the promise of significant growth. She worked with entrepreneurs in energy and efficiency technologies, components for consumer electronics, and semiconductor process and design technology.
Dr. Prabhakar received her Doctor of Philosophy in applied physics and Master of Science in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. She received her Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University. She began her career as a Congressional Fellow at the Office of Technology Assessment.
Dr. Prabhakar has served in recent years on the National Academies’ Science Technology and Economic Policy Board, the College of Engineering Advisory Board at the University of California, Berkeley, and the red team of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Research Council. In addition, she chaired the Efficiency and Renewables Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Prabhakar is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer, and a Caltech Distinguished Alumna.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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Lyman L. Handy Colloquia: Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Films Fabricated Using Atomic and Molecular Layer Deposition
Thu, Feb 06, 2014 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Steve George, Depts. of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
Talk Title: Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Films Fabricated Using Atomic and Molecular Layer Deposition
Series: Lyman L. Handy Colloquia
Abstract: Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and molecular layer deposition (MLD) are based on sequential, self-limiting surface reactions that produce atomic layer controlled and conformal thin film growth. ALD can deposit inorganic films and MLD can deposit organic films containing inorganics. ALD and MLD can also be used together to fabricate a wide range of alloy films with variable inorganic and organic composition. This talk will focus on the growth and properties of metal alkoxide films known as “metalcones” that are grown using metal precursors and various organic alcohols. The talk will highlight the tunable mechanical properties of alucone alloys grown using Al2O3 ALD and alucone MLD and the tunable electrical conductivity of zincone alloys grown using ZnO ALD and zincone MLD. In addition, the talk will discuss the pyrolysis of hybrid organic-inorganic films to produce conducting metal oxide/carbon composite films.
Host: Prof. Gupta
More Information: GeorgeAbstract.pdf
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Choi
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquim
Fri, Feb 07, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Keith Chugg, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, TrellisWare Technologies, Inc.
Talk Title: Barrage Relay Networks
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
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Munushian Seminar - Tsu-Jae King Liu
Fri, Feb 07, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Tsu-Jae King Liu, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Moore’s Law - What’s Next?
Abstract: Steady miniaturization of transistor has yielded continual improvements in integrated-circuit (IC) performance
and cost per function over the past four decades, resulting in the proliferation of information processing technology
with dramatic impact on virtually every aspect of life in modern society. Continued transistor scaling will not be as straightforward in the future as it has been in the past, however, as fundamental limits are approached. This is already
apparent from the slowdown in voltage scaling, which has added a new constraint for IC design and exacerbates the emerging issue of electronics energy consumption. This seminar will present a vision of the future of information processing devices and discuss alternative approaches for improving their functionality, cost per function and energy efficiency to usher in the Age of Ambient Intelligence to the benefit of our global society.
Biography: Tsu-Jae King Liu received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering
from Stanford University. From 1992 to 1996 she was a Member of Research Staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Palo Alto, CA). In August 1996 she joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where she is currently the Conexant Systems Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), and Associate Chair of the EECS Department.
Dr. Liu’s awards include the DARPA Significant Technical Achievement Award (2000) for development
of the FinFET, the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2010) for contributions to nanoscale MOS transistors, memory devices, and MEMs devices, and the Intel Outstanding Researcher in Nanotechnology Award (2012). She has authored or co-authored over 450 publications and holds 88 U.S. patents, and is a Fellow of the IEEE. Her research activities are presently in nanometer-scale logic and memory devices, and advanced materials, process technology and devices for energy-efficient electronics.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 131
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
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Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Feb 07, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Emile A. Okal , Northwestern University, Ullinois
Talk Title: The implosive component of the 2013 Okhotsk Sea deep earthquake: Evidence from radial modes and constraints from geodetic data
Abstract: Ever since Bridgman's (1945) original suggestion, the presence of an implosive component in the source of deep earthquakes has long been a passionately debated subject, which is re-openened by the occurrence of the 2013 Sea of Okhotsk earthquake, the largest ever recorded deep event.
The analysis of the fundamental and first overtone radial modes, 0s0 and 1s0, allows the resolution of such a component without trade-off with the relevant deviatoric component. We document the presence of an implosive component valued at 2 percent of the scalar moment tensor (but 9 percent of the deviatoric component exciting radial modes). The implosive component is also resolved
by CMT inversion when the zero-trace constraint is relaxed, but with a significantly larger amplitude (8 percent of the scalar moment).
The near field of three-dimensional static deformation by the earthquake is reconstructed from data at permanent GPS stations in the epicentral area, with maximum observed deformations on the order of 1 cm (horizontal) to 2 cm (vertical). Preliminary modeling indicates that the influence of the proposed imnplosive components (especially as derived from CMT inversion) may be resolvable from this dataset at critically located GPS stations, of which a full investigation will be presented.
We further show that a small tsunami from this very deep earthquake was detected at two regional DART buoys, and that its amplitude (3 to 4 mm peak-to-peak) is well accounted for by a number of crude, back of the envelope calculations.
Host: Prof. Costas Synolakis
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nicholas Schweighofer, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy, USC
Talk Title: Computational Neurorehabilitation: Modeling Recovery Post-Stroke
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Munushian Seminar - Peidong Yang
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Peidong Yang, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Nanowire Technology and Terawatt Challenge
Abstract: Semiconductor nanowires, by definition, typically have cross-sectional dimensions that can be tuned from 2â200 nm, with lengths spanning from hundreds of nanometers to millimeters. After more than a decade of research, nanowires can now be synthesized and assembled with specific compositions, heterojunctions and architectures. This has led to a host of nanowire photonic and electronic devices. Because of their unique structural, chemical and physical properties, these nanoscopic one-dimensional nanostructures can also play a significant role in terawatt-scale energy conversion and storage. Currently the amount of energy required worldwide is on the scale of terawatts, and the percentage
of renewable energy in the current energy portfolio is quite limited. Developing of cost-effective clean energy technology
becomes imperative. I will show two examples from my group, approaching this problem in two different directions. The first relates to saving energy, by developing nanostructured silicon thermoelectrics to do waste heat recovery; and the second is to develop nanostructures for solar energy conversion, either directly to electricity or to liquid fuels through artificial photosynthesis.
Biography: Peidong Yang received a B.S. in chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China in 1993 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1997. He did postdoctoral research at University of California, Santa Barbara
before joining the faculty in the department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. He is currently professor in the Department of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering; and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is S. K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Chair Professor in Energy. He was recently elected as MRS Fellow, and the member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Yang is the founder of the Nanoscience subdivision within American Chemical Society. He has co-founded two startups Nanosys Inc. and Alphabet Energy Inc. He is the recipient of MRS Medal, Baekeland Medal, Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, MRS Young Investigator
Award, Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics, ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and Alan T. Waterman Award. His main research interest is in the area of one dimensional semiconductor nanostructures and their applications in nanophotonics and energy conversion.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 131
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
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Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENR)
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Megan McCain, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Biomedical Engineering Department
Talk Title: TBA
Series: Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH Seminars)
Biography: http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/megan-mccain.htm
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
More Info: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfpLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfp
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
Event Link: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
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Approaches to 3D Image Reconstruction from Motion Scattered Diffusion Weighted MRI of the Fetal Brain
Tue, Feb 11, 2014 @ 03:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Colin Studholme, University of Washington
Talk Title: Approaches to 3D Image Reconstruction from Motion Scattered Diffusion Weighted MRI of the Fetal Brain
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: Magnetic resonance based diffusion weighted imaging provides a unique window into tissue microstructure and brain connectivity. Over the last 7 years there has been significant interest in adapting the technique using post-processing to enable imaging of the unsedated fetal brain in-utero. This talk will review work on reconstruction of diffusion image measurements from single shot multi slice diffusion MRI data, where significant motion has occurred between the acquisition of slices. To form a complete 3D image of diffusion properties during head motion each diffusion weighted slice must be accurately relocated and orientated within a common anatomical coordinate system, and the spatially scattered slices then used to estimate a model of diffusion properties on a regular voxel lattice. This talk will look at these two problems and review the current alternatives to solving them numerically for clinically acquired data. Results on human and primate fetal brain data will be included to illustrate the capabilities and limitations for practical studies of fetal brain growth.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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CS Colloquium: Dr. Andrew Lemieux: The WILD LEO Project: Using Technology and Training to Increase the Effectiveness of Anti-Poaching Teams in Uganda
Tue, Feb 11, 2014 @ 11:15 AM - 12:20 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Andrew Lemieux, WILD LEO Project
Talk Title: The WILD LEO Project: Using Technology and Training to Increase the Effectiveness of Anti-Poaching Teams in Uganda
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The WILD LEO Project is an attempt to provide anti-poaching teams with the technology and training necessary to undertake advanced intelligence gathering and analysis. The Wildlife Intelligence and Leadership Development (WILD) training protocols were specifically developed for Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) in Queen Elizabeth Protected Area, Uganda. The WILD LEO team consists of foot patrol rangers, crime analysts, prosecutors and commanders.
