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Events for March 22, 2023

  • ECE-S Seminar - Dr Ivan de Oliveira Nunes

    Wed, Mar 22, 2023 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr Ivan de Oliveira Nunes, Assistant Professor | Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

    Talk Title: Architectures for Verifiable Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability in Resource-Constrained Embedded Devices

    Abstract: Embedded devices are increasingly ubiquitous and their importance is hard to overestimate. While they often support safety-critical functions (e.g., in medical devices, industrial control systems, and sensor- alarm combinations), these devices are usually implemented under strict cost and energy budgets, using low-end microcontroller units (MCUs) that lack sophisticated security mechanisms. On the lower end of the scale, these devices are small, cheap, and specialized. They tend to host small CPUs, have very limited memory, and run simple software. Nonetheless, if such devices are left unprotected, consequences of forged sensor readings or ignored actuation commands can be catastrophic, particularly, in safety-critical settings. This prompts the following three questions: (1) how to trust data produced, or verify that commands were correctly performed, by a simple remote embedded device? (2) how to actively prevent malware that infects embedded devices from exfiltrating private sensor data? and (3) how to guarantee that safety-critical tasks are always performed in a timely manner, irrespective of malware infections?
    Motivated by these questions, this talk will overview a set of architectures based on hardware/software (HW/SW) co-designs to provide provable guarantees about data confidentiality, software integrity, and availability in (potentially compromised) embedded devices. In particular, I will discuss three formally verified HW/SW co-designs, each realizing one of the aforementioned goals (namely APEX [SEC'20], GAROTA [SEC'22], and VERSA [S&P'22]) and how they have been securely implemented atop the popular TI MSP430 micro-controller at a relatively low-cost.

    Biography: Ivan De Oliveira Nunes is an Assistant Professor of Computing Security at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Before RIT, he received his Ph.D. degree in 2021 from the University of California Irvine (UCI). Ivan also holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES), Brazil, and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. In recent years, he has worked on several topics, including IoT Security, Hardware-assisted security, HW/SW Co-design, Network Security, and Applied Cryptography. His research interests span the fields of security and privacy, computing systems, computer networking, applied cryptography, and especially their intersection.

    Host: Dr Bhaskar Krishnamachari, bkrishna@usc.edu

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93387896454?pwd=MVdwL2NHS1hqSXFlaFhPaE91WHVGUT09

    More Information: ECE Seminar Announcement 03.23.23 - Ivan de Oliveira Nunes.pdf

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

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93387896454?pwd=MVdwL2NHS1hqSXFlaFhPaE91WHVGUT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Miki Arlen

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  • CS Colloquium: Lindsay Sanneman (MIT) - Transparent Value Alignment: Foundations for Human-Centered Explainable AI in Alignment

    Wed, Mar 22, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Lindsay Sanneman , MIT

    Talk Title: Transparent Value Alignment: Foundations for Human-Centered Explainable AI in Alignment

    Series: CS Colloquium

    Abstract: Alignment of robot objectives with those of humans can greatly enhance robots' ability to act flexibly to safely and reliably meet humans' goals across diverse contexts from space exploration to robotic manufacturing. However, it is often difficult or impossible for humans, both expert and non-expert, to enumerate their objectives comprehensively, accurately, and in forms that are readily usable for robot planning. Value alignment is an open challenge in artificial intelligence that aims to address this problem by enabling robots and autonomous agents to infer human goals and values through interaction. Providing humans with direct and explicit feedback about this value learning process through approaches for explainable AI (XAI) can enable humans to more efficiently and effectively teach robots about their goals. In this talk, I will introduce the Transparent Value Alignment (TVA) paradigm which captures this two-way communication and inference process and will discuss foundations for the design and evaluation of XAI within this paradigm. First, I will present a novel suite of metrics for assessing alignment which have been validated through human subject experiments by applying approaches from cognitive psychology. Next, I will discuss the Situation Awareness Framework for Explainable AI (SAFE-AI), a human factors-based framework for the design and evaluation of XAI across diverse contexts including alignment. Finally, I will propose design guidance for XAI within the TVA context which is grounded in results from a set of human studies comparing a broad range of explanation techniques across multiple domains. I will additionally highlight how this research relates to real-world robotic manufacturing and space exploration settings that I have studied. I will conclude the talk by discussing the future vision of this work.



    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium

    Biography: Lindsay Sanneman is a final year PhD candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a member of the Interactive Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Her research focuses on the development of models, metrics, and algorithms for explainable AI (XAI) and AI alignment in complex human-autonomy interaction settings. Since 2018, she has been a member of MIT's Work of the Future task force and has visited over 50 factories worldwide alongside an interdisciplinary team of social scientists and engineers in order to study the adoption of robotics in manufacturing. She is currently a Siegel Research Fellow and has presented her work in diverse venues including the Industry Studies Association and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

    Host: Heather Culbertson

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • Computer Science General Faculty Meeting

    Wed, Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Receptions & Special Events


    Bi-Weekly regular faculty meeting for invited full-time Computer Science faculty only. Event details emailed directly to attendees.

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526- Hybrid

    Audiences: Invited Faculty Only

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • AME Seminar

    Wed, Mar 22, 2023 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Renee Zhao, Stanford University

    Talk Title: Multifunctional Origami Robots

    Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce our recent work on origami mechanisms and actuation strategies for applications spanning from biomedical devices to foldable space structures. The first topic is magnetically actuated millimeter-scale origami medical robots for effective amphibious locomotion in severely confined spaces or aqueous environments. The origami robots are based on the Kresling origami, whose thin shell structure 1) provides an internal cavity for drug storage, 2) permits torsion-induced contraction as a crawling mechanism and a pumping mechanism for controllable liquid medicine dispensing, 3) serves as propellers that spin for propulsion to swim, 4) offers anisotropic stiffness to overcome the large resistance from the severely confined spaces in biomedical environments. For the second part of my talk, the concept of hexagonal ring origami folding mechanism will be introduced as a strategy for deployable/foldable structures for space applications. The hexagonal rings can tessellate 2D/3D surfaces and each ring can snap to its stable folded configuration with only 10.6% of the initial area. Through finite-element analysis and the rod model, snap-folding of the hexagonal ring with slight geometric modification and residual strain are studied for easy folding of the ring to facilitate the design and actuation of hexagonal ring origami assemblies for functional foldable structures with extreme packing ratio.

    Biography: Renee Zhao is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Renee received her PhD degree in Solid Mechanics from Brown University in 2016. She spent two years as a postdoc associate at MIT working on modeling of soft composites. Before Renee joined Stanford, she was an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University from 2018 to 2021. Her research concerns the development of stimuli-responsive soft composites and shape morning mechanisms for multifunctional robotic systems. Renee is a recipient of the NSF Career Award (2020), AFOSR YIP (2023), ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics award (2021), the 2022 ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, and the 2022 ASME Henry Hess Early Career Publication Award.

    Host: AME Department

    More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95805178776?pwd=aEtTRnQ2MmJ6UWE4dk9UMG9GdENLQT09

    Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95805178776?pwd=aEtTRnQ2MmJ6UWE4dk9UMG9GdENLQT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

    Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/

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