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Events for February 26, 2013
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you�ve learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE�s Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office� to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $6095
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $6095
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@mapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants � unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live � with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in SIx Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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CS Colloquium: Alberto Rodriguez: Contacting the World with Mechanical and Data-Driven Intelligence
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alberto Rodriguez, Carnegie Mellon
Talk Title: Contacting the World with Mechanical and Data-Driven Intelligence
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: In the next 10 to 20 years, society will look towards robotics to solve some of its biggest challenges: from improving the self-sufficiency of an aging population, to enabling more efficient and intelligent manufacturing processes; from assisting in dangerous environmental cleanup operations, to providing immediate support in search and rescue emergencies. Reliable physical interaction is central to all these challenges, and robots must master it to become part of the solution.
End effectors such as robotic hands play a privileged role in the manipulation chain. They contact the world, and both their designs and their actions can contribute to more intelligent and reliable physical interaction. In my research I explore both. The central idea is to combine the simplicity and reliability of end effectors and control strategies designed to exhibit mechanical intelligence with the realism of data-driven models to give robots the necessary skills to expect, understand, and control contact.
In the first part of the talk I will discuss the role of the design of a mechanism in producing intelligent behavior. I will show how mechanical attributes such as shape, actuation, or compliance, can be instrumental in the design of effectors that are simpler, cheaper, lighter, and more reliable, and how exploring their design tradeoffs has the potential to impact a very broad set of applications, from automating the design of specialized grippers to the design of feet and locomotion gaits that take into consideration the statistics of the terrain.
In the second part of the talk I will address the problem of getting robots to control physical interaction through their actions. Contact leaves a trace of sensor readings that a skilled manipulator should be able to understand to direct its actions. I will show how we can build accurate probabilistic data-driven models for perception, planning, prediction, and failure detection, to direct and monitor the execution of manipulation tasks, with example applications to general-purpose in-hand manipulation and automated assembly.
Biography: Alberto Rodriguez is a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His main research interests are in robotic manipulation, including mechanical design, data-driven manipulation, grasping, caging, and automated assembly. His long-term research goal is to provide robots with enough sensing, reasoning and acting capabilities to reliably manipulate the environment. Alberto Rodriguez received the degrees of Mathematics ('05) and Telecommunication Engineering ('06 with honors) from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. He is the recipient of "La Caixa" and "Caja Madrid" fellowships for graduate studies in the US, and the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the conference Robotics: Science and Systems 2011.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Astani CEE Seminar
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Mardavij Roozbehani , Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Talk Title: Efficiency and Risk Tradeoffs in Dynamic Multi-Agent Networked Systems
Abstract: In this talk, we first introduce a few problems that arise in the context of modeling, analysis, and design of future power networks, and in characterization of the trade-offs that exist among different performance and robustness objectives in such networks. We will then introduce a specific model of a dynamic oligopolistic energy market, in which, a set of distributed agents with market power dynamically update their output (consumption or production) decisions. In this model, the agents have complete knowledge of how their decisions affect the market price, and are fully rational in strategizing their decisions to minimize their expected cost. By characterizing the statistics of the stationary aggregate output process across a spectrum of networks from fully cooperative to fully non-cooperative, we show that a tradeoff exists between efficiency (aggregate system cost) and risk (tail probability of aggregate output). Although the non-cooperative network leads to an efficiency loss - widely known as the "price of anarchy" - the stationary distribution of the corresponding aggregate output process has a smaller tail, whereas, the cooperative network achieves higher efficiency at the cost of a higher probability of output spikes. Furthermore, the cooperative network has a smaller output variance, which can be interpreted as higher robustness to disturbances, but it also has a higher probability of large output spikes, which can be interpreted as higher fragility to certain disturbances. We then establish the connection between these tradeoffs and some results from the classical control literature, and conclude with suggestions for future research directions.
Biography: Mardavij Roozbehani is a principal research scientist at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received the Ph.D. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2008. His Ph.D. research focused on developing a control theoretic framework for verification and implementation of software systems. Between 2008 and 2011 he held postdoctoral and research scientist positions at MIT, LIDS, focusing on applications of control and optimization in power systems and energy networks. His current research interests and activities include distributed and networked control systems, software and finite-state control systems, and dynamics and economics of energy networks with an emphasis on robustness and risk. Dr Roozbehani is the recipient of the 2007 AIAA graduate award for safety verification of real-time software systems.
