Select a calendar:
Filter March Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for March
-
EPSTEIN INSTITUTE SEMINAR
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Placid Ferreira, Department Head & Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: "Heterogeneous Integration and Manufacturing at the Nanoscale"
Abstract: Nanoscience â the âscience of the smallâ â produces stunning revelations that, almost daily, redefine the realm of the possible. Yet, the manufacturing processes and systems to transform this new knowledge into technologies and products that benefit us in our daily life are crucial missing elements. At Illinois, our research group, working in the Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS) Center, a NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), is exploring and developing new methodologies and tools that exploit chemical, mechanical, and electronic phenomena and processes for manufacturing at the nanoscale.
This talk will describe heterogeneous integration in product design as a motivation for a repertoire of micro and nanoscale manufacturing technologies and explore how emerging processes such as electrochemical patterning, microtransfer printing and electro-jet writing provide new possibilities for integrating mechanical, optical and electrical functions into materials. It will also examine challenges in enabling technologies such as positioning and sensing associated with nanoscale manufacturing.
Biography: Dr. Placid M. Ferreira is the Head and the Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois. From 2003 to 2009, he was the director of the Center for Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS), an NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. He graduated with a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University in 1987, M.Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay, 1982 and B.E. (Mechanical) for University of Bombay in 1980. He has been on the mechanical engineering faculty at Illinois since 1987, serving as the associate head for graduate programs and research from 1999 to 2002.
Professor Ferreira's research and teaching interests are in the area of industrial automation and include computer-controlled machine-tools, nanomanufacturing and metrology, computational geometry and solid modeling with applications to automated process planning, and the discrete-event control of large-scale flexibly automated systems.
Professor Ferreira received NSF's Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1990, SME's Outstanding Young Investigator Award in 1991 and the University of Illinois' University Scholar Award in 1994. He has served as an associate editor and editor for IIE Transactions on Design and Manufacturing and editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (2003-2007) and on the editorial board for the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
CS Colloquium
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Guy Rothblum, Princeton University
Talk Title: Differential Privacy: Recent Developements and Future Challenges
Abstract: Consider a database of sensitive information about a set of participants. Statistical analysis of the data may yield valuable results, but it also poses serious threats to the participants' privacy. A successful research program has, in the last few years, attempted to address these conflicting concerns, formulating the rigorous privacy guarantee of differential privacy [Dwork McSherry Nissim and Smith '06] and showing that in some cases data analyses can provide accurate answers while protecting participants' privacy.
After reviewing some of this past work, I will introduce two new general-purpose tools for privacy-preserving data analysis:
1. A new "boosting" framework for improving the accuracy guarantees of weak differentially private algorithms.
2. Robust privacy guarantees for differentially private algorithms under composition.
Using these tools we will show that, computational complexity aside, differential privacy permits surprisingly rich and accurate data analyses. I will then highlight some of the intriguing challenges that remain open for future work in this field. No prior knowledge will be assumed.
Biography: Guy Rothblum is a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University, supported by a Computing Innovation Fellowship. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at MIT, and his M.Sc. in computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research interests are in theoretical computer science and computer security, especially privacy-preserving data analysis, cryptography and complexity theory.
Host: Prof. Ming-Deh Huang
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Munushian Seminar
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Werner Goetz, Senior Director, Philips Lumileds Lighting Company
Talk Title: High-power LED Technology and Solid State Lighting
Abstract: The rapid adoption of LEDs in general illumination is fueled by high-power phosphor-conversion and direct color blue and red LED technology. Over the last several years technology development has boosted the efficacy of white high-power LEDs to greater than 100 lm/W even for devices with warm-white correlated color temperature and high color rendering index at operating conditions. In combination with advances in production cost reduction, LED-based luminaires are winning the battle against their conventional counterparts in applications where their energy efficiency, long life, and ruggedness lead to a cost of ownership advantage.
This presentation will provide an overview of high-power LED technology, applications, and discuss challenges for future efficacy improvement and cost reduction.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushianLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
-
Closing the Gap on Missing Sources of Organic Aerosol in the Atmosphere
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Christopher Hennigan, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Closing the Gap on Missing Sources of Organic Aerosol in the Atmosphere
Abstract: Aerosols, or particulate matter, are ubiquitous components of the atmosphere that exert important impacts on human health and global climate, though our understanding of these effects is far from clear. A better characterization of aerosol physical and chemical properties, including their sources and fate, is vital in obtaining a more accurate assessment of their contribution to climate change and in devising mitigation strategies with public health in mind. Extensive ambient measurements have demonstrated that organic compounds comprise a significant fraction of aerosol mass in many locations globally. Our knowledge of this organic aerosol (OA), however, is incomplete, as evidenced by the systematic underprediction of OA concentrations by state-of-the-art computer models. Recent research efforts have intensified to identify this âmissingâ source of OA, with many hypotheses emerging. Measurements conducted in Atlanta point to liquid water associated with aerosols as an important OA source that has not been considered previously. This mechanism involves the dissolution and subsequent reaction of soluble organic gases in the aerosol aqueous phase. It is likely different from processes occurring in cloud and fog water due to extreme concentration differences. Previous studies have ignored this possibility due to the relatively small amount of water associated with fine particles (aerosols with diameters smaller than 2.5 µm); however, our results provide strong evidence that this pathway contributes significantly to ambient OA concentrations. This mechanism is likely to be important in other locations, as well, and may represent the dominant source of OA missing from current models.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
A Clean-Slate Design of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using On-Off-Division Duplex
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dongning Guo , Northwestern University
Talk Title: A Clean-Slate Design of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using On-Off-Division Duplex
Abstract: We introduce a novel paradigm, called rapid on-off-division duplex
(RODD), for designing the physical and medium access control (MAC)
layers of a wireless ad hoc network formed by half-duplex radios. A
node equipped with a half-duplex radio cannot simultaneously transmit and
receive useful signals at the same frequency. Unlike in conventional
designs, where a node's transmission frames are scheduled away from
its reception, RODD lets each node transmit its signal through a
unique on-off duplex mask (or signature) over every frame interval,
and receive a signal through each off-slot. Over the period of a
single frame, every node can transmit a message to its peers, and
simultaneously receive a message from each peer. Thus RODD achieves
virtual full-duplex communication using half-duplex radios without
complicated scheduling at the frame level. The throughput of RODD is
determined under some simple settings, which is significantly larger
than that of certain random access schemes. RODD is especially
efficient in case the dominant traffic is simultaneous broadcast from
nodes to their one-hop peers. Design issues such as peer discovery,
synchronization and coding schemes will also be addressed.
Biography: Dongning Guo joined the faculty of Northwestern University, Evanston,
IL, in 2004, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received
the B.Eng. degree from the University of Science & Technology of
China, the M.Eng. degree from the National University of Singapore,
and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ. He was an R&D Engineer in the Center for Wireless Communications
(now the Institute for Infocom Research), Singapore, from 1998 to
1999. He has held visiting positions at Norwegian University of
Science and Technology in summer 2006 and Chinese University of Hong
Kong in 2010-2011. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory in the area of Shannon Theory.
Dongning Guo received the Huber and Suhner Best Student Paper Award in
the International Zurich Seminar on Broadband Communications in 2000
and is a co-recipient of the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in
Wireless Communications in 2010. He is also a recipient of the
National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)
Award in 2007. His research interests are in information theory,
communications, and networking.
Host: Alex Dimakis
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
AME Department Seminar
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Thilo Hoelscher , Professor and Director of Brain Ultrasound Research Laboratory Departments of Radiology and Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Therapeutic Ultrasound Applications in the Human Brain - From Noninvasive Surgery to Local Drug Delivery
Abstract: Despite its initial purpose of being a purely diagnostic tool the knowledge of ultrasound induced biomechanisms increased rapidly during the last years, changing significantly the scope of how ultrasound might be used in the future. Noninvasive surgery and local drug delivery became major research developments in the field of therapeutic ultrasound in the brain. Image-guided therapy using ultrasound, temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier, local drug delivery using acoustically active carriers or the controlled induction of cell modulations are major topics of current therapeutic ultrasound research activities. Besides conventional ultrasound techniques the development of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) systems broadened the variety of potential applications significantly, including brain tumor treatment, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases or neuromodulation.
The rapidly increasing knowledge of disease mechanisms and progressing development in medical device technologies, such as ultrasound, provide new insights of how diseases might be treated in the near future. The activities in the field of therapeutic ultrasound are research areas at the interface of engineering and biomedical sciences with the highest future potential.
The presentation will give an overview of some of these applications using different ultrasound approaches and will provide an inside of current research activities in this field at the UCSD Brain Ultrasound Research Laboratory.
Host: Dr. V. Eliasson
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcomingLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming
-
Multimodal Signal Processing: Signals from, to, and for humans
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Panayiotis (Panos) Georgiou, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Multimodal Signal Processing: Signals from, to, and for humans
Abstract: The 90's saw an explosion of ideas in merging traditional signal processing techniques with personal communication and entertainment supported by www technologies. We are presently experiencing yet another paradigm change in human interaction and communication such as through social media and in online information sharing. Notably, there has been significant movement in employing information and communications technologies towards transforming access and participation of people in their health and well-being.
My research lies in the exciting convergence of signal processing, multimedia, and speech applications centered on novel processing of signals from, to, and for humans. This effort entails a range of challenges in the sensing, recognition, interpretation, and context exploitation of complex human behavior, both at the explicit and implicit levels. Importantly, the effort includes the creation of algorithms and models that are inspired by, and emulate, how humans make use of the behavioral signal information in specific, societally-meaningful application settings.
In this talk, using specific examples, I will focus on two aspects of my work that aim at capturing an exploiting human interaction and their environment in a context aware way: (1) The convergence of multimodal signal processing and evidence based assessment in observational practice in mental health. Specifically I will discuss our recent efforts in instrumenting, collecting, and analyzing multimodal data for assessing behavioral cues relevant to the field of family psychology. The approach relies on array signal processing and machine learning techniques based on training data labeled by domain experts. We exploit both existing data and pursue new multimodal data acquisition approaches.