Using digital cameras with integrated GPS units, the foot patrol rangers are creating a spatially referenced, photographic database of poaching activity. The crime analysts use these photos to prepare patrol coverage maps and maps of illegal activity to help commanders make informed deployment decisions. The geo-referenced photos are also used by the prosecution team as courtroom evidence to prove poachers were operating inside the protected area.
By design, The WILD LEO Project utilizes low-cost technology and open source software to ensure sustainability in law enforcement operations with limited budgets. This presentation will discuss the project’s implementation, initial findings, potential for expansion, and the utility of WILD LEO for interdisciplinary research.
Biography: Originally trained as a biochemist who studied diabetes, lung injury and space biology at the University of Arizona (BS 2005, MS 2006), Andrew switched disciplines after graduation to pursue his research interests in criminology. He completed his graduate studies at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice (MA 2008, PhD 2011) where he studied a variety of topics including wildlife crime, visitor crime and time-based risk assessments of violence.
Poaching prevention is Andrew's main area of expertise and comprises the majority of his research agenda. He currently directs the WILD LEO Project in Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Parks in Uganda. This is an on-going collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority and Uganda Conservation Foundation that uses technology and training to increase ranger efficiency with advanced intelligence gathering and analysis techniques. The goals of the project are to (a) give commanders better information for deployment decision making, (b) increase poacher apprehension and (c) increase poacher conviction rates.
Host: Teamcore Group
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CS Colloquium: Jonathan Ullman (Harvard U): Privacy and the Complexity of Simple Queries
Tue, Feb 11, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jonathan Ullman, Harvard University
Talk Title: Privacy and the Complexity of Simple Queries
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The goal of differentially private data analysis is to design algorithms for analyzing datasets while ensuring that sensitive information about individuals is not revealed. In this talk I will present both new lower bounds and new algorithms for differentially private data analysis. On the negative side, I will present some new, nearly-optimal lower bounds on the amount of data required to release differentially private statistics on high-dimensional datasets. These results show that there is a significant "price of differential privacy" in high-dimensional datasets. We prove these lower bounds using a cryptographic primitive called a fingerprinting code that we show is closely connected to differentially private data analysis. On the positive side, I will present efficient algorithms for computing differentially private contingency tables, using techniques from computational learning theory.
Biography: Jon Ullman is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard University. He recently completed his Ph.D., also at Harvard, where he was advised by Salil Vadhan and was a Siebel Scholar. He is interested in the foundations of data privacy and its connections to other areas of theoretical computer science such as cryptography, learning theory, and game theory.
Host: David Kempe
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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EE Distinguished Lecturer Series
Wed, Feb 12, 2014 @ 03:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Tom Leighton, Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, Akamai Technologies
Abstract: Everyone and everything is getting connected, resulting in enormous expectations for the Hyperconnected World (aka, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything). In this lecture, we will talk about three Grand Challenges created by the explosive proliferation of connected devices. We will also talk about how early theoretical work on these challenges at MIT led to the creation of a company that today accelerates and secures the delivery of many of the world’s most important applications and web sites.
Biography: Dr. Tom Leighton co-founded Akamai Technologies in 1998, and served as Akamai’s Chief Scientist for 14 years before becoming Chief Executive. Dr. Leighton is Akamai’s technology visionary and leads the senior management team in setting the company’s strategic direction, while engaging directly with customers and partners from around the globe. He is also a member of the Board of Directors.
As one of the world’s preeminent authorities on algorithms for network applications, Dr. Leighton’s work behind establishing Akamai was based on recognizing that a solution to freeing up Web congestion could be found in applied mathematics and algorithms. Akamai has demonstrated this through the creation of the world’s largest distributed computing platform that dynamically routes content and applications across a network of over 100,000 servers. Dr. Leighton’s technology achievements at Akamai earned him recognition as one of the Top 10 Technology Innovators in U.S. News & World Report.
Prior to his role as CEO of Akamai, Dr. Leighton was also a Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
Dr. Leighton holds numerous patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography, and digital rights management. During the course of his career, he has served on dozens of government, industrial and academic review committees; program committees; and editorial boards. He is a former two-term chair of the 2,000-member Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Complexity Theory, and a former two-term editor-in-chief of the Journal of the ACM. From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Leighton served on the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), during which time he chaired the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. Dr. Leighton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Leighton has published more than 100 research papers, and his leading text on parallel algorithms and architectures has been translated into several languages. Dr. Leighton graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S. in Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT.
Host: Paul Bogdan and Viktor Prasanna
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
More Information: 20140212 Leighton Print.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
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Astani CEE Seminar
Thu, Feb 13, 2014 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Xing Xie, Stanford University
Talk Title: Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Environmental Applications
Abstract: Advanced materials and nanotechnology are powerful tools that have been changing our lives dramatically. However, we are still facing very challenging environmental issues, such as water contamination, air pollution, and climate change. To tackle these environmental issues, my research focuses on applying advanced materials and nanotechnology to enhance the performance of existing environmental technologies, and to develop new technologies that can provide better solution to various environmental issues. In this presentation, I will introduce two different environmental applications. One is about nano-enhanced microbial electrochemical cells for wastewater treatment and energy recovery. I have developed 3D bio-electrodes for microbial electrochemical cells with superior performance. I also have invented a new microbial electrochemical device, named “microbial battery”, achieving higher than 30% energy efficiency. The other application is about nano-assisted new technologies for efficient water disinfection. In one example, strong electric field generated near the tips of nanowire structures is applied to kill bacteria and viruses in water. Removal efficiencies higher than 6-log have been achieved with retention times less than one second. In another example, water disinfection is realized by employing silver nanoscavengers, which are nanodisks with magnetic cores and silver capping layers. The silver nanoscavengers can be separated from treated water effectively after treatment and reused for thousands of times.
Biography: Xing Xie received his B.S. (2006) and M.S. (2008) degrees from Tsinghua University, and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and a Henry Fan Fellow supported by the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship. His research mainly focuses on applying advanced materials and nanotechnology for environmental applications. He has worked on many projects related to microbial electrochemical cells, water disinfection, water reuse, algae control, mixing entropy batteries, electrochemical capacitors, and Li-ion batteries. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including PNAS, Nature Communications, Nano Letters, Energy & Environmental Science, and ACS Nano. He received the Larry C. K. Yung Fellowship in 2008-2009, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in 2009-2011, and the Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2012.
Host: Astani CEE Department
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cassie Cremeans
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Epstein ISE Department Seminar
Thu, Feb 13, 2014 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ms. Ermin Wei, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: "Distributed Optimization and Market Analysis of Networked Systems"
Abstract: In the interconnected world of today, large-scale networked systems are ubiquitous. Some examples include communication networks, electricity grid and sensor networks. In this talk, we describe two recent results related to these networked systems. In the first part, we present a fast distributed asynchronous Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) based method for solving general separable convex problems in large-scale systems, which can be applied to the LASSO and many other machine learning problems. We show that this method has convergence guarantee and the best known rate of convergence. In the second part, we discuss our model on the competitive equilibrium in electricity markets where price fluctuation imposes difficulties in budgeting and planning. We introduce an explicit penalty on the price volatility and establish that price volatility penalty can be implemented via the use of storage.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2014
RONALD TUTOR HALL (RTH) ROOM 526
10:00 - 11:00 AM
Biography: Ermin Wei received her undergraduate triple degree in Computer Engineering, Finance and Mathematics with a minor in German, from University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. She obtained her M.S. in 2010 and now is in her final year of PhD studies in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, advised by Professor Asu Ozdaglar. Ermin has received many awards, including the Graduate Women of Excellence Award, second place prize in Ernst A. Guillemen Thesis Award and Alpha Lambda Delta National Academic Honor Society Betty Jo Budson Fellowship. Ermin's research interests include distributed optimization methods, convex optimization and analysis, smart grid and energy networks and market economic analysis.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Wei_Ermin.doc
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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2014 Cornelius Pings Lecture
Thu, Feb 13, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kristi S. Anseth, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO; Department of Chemical Biological Engineering
Talk Title: Engineering hydrogels as synthetic extracellular matrices for cell culture and tissue regeneration
Series: Cornelius Pings Lecture
Abstract: Methods for culturing mammalian cells in a biologically relevant context are increasingly needed to study cell and tissue physiology, expand and differentiate progenitor cells, and to grow replacement tissues for regenerative medicine. Two dimensional culture has been the paradigm for in vitro cell culture; however, evidence and intuition suggest that cells behave differently when they are isolated from the complex architecture of their native tissues and constrained to petri dishes or material surfaces with unnaturally high stiffness, polarity, and surface to volume ratio. As a result, biologists are often faced with the need for a more physiologically relevant 3D culture environment, and many researchers are realizing the advantages of hydrogels as a means of creating custom 3D microenvironments with highly controlled chemical, biological and physical cues. Further, the native extracellular matrix (ECM) is far from static, so ECM mimics must also be dynamic to direct complex cellular behavior. In general, there is an un-met need for materials that allow user-defined control over the spatio-temporal presentation of important signals, such as integrin-binding ligands, growth factor release, and biomechanical signals. Developing such hydrogel mimics of the ECM for 3D cell culture is an archetypal engineering problem, requiring control of numerous properties on multiple time and length scales important for cellular functions. New materials systems have the potential to significantly improve our understanding of how cells receive information from their microenvironment and the role that these dynamic processes may play in controlling the stem cell niche to cancer metastasis. This talk will illustrate our recent efforts to advance hydrogel chemistries for 3D cell culture and dynamically control biochemical and biophysical properties through orthogonal, photochemical reaction mechanisms.
