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Events for February 17, 2022

  • Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership Trojan Talk

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    RSVP at: https://bit.ly/3uj0tTC

    The AANHPI Roundtable Series provides an opportunity for students and young professionals to learn from public service leaders in our community in an intimate and conversational setting for one hour. Each roundtable features public service leaders from one organization and accommodates 25-30 attendees. These events will be held on a virtual platform. Registration is FREE for all attendees.

    This session will feature the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency with Patrick Yuen, PhD. Patrick Yuen received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Master's and, Doctoral degrees from the University of Arizona. His major is electrical engineering with technical focus on image processing and remote sensing. After graduation he worked for several commercial satellite imagery companies. He has now been working at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for five years as an imagery scientist and a course manager at the NGA College. His other previous roles at NGA included acting as the co-lead of the outreach working group in the Asian Pacific American Council (APAC). He is now also an NGA ambassador to assist recruiters in outreach programs. RSVP today here!

    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Career Center. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participant's responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu

    Location: Virtual

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • The AANHPI Roundtable Series (Virtual)

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    The AANHPI Roundtable Series (Virtual) provides an opportunity for students and young professionals to learn from public service leaders in our community in an intimate and conversational setting for one hour. Each roundtable features public service leaders from one organization and accommodates 25-30 attendees. These events will be held on a virtual platform. Registration is FREE for all attendees.
    This session will feature the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency with Patrick Yuen, PhD. Patrick Yuen received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Master's and Doctoral degrees from the University of Arizona. His major is electrical engineering with technical focus on image processing and remote sensing. After graduation he worked for several commercial satellite imagery companies. He has now been working at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for five years as an imagery scientist and a course manager at the NGA College. His other previous roles at NGA included acting as the co-lead of the outreach working group in the Asian Pacific American Council (APAC). He is now also an NGA ambassador to assist recruiters in outreach programs. RSVP today here: https://bit.ly/3uj0tTC

    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Career Center. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participant's responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu

    Location: Virtual, RSVP at: https://bit.ly/3uj0tTC

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • ECE Seminar - Human-centered machine intelligence: From robust signal analytics to trustworthy human-technology partnership

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Theodora Chaspari, Assistant Professor, Computer Science & Engineering Department, Texas A&M University

    Talk Title: Human-centered machine intelligence: From robust signal analytics to trustworthy human-technology partnership

    Abstract: Recent converging advances in sensing and computing allow the ambulatory long-term tracking of individuals yielding a rich set of real-life multimodal bio-behavioral signals, such as speech, physiology, and facial expressions. While such measurements coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms have been heralded as promising solutions to addressing pressing societal challenges, public and expert determination of whether this integration is a good prospect is widely debated. At the same time, interactions between humans and AI are increasingly moving away from simple diagnosis of human outcomes to collaborative relationships, in which humans work side-by-side with AI systems for carrying out a set of common goals. This talk will describe new signal analytics and ML algorithms for trustworthy human-centered machine intelligence focusing on four main pillars of trustworthiness, namely robustness, privacy preservation, explainability, and fairness. We will first present our work on personalized ML models of human outcomes, generalizable learning of human states via the formulation of weakly supervised learning algorithms, and context-aware signal representations for reliably modeling interpersonal interaction. Following that, we will discuss a privacy-preserving mood recognition framework through user anonymization and examine factors of socio-demographic bias in signals and ML systems that may perpetuate social disparities in human-centered analytics. Finally, we will present our recent work on human-AI collaboration that examines how human stakeholders (e.g., clinicians) interact with AI/ML along dimensions of trust formation, maintenance, and repair. We will demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches through examples in mental health, public health, workforce training and re-skilling, and team science.

    Biography: Theodora Chaspari is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department at Texas A&M University. She has received her Bachelor of Science (2010) in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and her Master of Science (2012) and Ph.D. (2017) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Between 2010 and 2017 she worked as a Research Assistant at the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory at USC. She has also been a Lab Associate Intern at Disney Research (2015). Theodora's research interests lie in the areas of signal processing, machine learning, data science, and affective computing. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2021), TAMU Montague Teaching Award (2021), USC Women in Science and Engineering Merit Fellowship (2015), and USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship (2010). Papers co-authored with her students have been nominated and won awards at the ASC 2021, ACM BuildSys 2019, IEEE ACII 2019, ASCE i3CE 2019, and IEEE BSN 2018 conferences. She is serving as an Editor of the Elsevier Computer Speech & Language, and in various conference organization committees (ACM ICMI 2023/2020/2018, ACM IUI 2021, ACM KDD 2022, IEEE ACII 2022/2021/2019/2017, IEEE BSN 2018). She has further developed and taught several graduate and undergraduate courses in signal analytics and ML. Her work is supported by federal and private funding sources, including the NSF, NIH, NASA, IARPA, AFRL, AFOSR, General Motors, Keck Foundation, and the Engineering Information Foundation.