(2) The inherently rich nature of the human communication channel raises interesting challenges when one or more aspects are compromised due to human or environmental factors. We have been developing speech-to-speech translation technologies especially targeting cross-lingual/cross-cultural urban healthcare settings. Many open questions remain including what information is relevant and how it needs to be captured and transferred from source to target (e.g. lexical and paralinguistic) and how conceptual information encoded in the speech signal can be modeled in a communication-channel framework. I will highlight some of the advances and open questions in these two domains.
Biography: Panayiotis G. Georgiou received his B.A. and M.Eng degrees with Honors from Cambridge University (Pembroke College), U.K. in 1996. He received his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Southern California in 1998 and 2002 respectively. During the period 1992-96 he was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship from Cambridge-Commonwealth Trust.
Since 2003 he has been a member of the Speech Analysis and Interpretation Lab, first as a Research Associate and currently as a Research Assistant Professor. His interests span the fields of Human Social and Cognitive Signal Processing. He has worked on and published over 70 papers in the fields of statistical signal processing, alpha stable distributions, speech and multimodal signal processing and interfaces, speech translation, language modeling, immersive sound processing, sound source localization, and speaker identification. He has been an Investigator, and co-PI on several federally funded projects notably including the DARPA Transtac âSpeechLinksâ and the NSF (Large) âAn Integrated Approach to Creating Enriched Speech Translation Systemsâ. He is currently serving as guest editor of the Computer Speech and Language journal. He has received best paper awards for his pioneering work in analyzing the multimodal behaviors of users in speech- to-speech translation and for automatic classification of married couplesâ behavior using audio features.
His current focus is on multimodal environments, behavioral signal processing, and speech-to-speech translation.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
-
CS Colloquium
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Haryadi Gunawi, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Towards Reliable Storage Systems
Abstract: Three trends will dominate the storage systems of tomorrow: increasingly massive amounts of data, the incredible growth of software complexity, and the increasing use of cheap and less reliable hardware. These trends present us with a huge challenge: How can we promise users that storage systems work robustly in spite of their massive software complexity and the broad range of hardware failures that can arise? Addressing this question is not straightforward as current approaches scatter recovery code in thousands of lines of intricate, low-level C code. As a result, reliability problems are often found in current storage systems.
In this talk, I will present how we build a new generation of more robust and reliable storage systems via simpler designs and powerful testing frameworks. Specifically, I will first present new online and offline reliability frameworks (I/O Shepherding and SQCK) that advocate a higher-level strategy where the logic of reliability policies can be described clearly and concisely. I will then describe my most recent work in advancing the current state-of-the-art of cloud testing via FATE and DESTINI, a failure testing service and a framework for declarative recovery specifications. Finally, I will close this talk with my future plans in the area of cloud storage systems.
Biography: Haryadi Gunawi is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2009. His current research focuses on operating systems and large-scale storage systems. Beyond that, his research experience also spans cross-disciplinary areas such as software engineering, distributed systems, networking, and databases. He has won numerous awards including the 2010 NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship, a co-winner of the 2009 departmental best thesis award, an Honorable Mention for the 2009 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, and an NSF CISE Award under the Data-intensive Computing program.
Host: Prof. Ramesh Govindan
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Andrew J. Viterbi Distinguished Lecture in Communication
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 04:30 PM - 05:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Elwyn Berlekamp, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: "Adventures in Coding Theory"
Series: Distinguished Lecturer Series
Abstract: The inventors of error-correcting codes were initially motivated by problems in communications engineering. But coding theory has since also influenced several other fields, including memory technology, theoretical computer science, game theory, portfolio theory, and symbolic manipulation. This talk will recall some forays into these subjects.
Biography: Elwyn Berlekamp has been Professor of Mathematics and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley since 1971, half-time since 1983, and Emeritus since 2002. He also has been active in several small companies in the sectors of computers-communications and finance. He is now chairman of Berkeley Quantitative LP, a small money-management company. He was chairman of the Board of Trustees of MSRI from 1994-1998, and of the International Computer Science Institute from 2001-2003. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Berlekamp has 12 patented inventions, some of which were co-authored with USC Professor Emeritus Lloyd Welch. Some of Berlekampâs algorithms for decoding Reed-Solomon codes are widely used on compact discs; others are NASA standards for deep space communications. He has more than 100 publications, including two books on algebraic coding theory and seven books on the mathematical theory of combinatorial games, including the popular Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Childâs Play.
Host: Dr. Alexander A. Sawchuk
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/viterbi_lecture.htmLocation: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/viterbi_lecture.htm
-
EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nidhi, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSB
Talk Title: Self-Aligned N-Polar GaN HEMTs: Towards Next-Generation Nitride Electronics
Abstract: III-Nitrides have emerged as a versatile new material family with unique material properties such as large piezoelectric polarization, high saturation velocity, high breakdown electric field and bandgap ranging from near IR (0.7 eV for InN) to deep UV (6.4 eV for AlN). This wide range of band-gap allows them to be extensively used in opto-electronics in a large range of wavelength, optical storage and high efficiency photovoltaics using InGaN alloys. Recently, AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) have also been widely used as power amplifiers for wireless communication applications and as power switches for rectification.
In this talk, I will emphasize on the N-polar orientation of GaN and its application towards high frequency electronics. N-polar GaN-based HEMTs offer several advantages over the more established Ga-polar technology such as the potential of ultra low ohmic contact resistance (20 Ω-µm demonstrated) and a natural back-barrier for charge confinement. The development of N-polar GaN electronics started late due to materials and processing challenges, but has been eventful with several significant achievements in the recent past. I will talk about the self-aligned MIS-HEMT technology we developed at UCSB and its development towards becoming a competitor to the established Ga-polar technology. Finally, I will discuss future directions for III-Nitride electronics and other exciting possibilities employing the novel materials.
Biography: Nidhi is a Ph.D candidate under Prof. Umesh Mishra in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSB (University of California Santa Barbara). Her graduate work involved design and fabrication of N-polar GaN-based self-aligned MIS-HEMTs for very high frequency applications, like mm-wave power and possibly digital applications due to gate-first self-aligned design. She received the M. S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UCSB in 2008. She graduated second in her class of Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India with a Bachelor of Technology degree in 2006. Her research interests include deep submicron devices for high frequency applications, nanoscale semiconductor devices, power electronic devices and novel device structures on new materials for faster and energy-efficient electronics with expanded functionality.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
-
W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Iraj Ershaghi, Omar B. Milligan Professor and Director, Petroleum Engineering Program, Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering
Talk Title: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well
Abstract: Prof. Iraj Ershaghi will present "Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program.
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
More Info: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda Atkinson
Event Link: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/
-
ENH Seminar Series
Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 04:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Ken Ohta, Researcher/ Japan Institute of Sports Sciences Tokyo, Japan
Talk Title: Cybernetic-training for sports skill learning
Abstract: Explicit instruction by verbal communication for sports skill coaching is the conventional method. But this method does not guarantee that the learner can physically execute the skill. If the learner doesnʼt understand how to move in accordance with the instruction, this instruction leads to confusion rather than
enhancement. In contrast, implicit learning contains no formal instruction about how to perform the skill. We developed a training aid system for the hammer throw to have effective training using implicit coaching. In this system we put a
miniaturized sensor module on the hammer wire and this measured information was transmitted by a wireless system and given as auditory feedback through a controller. This is one kind of monitoring system, which detects and gives the information that human cannot sense and it works as "sixth sense". To be
effectively used in hammer throw training, we analyzed the hammer movement using mathematical analysis based on parametrically excited oscillation and clarified the acceleration mechanism of hammer and applied this principle to
the bio-feedback training system. We would like to put the scientific instruction behind this controller. In this short presentation, I will present the mathematical analysis and application for hammer training aid system using auditory feedback as the Cybernetic-training.
Host: Dr. Valero-Cuevas
More Info: http://bbdl.usc.edu/ENH-Schedule_1011.phpLocation: Center For Health Professions (CHP) - 147
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Adriana Cisneros
Event Link: http://bbdl.usc.edu/ENH-Schedule_1011.php
-
Network Interference Management via Interference Alignment for Wireless Communications and Distributed Storage Systems
Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Viveck R. Cadambe, University of California, Irvine
Talk Title: Network Interference Management via Interference Alignment for Wireless Communications and Distributed Storage Systems
Abstract: Our current times are witnessing a veritable explosion in the number of mobile devices with network connectivity. This explosion in the number of mobile devices which will guzzle data is resulting in bandwidth is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. The surge in the demand for data calls for new techniques to understand and improve the capacity (data rates) of wireless networks. In this talk, I will describe and explore a new technique to manage interference, which is the primary bottleneck of rates of communication in wireless communication networks.
A widely held belief in wireless network design, and also a formal conjecture, is that for a wireless network with K interfering users competing for the same spectrum (also known as the wireless interference network), it is optimal from a network capacity (degrees of freedom) perspective to divide the spectrum among the users like cutting a cake. This cake cutting view of spectrum access also known as orthogonalization enables each user in the interference network to get a fraction of 1/K of the spectrum free of interference. The cake cutting view of spectrum access lies at the heart of the design of most current wireless communication systems. In this talk, we will show that this cake cutting view of spectrum access is flawed and show that each of the K users of an interference network can essentially get 'half the cake', i.e., each user can simultaneously get half the spectrum free of interference. To show this, the strategy of "interference alignment", which is a far more effective interference management strategy as compared to orthogonalization, will be presented and described in detail. The talk will explore the impact of interference alignment on fundamental design issues of wireless communication systems and briefly describe challenges for the design of future generation wireless systems.