Biography: KRISTI S. ANSETH is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Anseth came to CU after earning her B.S. degree from Purdue University in 1992 and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Colorado in 1994 and completing post-doctoral research at MIT as an NIH fellow. Her research interests lie at the interface between biology and engineering where she designs new biomaterials for applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Dr. Anseth’s research group has published over 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented over 200 invited lectures in the fields of biomaterials and tissue engineering. She was the first engineer to be named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and received the Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest award of the National Science Foundation for demonstrated exceptional individual achievement in scientific or engineering research. Dr. Anseth is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (2009), the Institute of Medicine (2009), and the National Academy of Sciences (2013). She is also a dedicated teacher, who has received four University Awards related to her teaching, as well as the American Society for Engineering Education’s Curtis W. McGraw Award. Dr. Anseth is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Materials Research Society. She serves on the editorial boards or as associate editor of Biomacromolecules, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research â Part A, Acta Biomaterialia, Progress in Materials Science, and Biotechnology & Bioengineering.
More Information: K.Anseth.pdf
Location: Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library (DML) - DM 240, Lecture Hall
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Choi
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AI Seminar-Fabio Rinaldi:
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Fabio Rinaldi, Senior Researcher, Lecturer, and PI at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
Talk Title: OntoGene & SASEBio: biomedical text mining research at UZH
Series: AISeminar
Abstract: There are vast amounts of knowledge encoded in the scientific literature which could be made more easily accessible and useful to a broader range of users through the application of more effective software tools. Text mining is a new discipline which seeks to provide ways to find, extract and manipulate the knowledge which still remains to a large extent hidden in the literature.
Text mining tools can already provide a very effective way to extract some specific types of information, but are not yet so advanced that their results can be used without human verification by domain experts. Therefore one very promising area of application of text mining technologies is within the process of database curation.
The need to efficiently retrieve key information derived from experimental results, and published in the scientific literature, is of fundamental importance in biology. In order to help biologists, as well as in some cases medical practitioners, to efficiently find such
information in the enormous quantity of published articles, several public and private institutions fund the construction and maintenance of specialized databases, which have the role to collect specific knowledge items and provide them in an easily accessible format. There are several dozens of such databases, each specializing in a
particular domain of the life sciences [1].
In this talk I will describe text mining activities conducted by my research group at the University of Zurich (OntoGene: www.ontogene.org). The OntoGene group is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project SASEBIO: Semi-Automated Semantic
Enrichment of the Biomedical Literature) and by Roche Pharmaceuticals. The SASEBio project focuses in particular on applications of text mining technologies to the process of biomedical database curation.
The OntoGene team has participated in several competitive evaluations of biomedical text mining technologies, obtaining competitive results in all of them. Some of these results will be discussed in the talk. Additionally, I will present ODIN (OntoGene Document Inspector), an interactive tool which allows database curators to leverage upon the results of the OntoGene text mining system and use them in their
curation tasks.
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[1] Xose M. Fernandez-Suarez, Daniel J. Rigden, and Michael Y. Galperin. The 2014 nucleic acids research database issue and an updated NAR online molecular biology database collection. Nucleic Acids Research, 42(D1):D1-D6, 2014
The OntoGene text mining system is based on a scalable entity recognition component with a semi-automated organism-based disambiguation module, an in-house dependency parser, and a flexible relation mining approach. The OntoGene team has participated in several biomedical text mining challenges (BioCreative, BioNLP,
CALBC), obtaining competitive results in all of them. Some of these results will be discussed in the talk.
The OntoGene Document Inspector (ODIN) is an interactive tool which allows database curators to leverage upon the results of the OntoGene text mining system and use them in their curation tasks. One recent version of the system has been tested in the curation process of the Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB), and another version
adapted for the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database in the context of
a BioCreative challenge.
Biography: Fabio Rinaldi is the leader of the OntoGene research group at the University of Zurich and the principal investigator of the SASEBio project. He holds an MSc in Computer Science (University of Udine, Italy) and a PhD in Computational Linguistics (University of Zurich, Switzerland). He is author of more than 100 scientific publications (including 19 journal papers) dealing with topics such as Ontologies, Text Mining, Text Classification, Document and Knowledge Management, Language Resources and Terminology.
Host: David Chiang
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=7bf4d5a5d7404d249254a2b96006ea6e1dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th fl Large CR
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=7bf4d5a5d7404d249254a2b96006ea6e1d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jungwoo Lee, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Enabling 3D Microenvironments for Bone Marrow Bioengineering
Abstract: Bone marrow, a sponge-like gelatinous and vascular tissue located at the inside of bone matrix is a vital part of human body as a major reservoir of adult stem cells, an exclusive site for hematopoiesis, and a key regulator of body homeostasis via continuous cellular trafficking. Bone marrow is also deeply involved in metastasis of many prominent tumors e.g. breast and prostate tumors as a direct metastatic target for disseminated circulating tumor cells and/or a potent instigator of their metastatic spread to other peripheral tissue sites. Therefore, in depth understanding of bone marrow biology is critical to advance many fields of modern medicine. However, probing the bone marrow microenvironments has been challenging because of its anatomical inaccessibility, tissue complexity and lack of relevant preclinical models. In this talk, I will introduce bioengineering strategies to develop functional and standardized bone marrow models based on 3D hydrogel scaffolds that closely emulate physical and anatomical features of the bone marrow in a controlled and reproducible manner. Specifically I will discuss development of in vitro and in vivo human bone marrow tissue analogues combining the 3D hydrogel scaffolds with primary human bone marrow stromal cells that recapitulate essential bone marrow functions with high analytical power. In the last part of my talk, I will introduce an exciting application of our in vivo bone marrow model for studying human prostate tumor metastasis with several enabling features. Biomimetic design of 3D hydrogel scaffolds coupled with a powerful set of material, microfluidic, imaging and cellular engineering tools offer unique opportunity to build functional and analytical preclinical bone marrow models for studying many complex, dynamic physiological and pathological processes in the bone marrow.
Biography: Jungwoo Lee received his Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2009 under Prof. Nicholas Kotov. He then joined the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital as a postdoctoral research fellow. Currently Jungwoo is a NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) fellow from National Cancer Institute. He has authored and co-authored over 24 papers in PNAS, Nature Materials, Biomaterials, Small and other major research journals, and has won several honors and awards including Postdoctoral Fellowship from Shriners Hospital for Children, Poster Distinction Award from Annual MGH Research Symposium, Selection of "Cell Biology 2010" from ASCB Annual meeting, 1st Place in Entrepreneurial Challenging from MRS meeting, Distinguished Achievement Award from Univ. Michigan, and Horace H. Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. His research has focused on developing preclinical in vitro and in vivo human bone marrow models that can be used in a diverse range of bone marrow related fundamental and translational studies.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquim
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Andrea M. Armani, Assistant Professor and Fluor Early Career Chair of Engineering, USC
Talk Title: Maximizing Sensitivity While Miniaturizing Sensors: The Future of Integrated Devices
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
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NL Seminar- Hal Daume: "Predicting Linguistic Structures Accurately and Efficiently"
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hal Daume, University of Maryland
Talk Title: "Predicting Linguistic Structures Accurately and Efficiently"
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Many classic problems in natural language processing can be cast as building mapping from a complex input (e.g., a sequence of words) to a complex output (e.g., a syntax tree or semantic graph). This task is challenging both because language is ambiguous (learning difficulties) and represented with discrete combinatorial structures (computational difficulties). Often these are at odds: the features you want to add to decrease learning difficulties cause nontrivial additional structure yielding worse computational difficulties.
