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Events for February 26, 2014
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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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PhD Defense - Jason Yap
Wed, Feb 26, 2014 @ 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Title: Transparent Consistency In Cache Augmented Database Management Systems
PhD Candidate: Jason Yap
Defense Committee:
Prof. Shahram Ghandeharizadeh (Chair)
Prof. Nenad Medvidović
Prof. François Bar (Outside Member)
Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Powell Hall (PHE) 223
Abstract:
Cache Augmented Database Management Systems (CADBMSs) enhance the performance of simple operations that exhibit a high read to write ratio, e.g., interactive social networking actions. They are realized by extending a data store such as a Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) with a Key Value Store (KVS). At the time of writing, memcached is a popular in-memory KVS in use by a number of Internet service providers such as Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and others.
A key insight of CADBMSs is that query result lookup using the KVS is significantly faster than query processing using the RDBMS. A challenge is how to maintain these query results consistent in the presence of updates to the RDBMS. Today’s CADBMS solutions require a developer to design, implement, debug, and maintain software to address this challenge. This dissertation presents novel design decisions to realize physical data independence that hides the details of the storage structure (KVS or RDBMS) from applications and their developers. These designs simplify the complexity of application software to expedite their development life cycle.
The proposed designs can be categorized into two groups. The first group prevents race conditions that cause the KVS to produce stale data. Our primary contribution here is the IQ framework and its simple programming model that employs Inhibit (I) and Quarantine (Q) leases to provide strong consistency. We describe the compatibility of the leases when the KVS is either invalidated or refreshed in the presence of updates to the RDBMS.
The second group includes transparent techniques that invalidate the key-value pairs of the KVS in the presence of updates to the RDBMS.
Our primary contribution is the SQL Query to Trigger translation
(SQLTrig) technique. It provides the application developers with the SQL query language and observes the performance enhancements of a KVS without requiring additional software. It intercepts the queries issued by an application and authors software in the form of triggers that describes the template of the query. It registers these triggers with the RDBMS prior to inserting the query and its result set as a key-value pair in the KVS. An insert, delete, update command to the RDBMS invokes the trigger to compute the query (key) whose result set
(value) has changed. The trigger invalidates this key-value pair from the KVS in a transactional manner.
We describe a software prototype that embodies both the SQLTrig technique and the IQ framework. We use a social networking benchmark to compare this prototype with a nontransparent consistency technique where the developer extends the application software to maintain key-value pairs consistent with the relational data. Obtained results demonstrate that both provide comparable performance.
Location: Charles Lee Powell Hall (PHE) - 223
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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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