The talk will also explore a second application of interference alignment - erasure coding for distributed storage systems. With the advent of cloud computing and storage, the amount of data stored in distributed data storage systems (such as data centers) is scaling at an unprecedented rate. This scaling of stored data has motivated the use of erasure coding as a technique to build redundancy in distributed storage systems, to replace the conventional redundancy design strategy of replication. While erasure coding is attractive because it provides higher redundancy for a given amount (cost) of storage as compared to the conventional strategy of replication, practical implementation of coding for large distributed storage systems faces one principal bottleneck - the efficiency of repair when a storage device (node) fails in the distributed storage system. In the second part of this talk, by connecting the repair problem to interference alignment, I will (briefly) describe codes which improved repair efficiency and thus potentially relieve an important obstacle in the use of erasure coding for distributed storage systems.
Biography: Viveck R. Cadambe received his B.Tech and M.Tech. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India in 2006. He is currently working toward my Ph.D. degree at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include multiuser information theory and wireless networks. In the summer of 2010, he was an intern in the Communication and Collaboration Systems Group at Microsoft Research, Redmond. Mr. Cadambe is a recipient of the 2009 IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award and the UCI Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department Best Paper Award for 2008-09. He also received the University of California, Irvine CPCC graduate fellowship for the year 2007-08.
Host: Giuseppe Caire, caire@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
BME 533 - Seminar in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Frank Yin, Washington University
Series: Invited Chair Series
Host: Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Daniel Feezell, Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Status and Future of Nonpolar/Semipolar III-Nitride Materials and Devices
Abstract: III-Nitride materials enable a wide variety of high-impact technologies, including solid-state lighting, high-density optical data storage, energy efficient displays, and next-generation power electronics. Commercially available III-Nitride devices are grown on the polar c-plane of the wurtzite crystal, and their performance is adversely affected by the presence of polarization-related electric fields. As an alternative to conventional c-plane technologies, growth of III-Nitride structures on nonpolar/semipolar planes presents a viable approach to reducing or eliminating the issues associated with polarization-related electric fields. Optical devices fabricated on these alternative planes emerge with several inherent advantages, including improved radiative efficiency, increased design flexibility, and the potential for superior performance in the elusive green spectral region. In this talk, I will review the unique characteristics of nonpolar/semipolar III-Nitrides and discuss the application of this materials platform to the development of high-performance laser diodes and light-emitting diodes. I will conclude by proposing several future research directions that utilize nonpolar/semipolar III-Nitride technology.
Biography: Daniel Feezell completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2005 for work on InP-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. He is currently a Project Scientist in the Solid-State Lighting and Energy Center at UCSB, where his research interests include growth, fabrication, and characterization of nonpolar/semipolar III-Nitrides for energy efficiency applications. Prior to joining UCSB he was a Senior Device Scientist and the first employee at Soraa, Inc., where he developed high-performance III-Nitride laser diodes and light-emitting diodes. For his role in the achievement of the first nonpolar III-Nitride laser diodes he received the 30th Annual Japanese Journal of Applied Physics Paper Award. He also invented an AlGaN-cladding-free nonpolar laser diode structure that is currently being utilized in cutting-edge industry products. For this work he received a commendation for excellence in technical communication from Laser Focus World magazine. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications, and has received several patents.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
-
Lightwave Modulators: Early Research at Bell Labs
Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ivan P. Kaminow, EECS, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Lightwave Modulators: Early Research at Bell Labs
Abstract: Ted Maimanâs announcement of the ruby laser in May 1960 created great excitement worldwide, and particularly at Bell Labs. I was in the Microwave Systems Research Lab, soon to become the Lightwave Systems Research Lab, in Holmdel, NJ. Many of my colleagues decided to pursue laser research. Based on my experience with microwave systems, I decided to explore broadband light modulators that would be key for any telecom system. In my talk, I plan to touch on some of the highlights of a 15-year period of research on electrooptic modulators in the Bell Labs ambience. I include a 9 GHz travelling wave modulator, studies of electrooptic materials and photonic integrated circuits.
Biography: Ivan Kaminow retired from Bell Labs in 1996 after a 42-year career (1954-1996), mostly in lightwave research. At Bell Labs, he did seminal studies on electrooptic modulators and materials, Raman scattering in ferroelectrics, integrated optics (including titanium-diffused lithium niobate modulators), semiconductor lasers (including the DBR laser, ridge waveguide InGaAsP laser and multi-frequency laser), birefringent optical fibers, and WDM lightwave networks. Later, as Head of the Photonic Networks and Components Research Department, he led research on WDM components (including the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, waveguide grating router and the fiber Fabry-Perot resonator), and on WDM local and wide area networks. Earlier (1952-1954), he did research on microwave antenna arrays at Hughes Aircraft Company.
After retiring from Bell Labs, he served as IEEE Congressional Fellow on the staffs of the House Science Committee and the Congressional Research Service (Science Policy Research Division) in the Library of Congress. From 1997 to 1999, he returned to Lucent Bell Labs as a part-time Consultant. He also established Kaminow Lightwave Technology to provide consulting services to various technology companies, and to patent and litigation law firms. In 1999 he served as Senior Science Advisor to the Optical Society of America in Washington. He also served on a number of professional committees. He received degrees from Union College (BSEE), UCLA (MSE) and Harvard (AM, Ph.D.). He was a Hughes Fellow at UCLA and a Bell Labs Fellow at Harvard.
He has been Visiting Professor at Princeton, Berkeley, Columbia, the University of Tokyo, and Kwangju University (Korea). Currently, he is Adjunct Professor in EECS at University of California, Berkeley, where he has been teaching since 2004 (ee290F. Advanced Topics in Photonics [spring 2004]; ee233. Lightwave Systems [spring 2006]; seminar on Plasmonics [spring, fall 2007] and seminar on Photonics and Plasmonics [spring, fall 2008; spring, fall 2009; spring, fall 2010]; spring 2011).
He has published over 240 papers, received 47 patents, and has written or co-edited 5 books, the most recent being "Optical Fiber Telecommunications V A&B," co-edited with Tingye Li and Alan Willner, Academic Press/Elsevier (2008). Kaminow is a Life Fellow of IEEE, and Fellow of APS and OSA. He is the recipient of the Bell Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Award, IEEE Quantum Electronics Award, OSA Charles Townes Award, IEEE/LEOS/OSA John Tyndall Award, IEEE Third Millennium Medal, Union College Alumni Gold Medal and IEEE Photonics Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Diplomate of the American Board of Laser Surgery, and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Host: Alan Willner, willner@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 539
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
EE-Systems Controls Faculty Candidate
Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Elisa Franco, Cal-Tech
Talk Title: Design and Synthesis of Molecular Networks
Abstract: How do living organisms process information and implement their responses to external stimuli? Even in the simplest cells, sensing, computation and actuation are structurally embedded in the biochemistry of complex molecular networks, which we often fail to systematically explain. Quoting Richard Feynman, what we cannot create, we do not understand: by building simple molecular networks from the bottom-up, in a controlled environment, we have an opportunity to gain insight into the design principles of their more complicated, naturally occurring counterparts.
In this talk I will describe the design, modeling and synthesis of in vitro molecular circuits using simple building blocks: DNA, RNA and proteins. In particular, I will present my research on two specific challenges: flow regulation and scalability of biochemical networks. Cellular pathways rely heavily on a regulated flow of nucleic acids, enzymes and other metabolites. I will demonstrate how negative feedback can be used to coordinate and match the activity of two synthetic genes, minimizing waste of chemical reagents. The proposed architecture is robust with respect to initial conditions and specific uncertain parameters. Scaling up our perspective to the coordination of a large number of molecular circuits, biochemical oscillators promise to have a role analogous to digital clocks, which can drive millions of transistors. As a starting point, we have used a tunable biosynthetic oscillator to drive conformational changes of a DNA nano-mechanical device called "DNA tweezers". However, due to the imperfect modularity of the system, the operating point of the oscillator is remarkably deteriorated by high concentrations of its "load". This retroactivity effect is well known in engineered systems, and classical examples are given by voltage drops in power grids or pressure losses in pipe networks. This undesired back-action was reduced by engineering an "insulator circuit", the molecular equivalent of an operational amplifier, which improved the modularity and scalability of the system.
Biography: Elisa Franco received a Ph.D. in Electrical and Control Engineering in 2007 from the University of Trieste, Italy. She is currently completing a second Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in Control and Dynamical Systems, working on design and programming of robust molecular networks. Her research interests are in the field of synthetic and systems biology.
Host: Edmond Jonckheere
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
Special AME Seminar
Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Daniel P. Raymer, President, Conceptual Research Corp.
Talk Title: Design and Analysis of Hybrid Airships
Abstract: Dan Raymer will discuss the design and analysis of hybrid airships. Raymer performed the initial design and analysis of the Ohio Airship "Dynalifter", a hybrid flight vehicle combining hydrostatic lift from helium with aerodynamic lift from wings and a shaped hull. This concept avoids many of the problems of traditional airships since a large fraction of its weight is carried by aerodynamic lift. It lands like a normal aircraft, decelerating on a runway as its weight is transferred from the wings to the tires. It has substantial weight on its tires when sitting on the ground allowing it to withstand a gusty side wind. Compared to a normal aircraft, the dynamic lift airship has reduced drag when flown at low speeds and flies on much less power than a conventional aircraft carrying a similar payload. Raymer will discuss the advantages of such designs, how such design differs from normal aircraft design practice, and factors that influence the likely success of such projects.
Host: Dr. G. Spedding
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/3-8-11-raymer.shtmlLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/3-8-11-raymer.shtml
-
GTHB Seminar
Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Shachar Kariv , University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Who is (More) Rational?
Abstract: Revealed preference theory offers a criterion for decision-making quality: if decisions are high quality then there exists a utility function that the choices maximize. They conduct a large-scale field experiment that enables them to test subjects' choices for consistency with utility maximization and to combine the experimental data with a wide range of individual socio-demographic and economic information for the subjects. There is considerable heterogeneity in subjects' consistency scores: high-income and high-education subjects display greater levels of consistency than low-income and low-education subjects, men are more consistent than women, and young subjects are more consistent than older subjects. They also find that consistency with utility maximization is strongly related to wealth: a standard deviation increase in the consistency score is associated with 15-19 percent more wealth. This result conditions on current income, education, family structure, and is little changed when we add controls for past income, risk tolerance and the results of a standard personality test used by psychologists. [Authors: Syngjoo Choi (Universisty College London), Wieland Muller (Tilburg University) and Dan Silverman (University of Michigan)
Biography: Shachar Kariv was educated at Tel Aviv University and New York University, where he received his Ph.D. in economics in 2003, the same year he joined the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Professor and the Faculty Director of UC Berkeley Experimental Social Science Laboratory (Xlab), a laboratory for conducting experiment-based investigations of issues of interest to social sciences. He was a visiting member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton (2005-6), a visiting professor at the European University Institute (2008), and a visiting fellow at Nuffield College of the University of Oxford (2009).