I will begin by discussing algorithms that side-step the issue of combinatorial blowup and aim to predict an output structure directly. I will then present approaches that explicitly learn to trade-off accuracy and efficiency, applied to a variety of linguistic phenomena. Moreover, I will show that in some cases, we can actually obtain a model that is faster and more accurate by exploiting smarter learning algorithms.
Biography: http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~hal/
Host: Yang Gao
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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President's Day - HOLIDAY, NO SEMINAR
Mon, Feb 17, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Network Scheduling with a Mix of Heavy-tailed and Light-tailed Traffic
Tue, Feb 18, 2014 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Eytan Modiano, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Network Scheduling with a Mix of Heavy-tailed and Light-tailed Traffic
Abstract: We describe recent results on scheduling and routing in the presence of a mix of heavy-tailed and light-tailed traffic. In particular, we show that when some of the traffic in the network is heavy-tailed, under max-weight scheduling the expected delay is unbounded even for the light-tailed traffic. This surprising result shows that max-weight scheduling is delay unstable when some of the traffic is heavy-tailed. Further, we provide examples where max-weight scheduling can lead to delay propagation throughout the network.
We then study the class of throughput optimal max-weight-α scheduling policies, and show that with an appropriate choice of the α parameters, the light queue can achieve bounded expected delay. Moreover, we derive an exact asymptotic characterization of the steady-state queue length distributions. We extend our results to the case where the links have intermittent on-off connectivity and show that the behavior of the queue occupancy distribution strongly depends on the connectivity parameters and the arrival rates to the queues. Finally, we consider backpressure routing in the presence of heavy tailed traffic, and describe settings where backpressure routing also leads to delay propagation throughout the network.
This talk is based on joint work with Krishna Jagannathan, Mihalis Markakis, and John Tsitsiklis
Biography: Eytan Modiano received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1986 and his M.S. and PhD degrees, both in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, in 1989 and 1992 respectively. He was a Naval Research Laboratory Fellow between 1987 and 1992 and a National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow during 1992-1993. Between 1993 and 1999 he was with MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he was a project leader for MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Next Generation Internet (NGI) project. Since 1999 he has been on the faculty at MIT, where he is a Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS). His research is on communication networks and protocols with emphasis on satellite, wireless, and optical networks. He is an Editor-at-Large for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and served as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems. He was the Technical Program co-chair for IEEE Wiopt 2006, IEEE Infocom 2007, and ACM MobiHoc 2007. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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CS Colloquium: Taesoo Kim (MIT CSAIL): Intrusion Recovery Using Selective Re-execution (Undo Computing)
Tue, Feb 18, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Taesoo Kim, MIT CSAIL
Talk Title: Intrusion Recovery Using Selective Re-execution (Undo Computing)
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Virtually any computer system can be compromised. New software vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited daily, but even if the software is bug-free, administrators may inadvertently make mistakes in configuring permissions, or unaware users may click on buttons in application installers with little understanding of its consequences. Recovering from those inevitable compromises leads to days and weeks of wasted effort by users or system administrators, yet with no conclusive guarantee that all traces of the attack have been cleaned up. This talk will present our work on "undo computing," which aims to restore system integrity by efficiently and precisely detecting and undoing changes made by past intrusions.
Biography: Taesoo Kim is a PhD student at MIT, CSAIL. He is interested in building systems that have strong yet intuitive underline principles for why it should be just secure. Those principles include the simple design of a system, analysis of its implementation, and clear separation of trusted components. He has BS at KAIST (2009), and SM at MIT (2011), both in CS.
Host: Ramesh Govindan
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process ImprovementWed, Feb 19, 2014
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Talk Title: Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
*A financial services organization saw $128,000 in cost savings per quarter when they reduced transaction processing rework
*A state agency reduced project cost over-runs by 28 percent
*A transportation company saved more than $875,000 per year in turnover costs by improving the employee communications process
*Reduced errors in a painting operation led to increased first pass acceptance and more than $197,000 in annual savings
*A Web developer increased annual profits by 10 percent by cutting cycle time
*A wave solder operation saw defects reduced by half and costs reduced by $60,000 per year
Host: Corporate & Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%2526systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Wed, Feb 19, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Keyue Shen, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Engineering Cell Microenvironments for Cancer Therapeutics
Abstract: Host stromal cells have been increasingly recognized as key regulators in cancer microenvironment. As cancer progresses, normal suppressive stroma is replaced by an activated, cancer-promoting one. This is accompanied by suppression of tumor-inhibiting infiltrating lymphocytes, and an increasingly disorganized tumor-stroma interface. In this talk, I will present subcellular microengineering approaches to control T cell activation through spatial and mechanical cues for cancer immunotherapy. I will also demonstrate an interfacial interaction model for understanding spatially resolved tumor-stromal signaling and discovering cancer chemotherapeutics that target the tumor-stroma interface.
Biography: Keyue Shen is a Research Fellow at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he has won an MGH Fund for Medical Discovery Award. He received his Ph.D with Distinction in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, and obtained M.S. in Biology and B.Eng. (summa cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University of China. His research interests are in developing in vitro microengineered models of cell microenvironments in immune system, cancer, and stem cell niches, for applications in immune and cancer therapeutics, as well as regenerative medicine.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Epstein ISE Department Seminar
Wed, Feb 19, 2014 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Guanghui (George) Lan, Assistant Professor, Dept of Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Florida
Talk Title: "Stochastic and Nonlinear Optimization for Large-Scale Data Analysis"
Abstract: Optimization has found widespread applications in data analysis during the past few years. Prominent examples include a variety of stochastic optimization models for machine learning (e.g., regression, classification, dictionary learning), and deterministic optimization models for inverse problems (e.g., compressed sensing, image reconstruction and matrix completion). Although being very encompassing, such optimization models from data analysis are often challenging to solve, mainly due to their high problem dimensionality, inherent data uncertainty, pervasive structure ambiguity, along with the frequent need to solve them in real time. In this talk, I will survey some recent advances to tackle the aforementioned big-data challenges in optimization. In particular, I will highlight: i) novel stochastic optimization methods that can handle data uncertainty in an optimal manner, based on our work on stochastic approximation; and ii) new deterministic optimization methods that converge faster and require little structural information, based on our work on level methods. I will provide showcases for the effectiveness of these techniques in machine learning and biomedical imaging.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING BLDG (EEB) ROOM 248
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Thu, Feb 20, 2014
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Talk Title: Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
*A financial services organization saw $128,000 in cost savings per quarter when they reduced transaction processing rework
*A state agency reduced project cost over-runs by 28 percent
*A transportation company saved more than $875,000 per year in turnover costs by improving the employee communications process
*Reduced errors in a painting operation led to increased first pass acceptance and more than $197,000 in annual savings
*A Web developer increased annual profits by 10 percent by cutting cycle time
*A wave solder operation saw defects reduced by half and costs reduced by $60,000 per year
Host: Corporate & Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%2526systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
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AI Seminar- Big Data Curation
Thu, Feb 20, 2014 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Renee Miller , Bell Canada Chair of Information Systems University of Toronto
Talk Title: Big Data Curation
Series: Artificial Intelligence Seminar
Abstract: A new mode of inquiry, problem solving, and decision making has become pervasive in our society, consisting of applying computational, mathematical, and statistical models to infer actionable information from large quantities of data. This paradigm, often called Big Data Analytics or simply Big Data, requires new forms of data management to deal with the volume, variety, and velocity of Big Data. Many of these data management problems can be described as data curation. Data curation includes all the processes needed for principled and controlled data creation, maintenance, and management, together with the capacity to add value to data. In this talk, I describe our experience in curating several open data sets. I overview how we have adapted some of the traditional solutions for aligning data and creating semantics to account for (and take advantage of) Big Data.
