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Events for March 11, 2009

  • Meet USC

    Wed, Mar 11, 2009

    Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    This half day program is designed for prospective freshmen and family members. Meet USC includes an information session on the University and the Admission process; a student led walking tour of campus and a meeting with us in the Viterbi School. Meet USC is designed to answer all of your questions about USC, the application process and financial aid.Reservations are required for Meet USC. This program occurs twice, once at 9:00 a.m. and again at 1:00 p.m. Please visit http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/visit/meet_usc.html to check availability and make an appointment. Be sure to list an Engineering major as your "intended major" on the webform!

    Location: USC Admission Center

    Audiences: Prospective Freshmen and Family Members - RESERVATIONS REQUIRED

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Measurement, Modeling and Rendering for Realistic Computer Graphics

    Wed, Mar 11, 2009 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Abhijeet Ghosh, ICT, USC
    Host: Prof. Shahram GhandeharizadehAbstract:
    Throughout its history, the field of computer graphics has been striving towards increased realism. Photo-realistic image synthesis has traditionally involved the development of algorithms for the simulation of physically accurate light transport in a scene. However, the quality of rendering produced by these algorithms is limited by the quality of the input scene descriptions such as materials and illumination models. With the advances within the field of digital photography over the last decade, there has been significant interest in acquiring material and illumination models from photographs. This acquisition method has led to the development of image-based modeling and rendering techniques for realistic computer graphics.In this talk, I will present a set of new techniques for efficient acquisition and modeling of reflectance properties of real world materials and human faces, as well as new algorithms for high quality rendering with acquired data. In particular, I will describe a novel high speed approach for the acquisition of bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) of materials by projecting basis illumination, and a technique for practical modeling and rapid measurement of layered facial reflectance using a few controlled lighting conditions. Here, I will discuss some approaches for separation of individual reflectance components and fitting measured data to appropriate reflectance and scattering models. I will also touch upon rendering techniques for such measured data. In particular, I will present some Monte Carlo strategies for efficient sampling of static as well as dynamic environmental illumination, as well techniques for efficient rendering of layered subsurface scattering.

    Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 222

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: CS Colloquia

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  • Stochastic Network Optimization and the Theory of Network Throughput, Energy, and Delay

    Wed, Mar 11, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Michael J. Neely,
    USCAbstract: This talk has two parts:
    (i) We first summarize the landmark results in the theory of stochastic network optimization over the past two decades. This theory treats routing, scheduling, resource allocation, and flow control in general networks, including ad-hoc mobile networks with time-varying topologies and unreliable channels. We consider the history of network capacity and stability theory, as well as our more recent contributions on joint stability and performance optimization. This allows for optimization of time averages of network utilities and costs (such as throughput, fairness, energy, reliability, etc.) subject to general time average constraints. Simple techniques of backpressure, max-weight decision making, and virtual queues can be used to optimize these performance metrics to any degree of accuracy, with an explicit tradeoff in end-to-end average network delay. (ii) We then focus on the delay metric itself by treating a particular network: A multi-user wireless downlink (or uplink). We generalize the Berry-Gallager bound to this multi-user case, establishing a fundamental tradeoff between average power expenditure and average delay. Scheduling to achieve the optimal tradeoff is a problem that is notoriously complex, and the complexity quickly explodes as the number of users is increased beyond 1. Nevertheless, we overcome this complexity explosion through a novel dynamic control policy that aggressively steers drift in desired directions. The policy works with low complexity, is real-time implementable, does not require knowledge of the channel or traffic statistics, and has quick convergence for any number of users.Details of these results can be found in the following references: 1. L. Georgiadis, M. J. Neely, L. Tassiulas, "Resource Allocation and Cross-Layer Control in Wireless Networks," Foundations and Trends in Networking, Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-144, 2006. http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mjneely/pdf_papers/NOW_stochastic_nets.pdf2. M. J. Neely, "Optimal Energy and Delay Tradeoffs for Multi-User Wireless Downlinks," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 3095-3113, Sept. 2007. http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mjneely/pdf_papers/energy-delay-it.pdfBiography: Michael J. Neely received B.S. degrees in both Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1997. He then received a 3 year Department of Defense NDSEG Fellowship for graduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received an M.S. degree in EECS in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2003. During the Summer of 2002, he worked as an intern in the Distributed Sensor Networks group at Draper Labs in Cambridge. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences Institute (CSI), within the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Southern California. His research interests are in the areas of stochastic network optimization and queueing theory, with applications to wireless, satellite, mobile ad-hoc networks, and switching systems. Michael received the NSF Career award in 2008. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa.

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos

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  • Alternative Fuels for Commercial and Military Aviation

    Wed, Mar 11, 2009 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Marty Bradley Technical Fellow The Boeing Company Huntington Beach, CA Boeing is working with our military and commercial aviation customers to develop alternative fuels for aviation. In this presentation, Dr. Bradley will discuss a range of alternative fuel options and show why Boeing is concentrating on drop-in replacement fuels for aviation. Synthetic fuels and biofuels will be compared and evaluated for energy efficiency, environmental impact, and sustainability. The suitability of biomass feedstocks will be compared. Dr. Bradley will also discuss recent developments involving progress toward the certification of alternative fuels and recent highly successful commercial and military flight demonstrations.

    Location: Seaver Science Library Rm 150

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: April Mundy

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  • The Decade Ahead: Jobs, Cargo, Competition, and You

    Wed, Mar 11, 2009 @ 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    University Calendar


    10th CITT State of the Trade and Transportation Industry Town Hall Meeting: "The Decade Ahead: Jobs, Cargo, Competition, and You"Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 6:00-8:30 PMCarpenter Performing Arts Center, CSULB, 6200 Atherton Street, Long Beach, California 90815Attendance and Parking are free -- come early, space is limited!For more information, visit www.uces.csulb.edu/citt or call (562) 985-2872.What threatens the position of the San Pedro Bay Ports complex as the nation's largest trade gateway? What opportunities exist as a result of the ports' willingness to tackle the problem of growth and environment? What drives the decision makers along the supply chain when they choose which ports to use? What is the impact of these decisions on cargo volumes, jobs, and the local economy? Where can you listen to and question a panel of experts and key decision makers along the supply chain addressing the key questions and proposing solutions?How can Southern California keep discretionary cargo from going elsewhere? How do key stakeholders make decisions about where and how to invest? How much is too much when it comes to fees? Who should attend? Anyone involved with and affected by trade and transportation including representatives of longshore, truckers, ocean carriers, marine terminals, freight forwarders, custom brokers, the IMCs, distribution centers, shippers, community leaders, Federal/State/local governments, community leaders, etc.Sponsored by the Center for International Trade and Transportation, and the National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research

    Location: CSULB

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Georgia Lum

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