Host: Dr. Ketan Savla
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Epstein Institute / ISE 651 Seminar Series
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 03:45 PM - 05:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John Slaughter, Professor, Viterbi School of Engineering and the Rossier School of Education
Talk Title: "The Changing Face of Engineering"
Abstract: America is a nation embroiled in a global contest for scientific and technological leadership. In todayââ¬â¢s flat world, we must act quickly on a number of fronts to maintain a strong position of competitiveness in science and technology in order to ensure a future of prosperity and security. Failure to act will guarantee that preeminence in innovation and entrepreneurship will reside in the hands of those nations that are most adept at developing and retaining talent. As Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said, ââ¬ÅIf we fail to act, the looming gap in the U.S. science and engineering workforce is a quiet crisis that will grow in intensity and quickly undermine the ability of our nation to continue as the preeminent leader in science and engineering.ââ¬Â
Given the demographic changes occurring in America, the deficiencies in many of our elementary and secondary schools, the tremendous progress in science and technology occurring in developing countries, and tightening immigration policies, we can no longer depend upon an endless supply of foreign talent, nor continue to afford the historic underrepresentation of women and minorities in the STEM disciplines. Confronting the Grand Challenges of Engineering will require that we improve opportunities for all Americans to receive rigorous and high quality educations in science and engineering. In short, the engineering profession must shed itself of the myopia that has limited its ability to benefit from the remarkable diversity of America. As Dean Yortsos stated in the concluding paragraph of his editorial, ââ¬Å . . . the realization is urgently emerging of the need to engage all of our talent pool.ââ¬Â
Diversity is not an issue that was on the radar screen of the engineering profession in America until the latter decades of the 20th Century. It was not until 1974 that an industry-inspired national program was initiated to increase the number of underrepresented minority baccalaureate graduates. In that year, the proportion of African Americans, Latinos and American Indians reached one percent of the cohort of approximately 44,000 B.S. engineering graduates. The number of women engineering graduates was similarly miniscule. While it is true that progress has been made since that time, especially with the presence of women, the representation of members of these minority groups among engineering students as well as practitioners still lags far behind their presence in the population. It is important, though dismaying, to note that industry and government have done a better job of diversifying their senior technical and management-level engineering positions than have our research universities with their engineering faculties.
Biography: Dr. John Brooks Slaughter joined the Rossier School of Education in January, 2010 as Professor of Education, with a joint appointment at the Viterbi School of Engineering. Slaughter has had remarkably distinguished career, which began as an electrical engineer and includes leading two universities and heading the National Science Foundation (NSF) as its first African American director, among many other accomplishments.
In 1956, Slaughter began his career as an engineer at General Dynamics Convair, which he left in 1960 to work as a civilian at the United States Naval Electronics Laboratory Center in San Diego. He worked for the Navy for 15 years, becoming director of the Information Systems Technology Department. Slaughter went on to become director of the Applied Physics Laboratory, a research and development facility at the University of Washington in Seattle, until his appointment as assistant director of the Astronomical, Atmospheric, Earth and Ocean Sciences directorate of the NSF in Washington, D.C. in 1977.
In 1979, Slaughter became academic vice president and provost of Washington State University, but left for his historic appointment in 1980 as the first African American to direct the National Science Foundation (NSF). He returned to higher education in 1982 as chancellor of the University of Maryland, where he made major advancements in the recruitment and retention of African American students and faculty.
Slaughter took the job of president of Occidental College in 1988, and transformed the school during his 11-year tenure into the most diverse liberal arts college in America. He taught courses in diversity and leadership for one year as Irving R. Melbo Professor of Leadership Education at USC before accepting the position of president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), whose mission is to increase the number of engineers of color, in 2000.
Slaughter holds honorary degrees from more than 25 institutions, and has received numerous awards, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Award in 1997; UCLA Medal of Excellence in 1989; the first U.S. Black Engineer of the Year award in 1987; the NAE Arthur M. Bueche Award in 2004; UCLA Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 1978; NSF Distinguished Service Award in 1979, among many others.
Slaughter holds a Ph.D. in engineering science from the University of California, San Diego (1971), a M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (1961), and a B.S. in Computer Sciences from Kansas State University (1956).
More Information: Seminar-Slaughter.doc
Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - Room 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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CANCELLED - SAIC Information Session
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 05:30 PM - 06:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Please note, this event has been cancelled. SAIC's information session will be rescheduled at a date TBA. Thank you.
SAIC, the FORTUNE 500 scientific, engineering, and technology applications company, is working to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world. SAIC offers internships and entry-level positions for ambitious, tech-savvy college students interested in: National Security Energy and the Environment Critical Infrastructure Health If you are working toward a degree at USC, and want to learn more about what SAIC has to offer, we invite you to attend our Information Session on February 26th at 5:00pm. Please see our website at www.saic.com/usc
Positions require ability to obtain a DoD security clearance and requires U.S. citizenship.Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