Biography: Renée J. Miller received BS degrees in Mathematics and in Cognitive Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Canada's National Academy) and the Bell Canada Chair of Information Systems at the University of Toronto. She received the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) , the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers and the National Science Foundation Career Award. She is a Fellow of the ACM, the President of the VLDB Endowment, and was the Program Chair for ACM SIGMOD 2011 in Athens, Greece. Her work has focused on the long-standing open problem of data integration and has achieved the goal of building practical data integration systems. She and her co-authors received the ICDT Test-of-Time Award for their influential 2003 paper establishing the foundations of data exchange.
http://dblab.cs.toronto.edu/~miller/
Host: Craig Knoblock
Webcast: TBALocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
WebCast Link: TBA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
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CS STUDENT Colloquium: Melissa Roemmle
Thu, Feb 20, 2014 @ 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Melissa Roemmle, USC
Talk Title: CS STUDENT Colloquium: Melissa Roemmle
Series: Student Seminar Series
Abstract: We developed a web game called Triangle Charades in which players create and interpret animations of human behaviors using simple shapes. I will explain how we use this game as a data collection approach for the machine learning task of automatically recognizing human actions in animations.
Host: Jacob Beal
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CS Colloquium: Vassilis Zikas (UCLA) - Cryptography & Secure Computation: Theory and Applications
Thu, Feb 20, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Vassilis Zikas, UCLA
Talk Title: Cryptography & Secure Computation: Theory and Applications
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: As more complex security challenges emerge, cryptography is called to provide provably secure solutions for a wide range of applications. Bridging the gap between theory and applications is perhaps the biggest challenge of contemporary cryptography. In this talk I discuss how combining ideas from game theory and cryptography provides the basis for the design of highly efficient, more resilient, and simpler provably secure protocols. I demonstrate this for the problem of secure computation, which has numerous applications, e.g., privacy preserving data mining and secure cloud computing. I further discuss recent developments on concrete efficiency of secure multi-party computation protocols which indicate that we can realistically expect large scale deployments in the next few years.
Biography: Dr. Vassilis Zikas is a researcher at the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include cryptography, information security, and game theory. Prior to his current appointment, he was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Maryland. He received his PhD in Computer Science from ETH Zurich.
Host: Shanghua Teng
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Fri, Feb 21, 2014
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Talk Title: Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
*A financial services organization saw $128,000 in cost savings per quarter when they reduced transaction processing rework
*A state agency reduced project cost over-runs by 28 percent
*A transportation company saved more than $875,000 per year in turnover costs by improving the employee communications process
*Reduced errors in a painting operation led to increased first pass acceptance and more than $197,000 in annual savings
*A Web developer increased annual profits by 10 percent by cutting cycle time
*A wave solder operation saw defects reduced by half and costs reduced by $60,000 per year
Host: Corporate & Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%2526systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
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CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 04:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Arian Safari and Arsalan Heydarian, Astani ENE Ph.D. Students
Talk Title: Toxico-chemical properties of size-fractionated airborne particulate matter and implications for human health / Measuring the Impact of Personal Control and Energy Use through the Use of Immersive Virtual Environments.
Abstract: Presenter: Arian Safari
Exposure to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) has been linked to several adverse health effects, including but not limited to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in addition to neurological disorders. There is growing literature supporting the hypothesis that one of the important pathways underlying these adverse health endpoints is the oxidative stress (e.g. ROS generation) that derives from the interaction of PM with cells. Elevated ROS levels can alter the redox status of the cell and consequently trigger a series of acute and chronic responses such as pulmonary inflammation and mitochondrial damage. This talk would focus on the PM-induced oxidative stress, its temporal and spatial variations, its relationship with chemical composition and PM emission sources and implications for toxicity assessment and human health. Moreover, a summary of the results of our recent studies in the Los Angeles south coast air basin will be discussed.
Presenter: Arsalan Heydarian
Title: Measuring the Impact of Personal Control and Energy Use through the Use of Immersive Virtual Environments.
Absract:
Recent studies have focused on increasing energy efficiency in commercial buildings through technological means (e.g., efficient HVAC systems, sensors and sensing systems). However, most studies underestimate the impact of occupants’ behavioral choices. This presentation focuses on measuring the impact of personal control and energy consumption behaviour through the use of immersive virtual environments. The presentation will focus on two main topics the (1) evaluation of human interaction within immersive virtual environments compared to the physical environments and (2) the impact of personal control on lighting use in office environments. The presentation is broken down into the following components: discussion of the problem statement, use of immersive virtual environments to study alternative designs, brief discussion of the pilot experiments, and future works.
Location: SLH 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Perla Ayala, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Engineering Materials to Support Tissue Regeneration
Abstract: There is increasing evidence that the efficacy of tissue regeneration is likely dependent on creating a suitable microenvironment that can support cell function. Moreover, the design of successful engineered therapies for tissue regeneration relies on discerning how cell behavior in the biological microenvironment can be modulated by chemical and physical cues. In the first part of this work, the combinatorial effect of stiffness and micro-scale topographical cues on cell proliferation and gene expression is investigated in 2D and 3D. Results demonstrate that regulation of extracellular matrix production by cells on 2D and 3D cultures can be influenced via microscale physical cues alone and highlight the role of stiffness on the physical regulation of cells. Furthermore, biocompatible microstructures are developed as injectable micro-scaffolds and as growth factor delivery devices to influence tissue regeneration in vivo after myocardial infarction in the rat model. The major objective in the development of engineered tissues is to design and create scaffolds that will properly integrate with the host tissue to support the regenerative process. In the second part of this work, a strategy for abdominal wall repair is developed by engineering a mechanically robust composite scaffold laden with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) designed to improve therapeutic outcomes. My studies are focused on designing and fabricating engineered implantable materials that support tissue regeneration by influencing the in vivo microenvironment to direct cells to regenerative behavior.
Biography: Perla Ayala is postdoctoral research fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and an affiliate postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Boston, MA. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco in 2011 and obtained her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with honors from the University of California, Riverside in 2005. As an undergraduate she carried out research at UCR and did summer research internships at Cornell University and at MIT.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquim
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dennis Kaspereit, Vice President-Geothermal Resources, Terra-Gen Power, LLC
Talk Title: Geothermal Power: 24/7 Renewable Energy
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
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Munushian Seminar - Karl K. Berggren
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Karl K. Berggren, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Smarter Lithography: Top-Down Control of Nanometer-Length-Scale Self-Assembly
Abstract: The future of nanotechnology generally and the integrated circuit industry in particular depend on the ability to control and pattern complex structures at the nanometer length scale. We will discuss methods we have developed that use electron and ion beams to pattern structures at the single-nanometer length scale. However, covering large areas with nanometer-scale beams is a slow and expensive process, leading some to suggest that chemical and biological self-assembly might better address the future industrial needs in this area. The question is then, how to control self-assembly to create the kinds of flawless and arbitrary patterns the semiconductor industry now uses routinely in the fabrication of microchips? We will discuss a solution to this problem in which we pattern only a sparse structure and then using directed self-assembly of block copolymers, fill in the remaining space. The trick is to achieve a maximum of control and complexity in the final pattern with a minimum of expensive top-down lithography. The result is a surprising degree of control and perfection in patterning systems that would otherwise produce random patterns. We can even control double-layer patterns by using just a single layer of sparse electron-beam-defined posts. The methods take advantage
of the natural tendencies of the block copolymers to form ordered linear arrays, with the posts serving to guide the arrays during the assembly process. A future vision of lithography, where engineering and chemistry work together to construct complex and useful nanometer-length-scale patterns is envisioned as a result of this work.