He is the recipient of the UC Berkeley Division of Social Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award (2008) and the Graduate Economics Association Outstanding Advising Award (2006). He was also awarded NYU College of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award (Golden Dozen) in recognition of excellence in teaching and contributions to undergraduate education (2002) and NYU Dean's Outstanding Teaching Award in the Social Sciences (2001).
For his Ph.D. dissertation at NYU, he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences (2003). He also received a National Science Foundation grant for studying decisions under uncertainty in theory and experiments (2006-8). Recently, he was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship for Economics (2009-10).
His fields of interest include game theory, decision theory, and experimental and behavioral economics. His research interests include social learning, social networks, social and moral preferences, and risk preferences. His research has been published in a variety of academic journals including, The American Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Theory, and Economic Theory.
(http://gthb.usc.edu/Seminars/)
*Lunch is included
Host: Prof. Yu-Han Chang
Location: Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Memorial Hall (of Philosophy) (MHP) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Yarta: A Middleware For Managing Mobile Social Ecosystems
Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Animesh Pathak, Ph.D., INRIA, Paris-Rocquencourt
Talk Title: Yarta: A Middleware For Managing Mobile Social Ecosystems
Abstract: With the increased prevalence of advanced mobile devices (the so-called "smart" phones), interest has grown in mobile social ecosystems, where users not only access traditional Web-based social networks using their mobile devices, but are also able to use the context information provided by these devices to further enrich their interactions. In complex mobile social ecosystems of the future the heterogeneity of software platforms on constituent nodes, combined with their intrinsic distributed nature and heterogeneity of representation of data and context raises the need for middleware support for the development of mobile social applications. Owing to the large variety of platforms available for smart phones, as well as the different ways that data and context information is represented, it is natural to think of middleware solutions that the developers of these systems can use while creating their applications.
In this talk, we will present the details of Yarta, a novel middleware designed for mobile social ecosystems (MSE), which takes into account the heterogeneity of both deployment nodes and available data, the intrinsic decentralized nature of mobile social applications, as well as users' privacy concerns. The Yarta core data model is based on RDF, and can be extended for specific social applications. We also discuss the results of performance evaluation of the core Yarta operations on smart phones and laptops, as well as the steps needed for developing new applications using it.
Biography: Animesh Pathak is currently a researcher ("Chargé de Recherche") with the ARLES project-team at INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt. He received his PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, USA in 2008; and prior to that, the B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India where he graduated at the head of his class. His current research interests include high-level programming abstractions for sensor networks and emerging trends in mobile social networking.
Host: Professor Viktor K. Prasanna
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Janice Thompson
-
Scaling of Fracture in Quasibrittle Structures
Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Qiang Yu, Northwestern University
Talk Title: Scaling of Fracture in Quasibrittle Structures
Abstract: Quasibrittle Materials, which include concrete, fiber composites, tough ceramics, bone and many other engineering materials, are widely used in the fields of civil engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering and bio-engineering. A salient feature of quasibrittle material is that its constituents are brittle and, due to heterogeneity, its fracture process zone is not negligible compared with the structure size. The consequence is that the structure strength (nominal stress at failure) is size dependent. Statistical studies showed that if size effect is ignored in concrete design, the failure probability may increase by orders of magnitude, e.g., from 10-6 to 10-3. Therefore, the proper scaling of quasibrittle structure strength is of great importance for structural safety and reliability.
In this study, the scaling of fracture in shear of RC beams, at reentrant corners, and in metal-composite hybrid joints is investigated theoretically, experimentally, and numerically. Dimensional analysis and asymptotic matching are exploited to identify the small- and large-size behaviors and the transition between these asymptotic trends. In contrast to notches and pre-existing cracks, the real part of the stress singularity exponent for the tip of a reentrant corner or bi-material corner is not -1/2, as required for finiteness of the energy flux into the crack. Therefore, one must take into account the fact that a cohesive crack must emanate from the corner and, for a large enough structure, must be embedded in a more remote singular stress field of the corner. The crack tip field, corner tip field and boundary influenced field are matched energetically through the strength of the singularities. By connecting the energy release and cohesive cracking of the embedded crack with the singular stress field of the corner, a general size effect law can be derived via asymptotic matching. The derived size effect laws for shear of reinforced concrete beams, for reentrant corners and for hybrid joints are validated by experiments and numerical simulations.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
Decoherence of Polarization Entanglement in Optical Fibers With Polarization Mode Dispersion
Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Misha Brodsky, AT&T Labs
Talk Title: Decoherence of Polarization Entanglement in Optical Fibers With Polarization Mode Dispersion
Abstract: Quantum mechanics permits the existence of unique correlations, or entanglement, between individual particles. For a pair of entangled photons, this means that performing a measurement on one photon appears to affect the state of the other. The ability of entangled particles to act in concert is preserved even when they are separated by large distances and serves as a resource for numerous applications. For example, distributing entangled photon pairs over fiber-optic cables enables secure communication between two remote parties or could offer the possibility of interconnecting quantum computers. The vast transparency band of the installed global fiber-optic network, consisting of over a Gigameter of optical fiber cables, presents a particularly attractive opportunity for this task. The bond between entangled photons is, however, very fragile and could be lost.
Several physical phenomena set limitations on transmission of classical light pulses through optical fibers. An intriguing and crucial question is how some of these well-studied phenomena, for instance Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD), affect a polarization entangled photon pair. How far could one send entangled photons while still maintaining the connection between them?
We investigate, theoretically and experimentally, how inherent defects and miniscule imperfections in fiber-optic cables degrade entanglement between two photons transmitted over fibers. We show that the loss of entanglement could be either gradual or surprisingly abrupt. In addition, we suggest a novel way to compensate for adverse effects that occur during propagation in fibers. Finally, we define the range of fiber parameters over which entanglement remains sufficient for secure communication. The richness of the observed phenomena suggests that fiber-based entanglement distribution systems could serve as natural laboratories for studying entanglement decoherence.
A brief introduction to the topic of the talk is available on the front page of AT&T Labs website: www.research.att.com
Biography: Dr. Misha Brodsky joined AT&T Labs in 2000. His contributions to fiber optic communications focused on optical transmission systems and physics of fiber propagation, most notably through his work on polarization effects in fiber-optic networks. More recently Misha has been working on quantum communications; single photon detection; where his prime research interest is in photon entanglement and entanglement decoherence mechanisms in optical fibers.
Dr. Brodsky has authored or co-authored over 70 journal and conference papers, a book chapter and about two dozen patent applications. He is a topical editor for Optics Letters and has been active on numerous program committees for IEEE Photonics Society and OSA conferences. Dr. Brodsky holds a PhD in Physics from MIT.
Host: Daniel Lidar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
Technology Developments and R&D Challenges for Smart Grid Applications in Homes, Buildings, and Industry
Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Tariq Samad, Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions
Talk Title: Technology Developments and R&D Challenges for Smart Grid Applications in Homes, Buildings, and Industry
Series: CEI Distinguished Lecture Series in Energy Informatics
Abstract: The smart grid does not stop at the meter. Over 90% of the electricity generated in developed economies is consumed in homes, buildings and industrial plants. Greater attention must be paid to end-use sectors if the promised benefits of smart grids â such as reduction of electricity consumption, load shifting, better use of renewable generation and storage, reduced use of fossil fuels, and improved grid reliability â are to be achieved.
Dr. Samad will discuss current solutions that are already realizing such benefits, R&D activities under way, and outstanding challenges. The talk will cover automated demand response, remote energy diagnostics, home energy management systems, thermal storage, demand-management ancillary services, and micro-grid optimization. Current and proposed system architectures for such solutions will be presented, with examples from residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Challenges for research as well as standards development will be discussed.
Biography: Tariq Samad is a Corporate Fellow with Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions, based in Minneapolis. His career with Honeywell has spanned 25 years, during which time he contributed to automation and control technology R&D with applications to electric power systems, the process industries, building management, automotive engines, unmanned aircraft, and clean energy. His research interests relate to automation, intelligence, and autonomy for complex engineering systems.