    Host: Dr. Justin Haldar, jhaldar@usc.edu

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91654081503?pwd=aTFTN293KzFMTWFIUlQ4MkJHOFQxdz09

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91654081503?pwd=aTFTN293KzFMTWFIUlQ4MkJHOFQxdz09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz , Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside

    Talk Title: Creating Value from Waste and Pollution: Sustainable chemical processes to promote a circular economy

    Abstract: A circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on society-wide benefits beyond the current take-make-waste industrial model. It entails an economic outlook that goes beyond the consumption of finite resources and develops strategies for utilizing waste. This presentation presents two strategies for the utilization of waste. The project will discuss the advent of a circular agriculture economy and how one of the top waste agriculture crops in the U.S., corn stover, can be engineered into valuable products. The first part of the presentation will discuss our efforts to convert corn stover into a source for sugar fatty acid ester pesticides to control the population of Asian citrus psyllid. Asian citrus psyllid poses a risk to citrus crops, and there are limited organic pesticide choices for growers and farmers. Sugar fatty acid ester pesticides are renewable and environmentally benign alternatives. The second part of the presentation will demonstrate the influence of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) or slow pyrolysis (SP) process conditions on the physicochemical properties of precursor biochars and activated carbon (AC). The AC is achieved through a direct or two-step method with subsequent chemical activation using KOH. A theory is developed on the biochar propensity to be chemically activated based on the composition of the lignocellulosic structure. The activated carbon was utilized for wastewater treatment applications. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on a circular economy and the role of engineers.




    Biography: Dr. Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering department at the University of California, Riverside. She joined the University in 2018 after receiving her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining UC Riverside, she was a Provost postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she developed procedures for synthesizing heterogeneous catalysts using atomic layer deposition. She has also worked previously as a Forensic scientist for the Philadelphia police department and as a Refinery chemist at Sunoco Chemicals in Philadelphia after receiving a B.S. in Chemistry from Temple University. Her research group develops sustainable catalytic processes using an interdisciplinary toolset from materials and chemical engineering and physical chemistry for sustainable applications. She was awarded a 2022 National Science Foundation Career Award and is a Scialog Negative Emissions Fellow.

    Host: Dr. Amy Childress

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659 Passcode: 975701

    Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 101

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659 Passcode: 975701

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • AME Special Seminar

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Neda Maghsoodi, California Institute of Technology

    Talk Title: Nonlinear Dynamics of Soft Filaments: From Biology to Engineering

    Abstract: Filaments of soft materials such as rubber and biopolymers can easily undergo large complex deformations under external stimuli. Soft filaments offer exciting applications in engineering, life science, and medicine since their nonlinear conformational changes can be harnessed for robust functional mechanisms. Understanding the dynamics of soft filaments is fundamental to advancing future engineering and medical applications. In this talk, I present analytical models for two fascinating soft filaments that function in the nonlinear regime; 1) protein filaments forming the contractile injection machinery of the virus bacteriophage T4, and 2) photoactivated liquid crystal elastomeric (LCEs) filaments proposed for future soft robotics. I present dynamic models for both filaments based on continuum rod theory to predict their dynamical nonlinear behaviors. For context, bacteriophage T4 is an intriguing nano-scale injection machine that infects the bacterium E. coli (its host) by rupturing the cell membrane and then injecting its genome into the host cell. The injection process is initiated when the injection machine, composed of protein filaments, undergoes a nonlinear conformational change to drive the T4 needle into the host. Photomechanical LCEs are engineered, light-sensitive polymers that undergo large reversible deformations under illumination. For these systems, I show how phage T4 exploits large deformations of the protein filaments for efficient DNA injection, and how one can harness nonlinear deformations of LCE filament to generate periodic motions under steady illumination. These findings have significant implications for designing future biomedical devices and bio-inspired soft robotics.



    Biography: Neda Maghsoodi is a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). Neda received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and her M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering in 2017 from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. both in Mechanical Engineering from Iran. Her research lies at the interface of applied mechanics, materials science, and biology and develops novel theoretical models to elucidate nonlinear dynamics of soft filaments at a broad range of time- and length-scales. In her academic career, Neda was named a Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering by UC-Berkeley (2020), received the Best Paper award in the ASME International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems, and received the Best B.Sc. Thesis award of the year from the Iranian Society of Acoustics and Vibration. The novelty and significance of her Ph.D. research have been featured in Biophysical Journal as the New and Notable Article and in several news outlets.

    Host: AME Department

    More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95277955610

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95277955610

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95277955610

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

    Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95277955610

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  • Interview Success Workshop (HYBRID)

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Increase your preparedness for interviews by attending this professional development Q&A moderated by Viterbi Career Connections staff or Viterbi employer partners.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For more information about workshops, please visit viterbicareers.usc.edu/workshops.

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity


    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Mork Family Department Seminar - Malik Wagih

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 05:15 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Malik Wagih , Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Talk Title: Grain Boundary Segregation for Alloy Design: From Atoms to Polycrystals

    Host: Professor A.Hodge

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 147

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Heather Alexander

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  • Grand Challenges Scholars Program 2.0 with Dean Yortsos

    Thu, Feb 17, 2022 @ 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dean Yannis Yortsos , Dean Yannis Yortsos

    Talk Title: Grand Challenges Scholars Program 2.0 with Dean Yortsos

    Abstract: Come join us at our upcoming event, the Grand Challenges Scholars Program 2.0 with Dean Yortsos on Thursday, February 17th, 2022 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in RTH 105 and Zoom. Dean Yortsos presents on his vision for the new/updated GCSP and its required mindsets.


    Host: Grand Challenges Scholars Program

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 105

    Audiences: Undergrad

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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