Biography: Professor Karl K. Berggren is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where he heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University
in 1997, where his thesis research focused on nanofabrication by using neutral atomic beams. After completing his thesis research, he became a member of the technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he worked on superconductive device fabrication for superconducting analog, and digitial electronics, and quantum computation. In 2003 he joined the faculty at MIT, where his research focuses on high-resolution lithography and templated self-assembly by using electron-and ion-beams and block copolymers. He applies
novel lithographic methods to fabrication of superconductive quantum circuits, photodetectors, and high-speed superconductive electronics. He is Director of the Nanostructures Laboratory in the Research Laboratory of Electronics, and is a core faculty member in the Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL). He is also a member of the editorial board at the IOP journal Nanotechnology, an elected member of the Board of the biannual Applied Superconductivity Conference, and chair of the program committee for the 2014 Electron, Ion, Photon-Beams and Nanotechnology (EIPBN) Conference.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
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Epstein ISE Department Seminar
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 03:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. John Gunnar Carlsson, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota
Abstract: Geography is a natural factor that must be explicitly considered in many problems in operations research, such as facility location, vehicle routing, and network design. Scientifically speaking, one of the major difficulties that geographic resource allocation problems pose is their interdisciplinary nature; in order to determine an optimal solution to such a problem, one must combine tools from a variety of disciplines, such as mathematical optimization, computational geometry, geometric probability theory, and geospatial analysis. In this talk, we show how to apply these tools to solve two fundamental logistical problems: the first is a high-level analysis of a hub-and-spoke network design problem, and the second is a districting problem in which the goal is to partition a geographic territory so as to balance the workloads of a collection of service facilities or vehicles.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014
ANDRUS GERONTOLOGY BLDG (GER) ROOM 206
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Biography: John Gunnar Carlsson is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received a Ph.D. in computational mathematics from ICME in Stanford University in 2009 and an A.B. in mathematics and music from Harvard College in 2005. He is the recipient of the 2013 INFORMS Computing Society (ICS) Prize, the 2014 Air Force Young Investigator Prize, the 2012 DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the 2010 INFORMS Interactive Session Prize. His research is supported by DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), and the Boeing Company, and has appeared in Operations Research, Scientific Reports, Transportation Science, the INFORMS Journal on Computing, and the ACM Transactions on Algorithms.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Carlsson.doc
Location: Room 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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CS Colloquium: David Chu (Microsoft Research) - Surmounting two challenges of cloud gaming for mobile devices: network latency and server multi-tenancy
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David Chu, Microsoft Research
Talk Title: Surmounting two challenges of cloud gaming for mobile devices: network latency and server multi-tenancy
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Gaming on mobile devices is very popular. Cloud gaming such as Sony PlayStation's Now -- where remote servers perform game execution and rendering on behalf of thin clients that simply send input and display output frames -- appears to be well-suited for mobile devices, promising any device the ability to play any game any time. However, cloud gaming must confront network latency and server multi-tenancy. This talk introduces these two challenges, and our two respective solutions, DeLorean and DeeJay.
For latency, wireless network round trip times (RTTs) often exceed thresholds above which gamers find responsiveness acceptable. We present DeLorean, a speculative execution system for mobile cloud gaming that is able to mask latency. DeLorean produces speculative rendered frames of future possible outcomes, delivering them to the client one entire RTT ahead of time; clients perceive little latency. To achieve this, DeLorean combines: 1) future input prediction; 2) state space subsampling and time shifting; 3) misprediction compensation; and 4) bandwidth compression. This work is a collaboration with the University of Michigan.
For multi-tenancy, a single server must carefully schedule the GPU across multiple game instances that each have their own real-time latency and throughput requirements. Moreover, it must gracefully handle overload when more clients join than anticipated. We are in the process of building DeeJay, a system that 1) schedules GPU-bound jobs with latency and throughput constraints, and that 2) minimally degrades visual game quality upon system overload.
To evaluate both DeLorean and DeeJay, we use two high quality, commercially-released games: a twitch-based first person shooter, Doom3, and a role playing game, Fable3.
Biography: David Chu is a researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond where he works on mobile systems with an emphasis on mobile gaming. He is also interested in sensing and context for the mobile OS. His work has appeared in The Verge, Engadget and Wired. David received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.S. from the University of Virginia.
Host: Ramesh Govindan
Location: SAL 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuguo Lei, Ph.D., Postdoctoral CIRM Scholar, Postdoctoral Fellow, the David Schaffer Laboratory Department of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Building Scalable 3D Culture Systems for the Cost-effective Production of Clinical Grade Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Abstract: Building Scalable 3D Culture Systems for the Cost-effective Production of Clinical Grade Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have the capacities for indefinite in vitro expansion and differentiation into presumably all cell types in the human body. They therefore represent highly promising cell sources for numerous biomedical applications, such as cell therapy, tissue engineering, drug discovery and toxicity testing. These applications require large numbers of cells of high quality and purity. For instance, ~105 surviving dopaminergic (DA) neurons, ~109 cardiomyocytes, or ~109 ò cells are required to treat a patient with Parkinson�s disease (PD), myocardial infarction (MI), or type I diabetes respectively. Analogously, ~1010 hepatocytes are needed for an artificial human liver, and ~1010 cells may be required to screen a million compound library. Considering the large patient populations with degenerative diseases, as well as the millions of chemical/peptide/nucleotide compounds that can be screened against many cell types, massive numbers of hPSCs are thus needed. It is becoming clear that the current 2D-based cell culture systems are incapable of producing sufficient cells with high quality. An attractive approach for scaling up cell production is to move the cell culture from 2D to 3D, and accordingly several 3D suspension systems have been probed for hPSCs production, specifically cell aggregates, cells on microcarriers, and cells in alginate microencapsulates. While these approaches have some attractive aspects, they also highlight significant challenges for 3D hPSC culture including: i) the use of components from human or animal tissue (such as Matrigel, serum, BSA), which limits reproducibility and scalability as well as poses risks for pathogen and immunogen transfer that are problematic for GMP cell production; ii) substantial cell agglomeration that can lead to differentiation and/or death; iii) shear force in agitated cultures that can compromise cell viability; iv) modest cell expansion rates and low cell yields per volume and v) unclear potential for long term serial expansion.
In this presentation, I will introduce a 3D culture system that utilizes a thermoreversible hydrogel as matrix for versatile and multi-scale hPSC culture. With this simple, defined, scalable, GMP compliant system and protocol that are free of animal derived products, we achieved long-term, high rates of expansion (~20-fold per passage over 5 days, 1072-fold over 280 days, and ~2.0x107 cells/ml gel yield), and high level maintenance of pluripotency (~95%) for multiple hESC and hiPSC lines, all of which offer considerable improvements over the current approaches. Based on this system, we then developed a defined bioprocess for the scalable production of DA neurons from hPSCs for treating PD. We made a small molecule cocktail that can efficiently convert hPSCs into DA progenitors in the 3D hydrogel with a yield of ~8x107 DA progenitors/ml hydrogel and ~80-fold expansion by the end of a 15-day derivation. These cells could survive, mature and function in vivo. I will also present data on using these cells to treat PD in a rodent model. This versatile culture system has the potential to resolve a major challenge that is currently limiting the applications of hPSCs.
Biography: Dr. Yuguo Lei received his B.S. in chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China and his M.S. in polymer science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. He then went to UCLA for a M.S. in pharmacology and Ph.D. in chemical engineering before doing his postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley.
His research interests are to resolve some unsolved human health problems with hPSC-based products. He develops new technologies to address significant challenges that limit the advancement of hPSC-derived cells or products from the benchtop to the bedside. To achieve this goal, he pursues fundamental advances at the intersection of biomaterial design, molecular, cellular and tissue engineering as well as hPSC biology. The resulting technologies are useful for drug discovery, tissue engineering and cell therapies, and Dr. Lei is applying them to treat a number of degenerative diseases, with a focus on the central nervous system.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Alexander V. Terekhov: Constructing space: how a naive agent can learn spatial relationships by observing sensorimotor contingencies
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alexander V. Terekhov, Laboratory of Psychology of Perception, Paris Descartes University (Paris 5).
Talk Title: Constructing space: how a naive agent can learn spatial relationships by observing sensorimotor contingencies
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The brain sitting inside its bony cavity sends and receives myriads of sensory inputs and outputs. A problem that must be solved either in ontogeny or phylogeny is how to extract the particular characteristics within this "blooming buzzing confusion" that signal the existence and nature of physical space, with structured objects immersed in it, among them the agent's body. The idea that spatial knowledge must be extracted from the sensorimotor flow in order to underlie perception has been considered by a number of thinkers, including Helmholtz, Poincare, Nicod, Gibson, etc. However, little work has considered how this could actually be done by organisms without a priori knowledge of the nature of their sensors and effectors. Here we show how an agent with arbitrary sensors will naturally discover spatial knowledge from the undifferentiated sensorimotor flow. The method first involves tabulating sensorimotor contingencies, that is, the laws linking sensory and motor variables. Second, further laws are created linking these sensorimotor contingencies together. The method works without any prior knowledge about the structure of the agent's sensors, body, or of the world. We show that the extracted laws endow the agent with basic spatial knowledge, manifesting itself through perceptual shape constancy and the ability to do path integration. We further show that the ability of the agent to learn all spatial dimensions depends on the ability to move in all these dimensions, rather than on possessing a sensor that has that dimensionality. This latter result suggests, for example, that three dimensional space can be learned in spite of the fact that the retinas are two-dimensional. We conclude by showing how the acquired spatial knowledge paves the way to building the notion of object.