Dr. Samad is a Fellow of the IEEE, and served as the President of IEEE Control Systems Society in 2009 and the Editor-in-chief of IEEE Control Systems Magazine. He is General Chair for the 2012 American Control Conference and is on the editorial board of IEEE Press. He holds 17 patents and has (co)authored over 100 publications. He represents Honeywell on the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, and is a member of the Governing Board of the U.S. Smart Grid Interoperability Panel. He holds a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University and M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Host: Prof. S. Joe Qin and Prof. Viktor Prasanna
More Info: http://cei.usc.edu/news/lecturesLocation: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Yogesh Simmhan
Event Link: http://cei.usc.edu/news/lectures
-
The nanochemomechanics of geomaterials
Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alberto Ortega, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: The nanochemomechanics of geomaterials
Abstract: Geomaterials such as rocks, soils, and concrete have emerged as crucial components in advanced engineering solutions related to enhanced oil recovery, geothermal energy, carbon sequestration, and green construction materials. These engineering challenges demand an intimate understanding of the multiscale mechanical behaviors of natural and engineered porous composites. In this presentation, a combination of experimental and theoretical microporomechanics approaches deployed at fundamental material scales is proposed as a means to decode complex mechanical responses of two geomaterials: shale, a type of clay-bearing sedimentary rock, and a high-performance cement paste. For shale, experiments involving statistical grid nanoindentation and an original application of wave dispersive spectroscopy allowed for the proper chemomechanical quantification of the in situ clay matrix response and the nature of the clay-silt grain interface. The micromechanics modeling of the clay matrix as a composite of nano-sized building blocks of clay agglomerates and nanoporosity revealed a granular and anisotropic mechanical behavior, which drives the poroelasticity of shale observed at macroscopic scales. For cement, the intrinsic solid properties of the calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) phase in high-performance pastes were determined by employing a similar experimental program and the micromechanics modeling tools. The improved elasticity and strength of the solid backbone compared to those of ordinary cement pastes provided valuable insight into the effects of mix design and curing on the mechanical response of the hardened materials. The nanochemomechanics of these geomaterials learned from fundamental scales can be used as instrumental information for the design and validation of upscaling models capable of predicting macroscopic engineering properties. Furthermore, the proposed geo-genome approach represents a viable framework for the mechanical modeling of other natural porous composites.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Faxian Xiu, Electrical Engineering Department at UCLA
Talk Title: Magnetic Nanomaterials and Nanodevices - Emerging Strategies for Beating Mooreâs Law
Abstract: Magnetic nanomaterials have potentials for developing new-generation electric devices to resolve power consumptions and variability issues in todayâs microelectronics industry. In this talk, I will present my recent research on the development of high-Curie-temperature Mn0.05Ge0.95 quantum dots with a ferromagnetic order above room temperature. I will describe an approach to probe the electric-field control of ferromagnetism in this material and demonstrate the operation temperature up to 300 K. I will also briefly discuss some of recent advance in voltage-controlled surface states in topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanoribbons. The surface states of the topological nanoribbon can be significantly enhanced up to 51 % by applying an external gate voltage. These novel magnetic and electronic materials could be potentially used for the long-sought power dissipationless applications.
Biography: Dr. Faxian Xiu is currently a staff research associate with the Electrical Engineering department at UCLA. He is associated with two research centers in California: the Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics Center and the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics. He received his Masters degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the same university in 2002, and his Ph. D. degree from the Electrical Engineering at UC Riverside in 2007. After his Ph.D., he worked for ZN technology Incorporation for two years before he joined UCLA as a staff research associate.
Dr. Xiu has interdisciplinary background involving both materials science and electrical engineering. He has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and received numerous media attention on his work of dilute magnetic semiconductors. His current research interest includes spintronic and nanoelectronic devices based on the Mn-doped Ge quantum dots and topological insulator nanoribbons.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
-
AME Department Seminar
Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: DuÅ¡an M. Stipanović , Associate Professor, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering and Control and Decision Group at the Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: An Approach to Control of Dynamic Systems with Multiple Objectives
Abstract: The challenges of controlling dynamic systems with multiple objectives are related to and furthermore include problems in multi-player dynamic games, multiobjective optimization, and decentralized control and estimation which all are known to be independently difficult and unsolved in general terms. The additional complexity is introduced through nonlinear dynamic models with delays and perturbations as well as various state, input and communication constraints. In this talk we will present a number of recent results in control of dynamic systems with multiple objectives based on a Liapunov-like approach as well as differentiable approximations of minimum and maximum and differential inequalities. We will show simulations of multi- vehicle systems achieving multiple objectives such as collision avoidance, trajectory tracking, control of formations of vehicles, and surveillance of compact domains. In addition a number of experimental results including autonomous and semi-autonomous (that is, teleoperated) ground vehicles (conducted in the Robotics Laboratory at the University of Illinois) and aerial vehicles (conducted at the Boeing Company in Seattle) will be presented.
Host: Prof. F. Udwadia
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/3-9-11-stipanovic.shtmlLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/3-9-11-stipanovic.shtml
-
Programmable Logic for High Performance Networking
Thu, Mar 10, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gordon Brebner, Xilinx Labs, USA
Talk Title: Programmable Logic for High Performance Networking
Abstract: The telecommunications equipment industry is now moving to data rates of 100 Gb/s and above, with 1 Tb/s on the horizon. In this talk, I will overview research in Xilinx Labs that has been directed to demonstrating that Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology can play a mainstream role in implementing the required functions at such data rates. In particular, I will focus on packet classification. The first part concerns a novel programmable packet parsing engine capable of extracting relevant keys at line rate. The second part concerns high-throughput lookup of such keys to make classification decisions.
This involves both on-FPGA memory lookup for small tables, and off-FPGA memory lookup for larger tables. In the former case, aside from the necessary lookup rates, a key figure of merit has been the average number of physical memory bits required per table data bit. Another concern has been efficient live table update. Good results have been obtained based on the work of Prasanna et al, for heavily pipelined implementations of tree and tries, and these will be overviewed. After the feasibility of practical implementations at a 100 Gb/s data rate had been verified, a prototype high-level programming environment that hides the FPGA completely was developed, and I will give a short demonstration of this.
Biography: Gordon Brebner is a Distinguished Engineer at Xilinx, Inc., the worldwide leader in programmable logic solutions. He works in Xilinx Labs in San José, California, USA, leading an international group researching issues surrounding networked processing systems of the future. His main personal research interests concern dynamically reconfigurable architectures, domain-specific languages with highly concurrent implementations, and high performance networking and telecommunications, with also a historical interest in computational complexity. He has authored numerous papers and the book "Computers in Communication", and holds many patents. Prior to joining Xilinx in 2002, Gordon was the Professor of Computer Systems at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, directing the Institute for Computing Systems Architecture. He continues to be an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, is a Ph.D. advisor at Santa Clara University, and is a visiting lecturer at Stanford University.
Host: Professor Viktor K. Prasanna
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 324
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Janice Thompson
-
CS Colloquium
Thu, Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Makoto Yokoo, Kyushu University
Talk Title: Cooperative Game Theory: A New Frontier for Agent Researchers
Abstract: Cooperative game theory deals with how (selfish) agents can create a coalition and divide the gain of the coalition among them, when agents can negotiate before taking their actions. This research topic has 60-year tradition (started by von Neumann), and various solution concepts (e.g. core, Shapley value) that describe how to determine the value division have been developed. Furthermore, the growth of Internet and e-commerce has expanded its application area (e.g. dynamic, agile formations of virtual organizations). In this talk, I give a brief overview of traditional results on cooperative game theory, and describe new challenging topics for agent/AI/CS researchers, such as coalitional structure generation and concise representation schemes.
Biography: Makoto Yokoo received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering, in 1984 and 1986, respectively, form the University of Tokyo, Japan, and the Ph.D. degree in information and communication engineering in 1995, from the University of Tokyo, Japan. From 1986 to 2004, he was a research scientist of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). He is currently a Professor of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University. His esearch interests include multi-agent systems, constraint satisfaction, and mechanism design among self-interested agents. He served as a general co-chair of International joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems in 2007 (AAMAS-2007), and as a program co-chair of AAMAS-2003. He is on the board of directors of International Foundation for Autonomous Agent and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS). He received the ACM SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award in 2004, and the IFAAMAS influential paper award in 2010.
Host: Prof. Milind Tambe
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Lyman L. Handy Colloquium Series
Thu, Mar 10, 2011 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Mark D. Asta, Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California
Talk Title: Crystal-Melt Interfaces: Insights from Atomic-Scale Simulations
Series: Lyman L. Handy Colloquium Series
Abstract: The properties of crystal-melt interfaces have long been a topic of substantial interest in materials science, primarily because of their role in governing crystal growth kinetics and morphologies. While the importance of this class of heterophase interfaces has long been recognized, detailed information related to their properties has become available only relatively recently due to advances in both experimental and computational methods. This talk will discuss insights derived over the past decade in the application of atomic-scale computer simulations as a framework for calculating structural, thermodynamic and kinetic properties of crystal-melt interfaces. The talk will include a review of results obtained for elemental metals and model alloy systems with cubic and hexagonal crystal structures, and will illustrate how the detailed information provided by atomistic simulations can be combined with phase-field modeling to derive insights into the origin of complex morphological phenomena in alloy solidification. Recent applications to faceted solid-liquid interfaces, and to rapid solidification in binary alloys with also be discussed.
Host: Professor Vashishta
More Info: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/l-03-10-11.htmLocation: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
Event Link: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/l-03-10-11.htm
-
CS Colloquium
Thu, Mar 10, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Shaddin Dughmi, Stanford University
Talk Title: Randomization and Computation in Strategic Settings
Abstract: In resource allocation problems, a centralized agency allocates resources to
recipients: an Internet Service Provider allocates bandwidth to consumers; the Federal Communications Commission auctions radio spectra to telecommunications companies; and a content distribution company designs an overlay network to satisfy its customers' routing needs. Often, the agency's goal is to find an allocation that maximizes the social good. This goal is complicated by the fact that the recipients are self-interested, and their actions influence the allocation.
Economists cope with self-interested behavior by designing mechanisms that align individual incentives with the social good. This requires finding an optimal solution to the -- often intractable -- resource allocation problem.
Computer scientists cope with intractability by designing approximation algorithms. Until recently, it appeared difficult to unify these techniques and design incentive-compatible computationally-efficient mechanisms for computing approximately optimal allocations. Impossibility results regarding deterministic mechanisms suggest that this difficulty is fundamental.
My work harnesses the power of randomization to reconcile economic and computational requirements in settings where deterministic mechanisms provably can not. My colleagues and I (1) developed general techniques for the design of randomized mechanisms, (2) applied these techniques to solve some of the paradigmatic problems in this area, and (3) developed a black box reduction that, for a large class of problems, generically converts an approximation algorithm to an incentive compatible mechanism without degrading its approximation guarantee.
Biography: Shaddin Dughmi is a PhD student in the computer science theory group at Stanford University, advised by Professor Tim Roughgarden. His main research interests are in algorithms, game theory, and combinatorial optimization. Shaddin graduated from Cornell University in 2004 with a B.S. in computer science and a minor in applied mathematics. From 2004 to 2006, he was an Information Security Engineer at the MITRE Corporation, where he worked on cryptographic protocol analysis. He enrolled in the Stanford computer science PhD program in the Fall of 2006, with an expected graduation date of June 2011.