Host: Michael Arbib
Location: HNB 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENR)
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paola Cesari, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Talk Title: Action observation and action imagination: from pathology to the excellent sport performance
Series: Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH Seminars)
Biography: http://www.dsnm.univr.it/?ent=persona&id=1611
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
More Info: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfpLocation: Center For Health Professions (CHP) - 147
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfp
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
Event Link: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
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CS Colloquium: Tamara Denning (U of Washington)
Tue, Feb 25, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Tamara Denning, U of Washington
Talk Title: Human-Centered Computer Security: Beyond the Desktop
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Modern technologies are increasingly capable, interconnected, and used in diverse aspects of our lives. Securing these devices is critical: attackers can leverage their properties to perform attacks with novel or amplified harms. It is critical to approach securing these devices from a human perspective in addition to a technical perspective in order to maximize the effectiveness and minimize the repercussions of deployed security systems. I outline a human-centered approach to designing security for these new classes of technologies and ground each step with an example study. First, I use my study on household robots to demonstrate how the properties and usage scenarios of a technology translate into particular threats to users and bystanders. Second, I present how researchers can investigate the characteristics of an application domain in order to inform the design of better security systems, using my work with implantable medical devices as an example. Third, I use my in-situ study investigating the impacts of augmented reality devices on bystander privacy to illustrate how researchers can obtain data on the risks associated with a technology. I conclude my talk with a call for the development of more toolkits to bootstrap the security process, and present one such toolkit: the Security Cards, a physical deck of brainstorming cards that I developed to help computer science students, technologists, and researchers explore the threats that might be posed by a technology system.
Biography: Tamara Denning is a senior PhD student at the University of Washington working with Tadayoshi Kohno in the Security and Privacy Research Lab. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego in 2007. Tamara's interests are in the human aspects of computer security and privacy, with a focus on emerging technologies. Past areas of work include security for implantable medical devices, the security of consumer technologies in the home, security and privacy issues surrounding augmented reality, and security toolkits for awareness and education. Tamara's work is published in both HCI and computer security venues, and has been covered by new outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, and Wired.
Host: Ramesh Govindan
Location: SAL 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Sparsity Measures in Spatially Distributed Systems
Wed, Feb 26, 2014 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Nader Motee, Lehigh University
Talk Title: Sparsity Measures in Spatially Distributed Systems
Abstract: A new theory of compressive feedback control (CFC) design for spatially distributed systems within the areas of distributed control systems, operational research, and machine learning is emerging. The CFC theory asserts that feedback control design for a certain class of spatially distributed systems can be spatially localized using far less sensor measurements than traditional control design techniques. Moreover, the CFC theory exploits the fact that the quadratically optimal state feedback controllers for many real-world systems are sparse and spatially localized in the sense that they have near-optimal sparse information structures. In this talk, I will introduce an important and omnipresent class of spatially distributed systems, so called spatially decaying systems. Examples of spatially decaying systems include spatially distributed power networks with sparse interconnection topologies, multi-agent systems with nearest neighbor coupling structures, arrays of micro-mirrors, micro-cantilevers, and sensor networks. The common fundamental property of all these systems is that there is a notion of spatial distance with respect to which couplings between the subsystems can be quantified using a class of coupling weight functions. Then, I will describe a newly developed mathematical framework, based on notions of quasi-Banach algebras of spatially decaying matrices, to relate spatial decay properties of spatially decaying systems to sparsity features of their underlying information structures. The bridge connecting these two notions is built upon several cornerstones. I will discuss some of the fundamental insights and tools that will allow us to exploit architectural properties of the underlying systems in order to introduce system-oriented sparsity measures for spatially distributed systems.
Biography: Nader Motee is a P.C. Rossin assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Lehigh University. Before joining Lehigh, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Control and Dynamical Systems Department at Caltech and a visiting scholar at UCSB. He received a PhD degree in electrical and systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. His research interests include theoretical foundation of distributed control systems and optimization with applications to power grid, network of autonomous vehicles, and biological systems. Motee received an AFOSR Young Investigator Award in 2013, the 2008 O. Hugo Schuck Award for Theory of the American Automatic Control Council, the Student Best Paper Award at the American Control Conference in 2007, the Joseph and Rosaline Wolf Award for Best PhD Dissertation in 2008, and was a finalist for the Student Best Paper Award at the American Control Conference in 2006, and the IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest in 2000.
Host: Petros Ioannou
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shane Goodoff
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Graduate Seminar
Wed, Feb 26, 2014 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Masoud Soroush, Drexel University
Talk Title: Long-Term Academia-Industry Collaboration: The Drexel-DuPont Experience
Series: Graduate Seminar Series
Abstract: Long-term academia-industry research collaboration is rewarding but challenging.
Drexel and DuPont collaborated at different levels for more than a decade. What
began as a personal collaboration in multirate state estimation later evolved into a broad university-corporation collaboration in process systems engineering and
polymer engineering lasting more than a decade.
In this talk, the evolution of this collaboration, in terms of the type of projects
involved and the level of corporation participation, is described. The challenges
and rewards of such a collaboration are described based on this collaboration
experience. Results of collaborative projects involving multirate state estimation,
instrument fault detection and identification, polymer reaction engineering, and
quantum-chemical study of acrylate self-initiation reactions are presented.
Biography: Masoud Soroush is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Drexel University,Philadelphia, PA. He received his BS (Chemical Engineering) from Abadan Institute of Technology,Iran and his MS (Chemical Engineering), MS (Electrical Engineering: Systems), and PhD (ChemicalEngineering) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a Visiting Scientist at DuPont Marshall Lab 2002-03 and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University in 2008. His awards include the Faculty Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 1997, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Automatic Control Council in 1999, and the Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching from Drexel University in 1999. His research interests are in process systems engineering; mathematical modeling, analysis, and computational design and optimization of fuel cells, solar cells, and power storage systems; probabilistic modeling, risk assessment, and prediction of rare events; fault detection and identification; polymer engineering; and quantum chemical calculations. He was the AIChE Director on the American Automatic Control Council Board of Directors 2010-2013 and the AIChE CAST 10B Programming Coordinator in 2009.
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Graduate
Contact: Ryan Choi
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21st CENTURY INNOVATION
Wed, Feb 26, 2014 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nicholas M. Donofrio, IBM Fellow Emeritus & EVP Innovation and Technology (Ret.), NMD Consulting, LLC
Talk Title: 21st CENTURY INNOVATION
Biography: Nick Donofrio is a champion for innovation across IBM and its global ecosystem and is the leader of IBM's global technology strategy. He also is vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation. Mr. Donofrio's responsibilities include IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health and Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio are the senior executives responsible for IBM's enterprise on demand transformation, as well as IBM's initiatives for open industry standard and intellectual property. In addition to his strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio leads the development and retention of IBM's technical population and strives to enrich that community with a diversity of culture and thought.
Mr. Donofrio joined IBM in 1967 and spent the early part of his career in integrated circuit and chip development as a designer of logic and memory chips. He held numerous technical management positions and, later, executive positions in several of IBM's product divisions. He has led many of IBM's major development and manufacturing teams - from semiconductor and storage technologies, to microprocessors and personal computers, to IBM's entire family of servers.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a Master of Science in the same discipline from Syracuse University in 1971. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Polytechnic University, in 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Warwick in England, in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Technology from Marist College and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Mr. Donofrio is focused sharply on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women. He served for many years on the Board of Directors for the National Acton Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and was NACME's Board chair from 1997 through 2002. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for INROADS, a non-profit organization focused on the training and development of talented minority youth for professional careers in business and industry, and he is co-chair of the New York Hall of Science. In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a 20-member delegation of business and university leaders charged with developing a new national strategy for post-secondary education that will meet the needs of American's diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country's future. In 2006, he was named IBM's delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a coalition of 190 companies united by a shared commitment to economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. Also in 2006, Mr. Donofrio was elected co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the New York Hall of Science.
He is the holder of seven technology patents and is a member of numerous technical and science honor societies. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a fellow of the U.K-based Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the US-based National Academy of Engineering, a member of the Board of Directors for the Bank of New York, a member of the Board of Directors for The Council for the United States and Italy, and a member of the advisory board for the Geographic Project - a five year research partnership between the National Geographic Society and IBM to map how humankind populated the earth.
In 2002, Mr. Donofrio was recognized by Europe's Institution of Electrical Engineers with the Mensforth International Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the advancement of manufacturing engineering. In 2003, he was named Industry Week magazine's Technology Leader of the Year, the University of Arizona's Technical Executive of the Year, and was presented with the Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award by the Society of Woman Engineers for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of women in the engineering field. In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was presented with Syracuse University's highest alumni honor - the George Arents Pioneer Medal, and he was honored by CNBC with its Overall Technology Leadership Award. In 2006, he was honored by The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art with the Urban Visionaries Award for Engineering; was named one of Business Week magazine's 25 Top Innovation Champions, and received the Robert Fletcher Award from Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering for distinguished achievement and service. In 2007, he received the National Education and Leadership Award from the Sons of Italy Foundation.
Host: Prof. John Slaughter
More Information: Seminar Announcement - Donofrio 022614.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Epstein ISE Department Seminar
Thu, Feb 27, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Diana M. Negoescu, Dept of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Talk Title: "Dynamic Learning of Patient Response Types"
Abstract: For many chronic diseases, available treatments are effective only for a subgroup of patients, and biomarkers that accurately assess the responsiveness of an individual patient do not exist. In these settings, information regarding the response type of a patient can only be generated by experimentation -- subjecting the patient to a variety of treatments. Physicians then learn about the response through self-reported patient evaluations, as well as from the (non)occurrence of negative health events such as disease flare-ups. The timing of these events also carries substantial information, which should be taken into account when determining optimal personalized treatments.
In this talk, I will introduce a continuous-time, two-armed bandit framework that balances the trade-off between exploring alternative treatments and exploiting available information. Unlike most multi-armed bandit models that learn only from observed rewards, our model also incorporates information regarding the frequency of health events, and can be analyzed in closed form to derive guidelines for treatment policies. I will showcase the effectiveness of our methodology by developing an adaptive policy to treat multiple sclerosis, a chronic autoimmune disease. We compare the performance of our policy to that of a standard, non-adaptive treatment policy, and show that, by identifying non-responders earlier, our approach leads to improvements in quality-adjusted life expectancy, as well as significant cost savings. Beyond multiple sclerosis, dynamic learning models that incorporate the timing of events may find several applications in a broader medical decision making context, as a means to design treatment policies for diseases such as depression, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac or Crohn's disease.
Based on joint work with Kostas Bimpikis, Margaret L. Brandeau and Dan A. Iancu.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014
ANDRUS GERONTOLOGY BLDG (GER) ROOM 206
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Biography: Diana Negoescu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Her dissertation focuses on the application of operations research and management science to medical and health policy decision-making problems. In particular, her research focuses on personalized medical decision-making and healthcare models for problems where patient characteristics are partially unknown or evolving over time, and where decision makers are risk-averse, or face constraints on the resources they can use or the actions they can take.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Negoescu.doc
Location: Room 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquim
Fri, Feb 28, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Gregory A. Lyzenga, Department of Physics, Harvey Mudd College (also a member of the Solid Earth Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Talk Title: Forecasting Earthquakes: Facts, Myths, and Possibilities
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
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CREATE Seminar w/ Howard Kunreuther
Fri, Feb 28, 2014 @ 01:30 PM - 03:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Howard Kunreuther, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center - University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Reducing Losses from Flood-Related Disasters: Dealing with Affordability
Series: CREATE Monthly Seminar Series
Abstract: Many residents in flood-prone areas are complaining that they cannot afford to purchase flood insurance because their premiums have been increased significantly due to the passage of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 that mandates risk-based premiums. This goal of this legislation was to reduce the growing deficit in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Due to the above concerns of homeowners in flood-prone areas, Congress is now seriously considering delaying the implementation of this legislation and possible repealing it. I will suggest ways to address the affordability issue by providing means-tested vouchers and incentivizing investments in loss reduction measures using risk-based premiums. The importance of redesigning homes takes on added significance in the face of climate change and sea level rise. Backround paper attached.
Please RSVP to me (calicchi@usc.edu) no later than Monday, February 24th.
Biography: Howard C. Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan Professor; Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School, and co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. He has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low-probability, high-consequence events related to technological and natural hazards. He is a Coordinating Lead Author on the chapter on Risk and Uncertainty Assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. His most recent books are Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response (with M. Useem) (2010), and At War with the Weather (with E. Michel-Kerjan) (2009, paperback, 2011), winner of the Kulp-Wright Book Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association in 2011 and Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry (with Mark Pauly and Stacey McMorrow 2013).
Host: CREATE at USC
More Information: WP2013_Affordability-NFIP_CK-HK dec2013.pdf
Location: RTH 324
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Pearson (Calicchio)
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NL Seminar- Kenji Sagae:Dependency parsing with directed graph output
Fri, Feb 28, 2014 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kenji Sagae, USC/ ICT
Talk Title: Dependency parsing with directed graph output
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Most data-driven dependency parsing approaches assume that the structure of sentences is represented as trees. Although trees have several desirable properties from a computational perspective, the structure of linguistic phenomena that go beyond shallow syntax often cannot be fully captured by tree representations. I will describe data-driven dependency parsing approaches that produce more general graphs as output, and present results obtained with these approaches on predicate-argument structures extracted from CCG and HPSG datasets.
Biography: Kenji Sagae is a Research Scientist in the Institute for Creative Technolgies at the University of Southern California, and a Research Assistant Professor in the USC Computer Science Department. He received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006. Prior to joining USC in 2008, he was a research associate at the University of Tokyo. His main area of research is Natural Language Processing, focusing on data-driven approaches for syntactic parsing, predicate-argument analysis and discourse processing. His current work includes the application of these techniques in analysis of personal narratives in blog posts, the study of child language, spoken dialogue systems, and multimodal processing.
Home Page
http://ict.usc.edu/profile/kenji-sagae/
Host: Kevin Knight & Yang Gao
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey @ ISI-Info Sciences Inst.
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series - Spring 2014
Fri, Feb 28, 2014 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sayfe Kiaei, Arizona State University
Talk Title: On-Chip Power Digital LDO and Isolated Power Management
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Abstract: The first part of this presentation will give a brief overview of research at Connection One on RF, Analog and PMIC. This will be followed by a presentation on Digital Linear Drop-out Regulators and the development of Power Management IC. The development of multi-core highly integrated systems-on-a-chip has created the need for small, fully integrated voltage regulators that operate on a per-core basis. In order to maximize efficiency, most SOC's apply dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) on each block of the system to adjust the power based on performance demands. Analog regulators are poorly suited to this task as they are difficult to integrate on sub-micron processes, consume more power, and require precision external capacitors to ensure stability. The development of D-LDO regulators is intended to address these drawbacks of analog regulators.
Biography: Dr. Sayfe Kiaei is has been with ASU since January 2001. He is a Professor and the Director of the Connection One Center (NSF I/UCRC Center), and Motorola Chair in Analog and RF Integrated Circuits. From 1993 to 2001, he was a Senior Member of Technical Staff with the Wireless Technology Center and Broadband Operations at Motorola where he was responsible for the development of RF & Transceiver Integrated Circuits, GPS RF IC, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) transceivers. Before joining Motorola, Dr. Kiaei was an Associate Professor at Oregon State University from 1987-1993 where he taught courses and performed research in digital communications, VLSI system design, advanced CMOS IC design, and wireless systems. Dr. has published more than 200 journal and conference papers and holds several patents. Dr. Kiaei is an IEEE Fellow and a member of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Solid State Circuits Society, and IEEE Communication Society. Dr. Kiaei has been organizer, on the technical program committee and/or chair of many conferences, including: RFIC, MTT, ISCAS, and other international conferences.
Host: Hossien Hashemi, Mike Chen, Mahta Moghaddam, Sushil Subramanian
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Sushil Subramanian
Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
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Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Feb 28, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Wen-Young Liu and Yujing Hu , Astani CEE Ph.D. Students
Talk Title: Diffraction of Elastic Waves Around Layered Strata With Irregular Topography / Seismic Performance of Tilt-Up Structures
Abstract: First Presenter: Wen-Young Liu
Diffraction Around an Irregular Layered Elastic Media â Love and Body SH Waves, Rayleigh and Body P-SV Waves are to be investigated by weighted-residual method along with Fourier half-range wave expressions. Diffracted mode shapes and spectral amplification characteristics of Love and Body SH Waves, Rayleigh waves and P-SV-waves at different frequencies are examined and discussed.
Second Presenter: Yujing Hu
Title: Performance of Tilt-Up Structures
Abstract:
Tilt-up construction is a cost-effective technique which has been widely used in North America, South America and New Zealand. It is estimated that over 15% of all industrial buildings are Tilt-Up in the United States. Although economical to build, this type of structure is vulnerable to strong ground motions. Severe damage to tilt-up structures is reported during past major earthquakes around the world. This research evaluates the effects of moderate and strong ground motions on different types of tilt-up buildings, in order to estimate the potential vulnerability of the structural system. Three dimensional, linear and nonlinear models of three types of tilt-up structures are developed. Nonlinear elements are incorporated for Gluam Beam/Wall connections, Purlin/Wall connections, Panel/Panel connections and roof. Inelastic characteristics for these components are obtained from a series of previous experiments. In addition, cumulative damage of some critical structural components of tilt-up structures is studied by considering low-cycle fatigue problem.
Location: SLH 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