Host: Prof. David Kempe
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
AI SEMINAR
Thu, Mar 10, 2011 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science, Information Sciences Institute, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chris Welty, Research staff member, IBM Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Inside the mind of Watson
Abstract: Watson is a computer system capable of answering rich natural language questions and estimating its confidence in those answers at a level of the best humans at the task. Â On Feb 14-16, in an historic event, Watson triumphed over the best Jeopardy! players of all time. Â In this talk Chris Welty will discuss how Watson works and dive into some of its answers (right and wrong).
Biography: Chris Welty is a Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. Previously, he taught Computer Science at Vassar College, taught at and received his Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnice Institute, and accumulated over 14 years of teaching experience before moving to industrial research. Chris' principal area of research is Knowledge Representation, specifically ontologies and the semantic web, and he spends most of his time applying this technology to Natural Language Question Answering as a member of the DeepQA/Watson team and, in the past, Software Engineering. Dr. Welty is a co-chair of the W3C Rules Interchange Format Working Group (RIF), serves on the steering committee of the Formal Ontology in Information Systems Conferences, is president of KR.ORG, on the editorial boards of AI Magazine, The Journal of Applied Ontology, and The Journal of Web Semantics, and was an editor in the W3C Web Ontology Working Group. While on sabbatical in 2000, he co-developed the OntoClean methodology with Nicola Guarino. Chris Welty's work on ontologies and ontology methodology has appeared in CACM, and numerous other publications. see:
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/welty.index.html
Host: Ed Hovy ISI
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Eric Mankin
-
EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Fri, Mar 11, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Liangbing Hu, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Talk Title: Nanostructured Energy Devices: Manipulating Electrons, Photons and Ions
Abstract: Lowering the cost and improving the performance of devices are essential for making renewable energy feasible for everyday applications. In this talk, I will focus on discussing how abundant materials such as paper, silicon and copper can be engineered to create one dimensional nanomaterial networks (Nano-Nets) which allow us to manipulate fundamental particles in these energy devices to ultimately obtain remarkable performance. Conductive Nano-Nets using carbon nanotubes, silver nanowires and copper nanofibers for transparent electrodes in solar cells, silicon Nano-Nets for high performance Li-ion battery anodes, and conductive paper and textiles for ultracapacitors and microbial fuel cells will be discussed in detail.
Biography: Liangbing Hu received his B.S. in applied physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2002. He did his Ph.D. in experimental physics under Prof. George Gruner at UCLA, focusing on carbon nanotube based nanoelectronics. He studied extensively the charge transport in carbon nanotube thin films with randomly distributed energy barriers and its dependence on geometry (nanotube length, density et al.) and energy (frequency, temperature and field). He also explored the device applications of such random networks in field effect transistors, sensors and optoelectronic devices. In 2006, he joined Unidym as a co-founding scientist. At Unidym, Liangbingâs role was the development of roll-to-roll printed carbon nanotube transparent electrodes and device integrations into touch screens, LCDs, flexible OLEDs and solar cells. Currently, Liangbing is a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University in Prof. Yi Cuiâs lab where he is working on various energy devices based on nanomaterials and nanostructures including Li-ion batteries, ultracapacitors and microbial fuel cells. He has ~ 50 journal publications in nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, printed electronics and energy devices.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
-
AI seminar
Fri, Mar 11, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science, Information Sciences Institute, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chris Welty, Research staff member, IBM Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Inside the mind of Watson
Abstract: Watson is a computer system capable of answering rich natural language questions and estimating its confidence in those answers at a level of the best humans at the task. On Feb 14-16, in an historic event, Watson triumphed over the best Jeopardy! players of all time. In this talk Chris Welty will discuss how Watson works and dive into some of its answers (right and wrong).
Biography: Biography: Chris Welty is a Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. Previously, he taught Computer Science at Vassar College, taught at and received his Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnice Institute, and accumulated over 14 years of teaching experience before moving to industrial research. Chris' principal area of research is Knowledge Representation, specifically ontologies and the semantic web, and he spends most of his time applying this technology to Natural Language Question Answering as a member of the DeepQA/Watson team and, in the past, Software Engineering. Dr. Welty is a co-chair of the W3C Rules Interchange Format Working Group (RIF), serves on the steering committee of the Formal Ontology in Information Systems Conferences, is president of KR.ORG, on the editorial boards of AI Magazine, The Journal of Applied Ontology, and The Journal of Web Semantics, and was an editor in the W3C Web Ontology Working Group. While on sabbatical in 2000, he co-developed the OntoClean methodology with Nicola Guarino. Chris Welty's work on ontologies and ontology methodology has appeared in CACM, and numerous other publications. see:
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/welty.index.html
Host: Gully Burns, 1SI
Location: ISI 11th floor conference room
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Eric Mankin
-
W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;From Internet to Smart Grid
Fri, Mar 11, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Steven H. Low, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at CalTech
Talk Title: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;From Internet to Smart Grid
Abstract: Dr. Steven H. Low, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, will present "From Internet to Smart Grid" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program.
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
More Info: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda Atkinson
Event Link: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/
-
DANIEL J. EPSTEIN DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING SEMINAR
Fri, Mar 11, 2011 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Luca Quadrifoglio, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University
Talk Title: Paratransit System Design: Evaluating the Use of "Transfers" for Zoning Strategy
Abstract: Paratransit services often adopt decentralized zoning strategies to divide large service area into smaller zones. Paratransit services often adopt decentralized Zoning strategies to divide large service area into smaller zones assigned to different providers in order to simplify their management. If zones are independently managed, there is no coordination among providers. This causes the overall system to be quite inefficient, due to a large amount of empty trip miles driven, a major cause for these services' high operating costs. Coordination among providers is possible by including transfer points at zone boundaries and can potentially improve productivity. The zoning with transfer practice has been adopted by some transit agencies (Chicago, Boston and San Diego, for example) but never properly investigated from a research point of view. This research study evaluates the impact of transfer design on decentralized zoning paratransit through extensive simulation analyses.
Biography: Dr. Luca Quadrifoglio holds a Laurea in Chemical Engineering (1996) from the Politecnico of Milan (Italy), a M.S. in Engineering Management (2002) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees from the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the USC. After a year as a Postdoc at CREATE (USC), he joined the Faculty of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2006. He published a number of papers in top rated Journals, won the 2006 Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award (3rd place) and the 2004 Council of University Transportation Center (CUTC) National Student Award for best publication in Science and Technology. His research interests are related to the broad field of Operations Research primarily applied to transportation systems, mainly transit.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
Six Sigma Green Belt for Process ImprovementMon, Mar 14, 2011
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
More Info: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htmAudiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htm
-
BME 533 - Seminar in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Mar 14, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Spring Recess (No Seminar),
Host: Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Tue, Mar 15, 2011
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
More Info: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htmAudiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htm
-
Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Wed, Mar 16, 2011
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a Six Sigma green belt, you will be equipped to support and champion Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial Engineer's green belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).
During this course you will have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to an actual issue you face in your organization. Prior seminar participants have reported significant savings from implementing their projects.
More Info: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htmAudiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/SixSigmaGreenBeltforProcessImprovement.htm
-
Toward High-Resolution MR Neuroimaging: Beyond the Fourier Transform
Fri, Mar 18, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Justin Haldar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: Toward High-Resolution MR Neuroimaging: Beyond the Fourier Transform
Abstract: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technologies have enabled new opportunities to reveal the mysteries of the central nervous system -- how it functions and how it is organized, and what goes wrong when it is injured or diseased. MR experiments are quite flexible, and the MR signal can be manipulated to noninvasively probe anatomy, physiology, and metabolism. However, while MR imaging is decades old and has already revolutionized medical imaging, current methods are still far from utilizing the full potential of the MR signal. In particular, traditional MR methods are based on the Fourier transform, and suffer from fundamental trade-offs between signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution, and data acquisition speed.
Classical approaches to addressing these trade-offs have relied on improved imaging hardware and more efficient pulse sequences. In contrast, our work addresses the limitations of MR using relatively less-explored signal processing approaches, which have recently become practical because of increasing computational capabilities. This talk will focus on a new model-based framework for MR imaging. Use of an appropriate imaging model guides the design of both data acquisition and image reconstruction, and can free us from some of the constraints of traditional Fourier imaging. The benefits of this approach are illustrated in the context of several applications, including high-dimensional MR studies of metabolism, microstructure, and connectivity in the brain and spinal cord.
Biography: Justin Haldar received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and will receive the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering in May 2011, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include image reconstruction, signal modeling, parameter estimation, and experiment design for biomedical imaging applications, with a particular focus on magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.
Mr. Haldar is the recipient of several fellowships, including an ECE distinguished fellowship, a University of Illinois Fellowship, an NSF graduate research fellowship, and a Beckman Institute graduate fellowship. His work on constrained imaging has been recognized with a best student paper award at the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging and the first-place award in the student paper competition at the 2010 international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
-
BME 533 - Seminar in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Francisco Valero-Cuevas, USC BME
Host: Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
CS Colloquium
Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Roger Dingledine, Project Leader - the Tor Project
Talk Title: Tor and the Censorship Arms Race: Lessons Learned
Abstract: Tor is a free-software anonymizing network that helps people around the world use the Internet in safety. Tor's 2200 volunteer relays carry traffic for several hundred thousand users including ordinary citizens who want protection from identity theft and prying corporations, corporations who want to look at a competitor's website in private, and soldiers and aid workers in the Middle East who need to contact their home servers without fear of physical harm.
Tor was originally designed as a civil liberties tool for people in the West. But if governments or others can block connections *to* the Tor network, who cares that it provides great anonymity? A few years ago we started adapting Tor to be more robust in situations where authorities or operators actively attempt to impede its use. We streamlined its network communications to look more like ordinary SSL, and we introduced "bridge relays" that are harder for an attacker to find and block than Tor's public relays.
Through the Iranian elections in June 2009, the periodic blockings in China, the demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, and whatever's coming next, we're learning a lot about how circumvention tools work in reality for activists in tough situations. This talk will assume some familiarity with Tor already, and jump quickly into the technical and social problems we're encountering, what technical approaches we've tried so far (and how they went), and what approaches I think we're going to need to try next.
Biography: Roger Dingledine is project leader for The Tor Project, a US non-profit working on anonymity research and development for such diverse organizations as Voice of America, the U.S. Navy, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In addition to all the hats he wears for Tor, Roger organizes academic conferences on anonymity, speaks at a wide variety of industry and hacker conferences, and also does tutorials on anonymity for national and foreign law enforcement.
Host: Terry Benzel and John Wroclawski - USC/ISI
Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 210
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Quantum Computers: Algorithms and Implementations
Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ben Reichardt, University of Waterloo
Talk Title: Quantum Computers: Algorithms and Implementations
Abstract: Quantum computers have the potential to deliver exponential speedups. To realize this potential, we need new quantum algorithms and new ways of implementing scalable quantum devices.
A difficulty in designing quantum algorithms is that quantum mechanics is often counterintuitive. We show that quantum computers are equivalent to a simpler model, known as span programs, that does not use quantum mechanics. Based on this equivalence, we find new algorithms, and also determine general structural properties of quantum algorithms. For example, we find a better way of composing quantum algorithms than standard classical recursion.
The main problem for implementing quantum computers is noise. We study several proposed fault-tolerant quantum computer architectures in order to maximize the tolerable noise rate and minimize the overhead, while satisfying chip locality constraints. For example, by studying the propagation of errors, we modify an error-correction method to reduce its overhead by at least a factor of four. We also introduce a family of quantum error-correcting codes with useful locality and universality properties.
Biography: Ben Reichardt is an assistant professor at the Institute for Quantum Computing in the University of Waterloo. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2006, advised by Umesh Vazirani, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology until 2008.
Host: Todd Brun
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
ENH Seminar Series
Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Christine Raasch, Ph.D, Principal, Biomechanics Practice, Exponent Test & Engineering Center, Phoenix AZ
Talk Title: Biomechanics for (crash test) dummies- a lot happens in the blink of an eye
Abstract: During vehicle crashes, the laws of physics and mechanics hold sway, but those of us accustomed to âreal timeâ dynamics may have difficulty intuitively predicting the complex accelerations and forces that determine occupant motions and injury mechanisms for events that happen in the blink of an eye. Biomechanical accident reconstructionists and safety engineers use tools such as computer simulation and full-scale testing with instrumented anthropomorphic test dummies to open a window onto this fast and furious world. They also rely on careful evaluation of physical evidence left on structures, roadways, vehicle bodies/interiors and occupants themselves in real-world accidents to characterize the vehicle motions and occupant environment, and evaluate potential effectiveness of various safety systems in mitigating injury. We will review examples of research crash tests and accident investigations to see how biomechanical engineers analyze these loading scenarios to determine injury outcome.
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
More Info: http://bbdl.usc.edu/ENH-Schedule_1011.phpLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Adriana Cisneros
Event Link: http://bbdl.usc.edu/ENH-Schedule_1011.php
-
GTHB Seminar
Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Eric Friedman, Cornell University
Talk Title: Bargaining Theory in the Cloud
Abstract: The axiomatic theory of bargaining solutions was initiated by John Nash with his seminal paper in 1950 and has a long and mostly mathematical history. Surprisingly, it arises naturally in a variety of allocation problems arising in cloud computing. For example, the second most famous bargaining solution, the Kalai-Smorodinsky solution, is the outcome of a simple water filling algorithm used in the Mesos Platform and has many strong properties in that setting, including incentive compatibility and fairness. In this talk, he will explore these connections for a variety of cloud computing problems and show how axiomatic bargaining theory can be used to analyze allocation problems in the cloud and conversely how cloud computing sheds new light on axiomatic bargaining theory.
This talk is based on joint work with Ali Ghodsi, Scott Shenker and Ion Stoica.
Biography: Eric Friedman is Associate Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University and a Senior Research Scientist at the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley (ICSI). His research interests include applications of game theory and complex network theory to computer science and cognitive neuroscience.
Host: Prof. Yu-Han Chang
More Info: http://gthb.usc.edu/Seminars/Location: Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Memorial Hall (of Philosophy) (MHP) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
Event Link: http://gthb.usc.edu/Seminars/
-
Novel Methods for Hydrogeophysical Joint Inversion and Data Integration
Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael Cardiff, Boise State University
Talk Title: Novel Methods for Hydrogeophysical Joint Inversion and Data Integration
Abstract: The search for improved estimates of subsurface flow and transport parameters, and the expense and time associated with collecting hydrologic measurements, have both lead many hydrologists to consider the use of geophysical data for aquifer characterization.
Geophysical surveys, such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electrical tomography, and active seismic are often relatively cheap and fast to collect, when compared to hydrologic tests such as pumping tests and tracer injections. However, the key drawback of geophysical tests is that they are sensitive to geophysical parameters (e.g., electrical resistivity, seismic velocity, etc.) instead of the hydrologic parameters of interest. In this talk, I present two novel methods for the joint analysis of hydrologic and geophysical data when characterizing hydrologic systems.
In the first part of my presentation, I discuss the use of petrophysical transforms for converting geophysical parameters to hydrologic parameters. While petrophysical transforms are relatively easy to implement, the existence of non-unique petrophysical relations or multiple petrophysical relations can make the conversion to hydrologic parameters difficult. Using a Bayesian perspective, I derive a generalized maximum likelihood estimator that takes into account errors in both hydrologic and geophysical parameter estimates in order to estimate petrophysical relationships. The derived estimator is a generalization of so-called âGaussian Mixture Modelsâ, but with added flexibility. In terms of performance, the derived estimator is often capable of determining 1) The complexity of underlying petrophysical relations and 2) Whether multiple petrophysical relations are present.
The second part of my presentation discusses a novel inversion strategy for estimating boundaries between lithologic units (i.e.
facies) using either single datasets or combinations of hydrologic and geophysical data. By using a series of âlevel set functionsâ, I represent boundaries between facies that are allowed to iteratively deform and improve fit to both datasets. Both hydrologic and geophysical data are used to simultaneously drive boundary movement.
After presenting the theory and key equations, I will show performance on numerical experiments in addition to an application to a sandbox hydraulic tomography study.
Application of imaging and optimization methodologies to water resources systems is a rapidly growing and evolving field, with many opportunities for future research in both field, theoretical, and numerical methods. At the end of my talk, I will discuss some promising areas for future research in hydrogeophysical data integration and inversion, as well as other areas in which computational and optimization methods can be used to improve environmental decision making.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
Cornelius Pings Lecture
Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 03:00 PM - 04:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: The Role of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in Future Deepwater Oil Exploration and Production
Series: Cornelius Pings Lecture
Abstract: The oil industry has moved into deeper and deeper waters to meet the continued high demand for oil. The move into deeper waters has required major innovations to keep the cost low without sacrificing safety. The first innovation, the use of ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), has made possible subsea completions at ever increasing standoff distances from the producing platform. The use of ROVs keeps the associated cost of the producing platform reasonable but increases the cost of inspection and maintenance. Even the most routine inspection using an ROV requires the presence of large surface vessel to support the ROV increasing the daily cost of even the most routine maintenance operations by tens of thousands of dollars. This cost pressure has ushered in the second innovation namely the use of AUVs, which can be operated without a costly surface vessel, to meet the inspection needs of producing platforms.
Whether ROVs will be entirely replaced by AUVs is debatable, but we believe that in the next decade an increasing number of light maintenance tasks will be assigned to AUVs. During the lecture the genesis and evolution of modern AUV technology will be discussed. Associated technologies such as underwater communications, sensor technologies, and near real-time supervisory control will be presented. The design of a fully operational and integrated AUV offshore oil inspection system will be described and discussed.
Biography: Educated at MIT and at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in naval architecture, Professor Chryssostomidis was appointed to the MIT faculty in 1970 and became a full professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1982. That same year he was appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program where in 1989 he established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Laboratory to develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. He served as Department Head of the department of Ocean Engineering where he established the Ocean Engineering Teaching Laboratory from 1994 to 2002. He has been director of the MIT Ocean Engineering Department Design Laboratory since its inception in the early 1970s. In 2003, with MIT Sea Grant staff, he created the Sea Perch Program, funded by the Office of Naval Research. The Sea Perch program trains educators across the United States and around the world to build a simple, remotely operated underwater vehicle, or ROV, made from PVC pipe and other inexpensive, easily available materials.
In 1994 he was elected as Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineering. His over 100 publications display his wide range of interests including design methodology for ships, vortex-induced response of flexible cylinders, underwater vehicle design, design issues in advanced shipbuilding including the all electric ship and T-Craft. He receives research support from the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Naval Sea Systems Command, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in addition to industry support. Professor Chryssostomidis has served on several National Research Council advisory committees focusing on shipbuilding and marine issues.
Host: Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
More Info: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/p-03-22-11.htmLocation: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - Room 450,
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
Event Link: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/p-03-22-11.htm
-
Annual George Bekey Keynote Lecture 2011
Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Michael I. Jordan, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Completely Random Measures for Bayesian Nonparametrics
Abstract: Computer Science has historically been strong on data structures and weak on inference from data, whereas Statistics has historically been weak on data structures and strong on inference from data. One way to draw on the strengths of both disciplines is to pursue the study of "inferential methods for data structures", i.e., methods that update probability distributions on recursively-defined objects such as trees, graphs, grammars and function calls. This is accommodated in the world of "Bayesian non parametrics", where prior and posterior distributions are allowed to be general stochastic processes. Both statistical and computational considerations lead one to certain classes of stochastic processes, and these tend to have interesting connections to combinatorics. I will focus on Bayesian non parametric modeling based on completely random measures, giving examples of how recursions based on these measures lead to useful models in several applied problem domains, including protein structural modeling, natural language processing, computational vision, and statistical genetics.
Biography: Michael I. Jordan is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research in recent years has focused on Bayesian nonparametric analysis, probabilistic graphical models, spectral methods, kernel machines and applications to problems in signal processing, statistical genetics, computational biology, information retrieval and natural language processing. Prof. Jordan was named to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2010 and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2010. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the IMS, the ACM, and the IEEE.
Refreshments will be served at the Gerontology (GER) courtyard at 4 pm. Talk begins in GER Auditorium at 4:30pm.
Host: Prof. Fei Sha
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
Variable origin-destination trip matrix estimation: A maximum entropy-least squares estimator
Wed, Mar 23, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chi Xie, The University of Texas at Austin
Talk Title: Variable origin-destination trip matrix estimation: A maximum entropy-least squares estimator
Abstract: In transportation subnetwork-supernetwork analysis, it is well known that the origin-destination (O-D) flow table of a subnetwork is not only determined by trip generation and distribution, but also by traffic routing and diversion, due to the existence of internal-external, external-internal and external-external flows. This result indicates the variable nature of subnetwork O-D flows. This talk presents a variable O-D flow table estimation problem for subnetwork analysis. The underlying assumption is that each cell of the subnetwork O-D flow table contains an elastic demand function rather than a fixed demand rate and the demand function can properly capture traffic diversion effects under various network changes.
An integrated maximum entropy-least squares (ME-LS) estimator is proposed, by which O-D flows are distributed over the subnetwork so as to maximize the trip distribution entropy, while demand function parameters are estimated for achieving the least sum of squared estimation errors. While the estimator is powered by the classic convex combination algorithm, computational difficulties emerge within the algorithm implementation until partial optimality conditions and a column generation procedure are incorporated into the algorithmic framework. Numerical results from applying the integrated estimator to a couple of subnetwork examples show that a variable O-D flow table, when used as input for subnetwork flow evaluations, reflects network flow changes significantly better than its fixed counterpart.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
AME Department Seminar
Wed, Mar 23, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Barnaby Wainfan , Technical Fellow, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems
Talk Title: The Seven Deadly Sins of Aircraft Design
Abstract: This presentation examines mistakes that occur regularly in airplane design. The designs that result from these missteps fail. The failures can be technical, leading to machines that refuse to fly or are never completed. The failure can also be one of effectiveness; the aircraft is technically successful as a flying machine, but is economically unviable or unable to perform its mission. The goal of the presentation is to describe the most common of these failure types and to provide, through historical example, insight enabling recognition and avoidance of the most common traps early in the design process.
Biography: Mr. Barnaby Wainfan is Technical Fellow for Aerodynamics Design at Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Host: Prof. G. Spedding
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcomingLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming
-
CENG Seminar
Thu, Mar 24, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mingoo Seok, Texas Instruments
Talk Title: Extremely Energy Efficient Integrated Circuit and System Design for Millimeter Scale Implantable Medical Devices
Abstract: Millimeter scale implantable medical devices with years of lifetime can bring revolutionary advancements in health care. They could be safely introduced into human body without invasive operations and constantly monitor physiological signs without having to be replaced. However, it is very challenging to create such devices. Why? Conventional circuit and system design techniques fail to deliver the required energy efficiency to satisfy such long lifetime requirement with the constraint of almost invisible system volume. In order to improve energy efficiency, it has been suggested to scale supply voltage down to near or below transistor threshold voltages. However, such ultra low voltage operation is by itself insufficient to achieve the sub-nW power budget of millimeter scale medical devices. Also, it creates several other challenges such as performance degradation, heightened variability, and circuit robustness.
In this talk, I will discuss ultra low voltage systems and present a range of new circuit, and architectural design approaches to overcome the above challenges, and thus lead to millimeter scale medical systems. This talk will focus on three relevant projects from my dissertation: a 35pW sensing platform (Phoenix Processor), a 2-transistor voltage reference, and a Fast Fourier Transform core. In these projects, we successfully improved energy efficiency, performance, and variability, bringing the abstract concept of millimeter scale medical devices towards practical applications. Our proposed approaches provided record-setting energy efficiency in major building blocks such as microcontrollers, embedded memories, power conversion circuits, and DSP accelerators. The improvements were extensively verified through numerous silicon demonstrations.
Biography: Mingoo Seok is currently pursiung PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Seokâs thesis is entitled âExtreme Power-Constrained Integrated Circuit Designâ. His research contributions and interest are in the area of sub- or near-threshold logic circuits and ultra low power architectures and sensors. During his PhD, he published more than 25 journal and conference papers. His work contributed to the improvement of energy efficiency, performance, and variability in energy-constrained systems, allowing the abstract concept of millimeter-scale implantable medical devices to be translated into practical applications.
Mingoo Seok received a 1998 Excellency Fellowship from Seoul National University, a 1999 Distinguished Undergraduate Scholarship from the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, a 2005 Doctoral Fellowship from the same organization, and a 2008 Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Michigan. He also won the 2009 AMD/CICC Student Scholarship Award for picowatt voltage reference design and 2009 DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest for the 35pW sensor platform design, also known as Phoenix Processor. He holds one pending US patent and two invention disclosures. He is currently a member of technical staff at the R&D center of Texas Instruments, focusing on ultra low power communication systems and security-enhancing circuit techniques.
Host: Prof. Viktor Prasanna
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
Distinguished Lecture Series - Cancelled
Thu, Mar 24, 2011 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Diana Huffaker,
Host: Professor Armani
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
-
EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Wei Wu, Senior Scientist, HP Labs, Hewlett-Packard Co.
Talk Title: Nano-Crossbar Circuits, Optical Meta-Materials and SERS Sensors
Abstract: Semiconductor industry has enjoyed great successes by following the âMooreâs lawâ for more than four decades. With the end of the roadmap looming in the horizon, great efforts have been made to look for the alternatives for âpost-Siâ electronics. I will present our work on crossbar circuits, especially crossbar memory circuits based on transition metal oxide (i.e. memristor). Memristor is a type of resistive RAM device. It stores the information by ion movements inside the switching material, instead of charge trapping as in other conventional memory devices. We have demonstrated several generations of crossbar memory circuits with record-high densities, and have also integrated memristor and Si CMOS circuits successfully. The technologies developed for nano-electronics were applied to several other areas. One example I would like to share is optical negative meta-materials (NIMs) at near-IR range. That includes NIMs with negative reflective index (both negative permittivity and permeability) at 1.55 m range, fast modulation of NIMs and non-linear effects of NIMs. Another example is highly sensitive surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors fabricated using the 3-D nano-patterning technology we developed. The end of roadmap may be getting closer, but it is just the start of a new era, where we can leverage on what we have been developed in the past and make great impacts on the whole society.
Biography: Wei Wu graduated from Peking University with a BS in Physics in 1996, and received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 2003. He joined HP labs in 2003, and he is a senior scientist at nano-electronics research group (formerly known as quantum science research). His work on nanoimprint lithography has enabled nano-electronic and nano-photonic applications at HP labs for the last seven years. His work includes crossbar memory (i.e. memristor) and logic circuits with the record high densities, the first nanoimprint-fabricated optical negative index meta-material at 1.55 m range, the first optical modulation using negative index meta-material at near-IR, the first third harmonic generation using meta-material, highly sensitive surface enhanced Raman sensors fabricated using 3-D nanoimprint, the first room-temperature working single electron memory and the first large area bit-patterned magnetic media fabricated using nanoimprint. The nanoimprint machine he invented has been commercialized via IP licensing. He coauthored 65 peer reviewed journal papers and more than 60 conference presentations, including 10 keynote and invited presentaions. He has 49 granted US patents and 77 pending applications. He is serving as HPâs representative at SEMATECH lithography program advisory group. He is a senior member of IEEE and serving in the executive committee of IEEE SFBA nanotechnology council.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
-
USC Water Institute Seminar
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chris Scholin, President/Chief Executive Officer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Talk Title: Fostering Science-Engineering Partnerships as a Means to Develop âNext Generationâ Ocean Observatories
Abstract: David Packard founded the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in 1987 as an alternative to the traditional academic oceanographic research institution. He challenged us to develop and apply new methods, instruments, and analytical systems to address fundamental problems in ocean science and to identify new directions where innovative technologies will accelerate marine research. To achieve this vision, Packard created MBARI as an organization that is fundamentally based on a peer relationship between scientists and engineers, and one that enables ready access to the sea. In that light, over the past year, MBARI has cast a new strategic plan that will guide it for the coming decade. Emphasized are four major research themes â Exploration and Discovery, Ocean Visualization, Ecosystem Dynamics, and Ocean Biogeochemistry. Each theme focuses on different aspects of documenting the current state of the ocean and life within it against the backdrop of global change. In this presentation, I will provide a broad overview of MBARI and will highlight a number of ongoing projects that exemplify science-engineering partnerships stemming from our current research priorities.
Biography: Christopher Scholin is President/Chief Executive Officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Chris received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Biological Oceanography in 1993, a M.A. in Molecular Biology and Immunology from Duke University in 1986, and a B.A. with highest honors in Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1984. His research interests are centered on detection of water borne microorganisms including bacterioplankton, invertebrates, harmful algae and associated toxins using molecular probes and the Environmental Sample Processor. He currently serves on an External Advisory Committee for the University of Miamiâs Oceans and Human Health Center, the Management Committee of the Center for Ocean Solutions, and the Board of Trustees of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Alliance for Coastal Technologies.
Host: Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
USC -PSOC Monthly Seminar Series - Professor John F. Marko
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor John F. Marko, Department of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, NCI Physical Sciences and Oncology Center Northwestern University
Talk Title: The physical organization of chromosomes and cancer
Abstract: Professor Marko will discuss research in our PS-OC that is focused on studies of large-scale chromosome struc-ture, using a few different biophysical approaches. First I will discuss some of the evidence that the folding of chromatin in tumorigenic cells differs from that in non-tumorigenic cells, for exam-ple, drastic changes in chromatin structure associated with misregulation of histone methylation (Licht group). I will discuss how light scattering and electron microscop can be used (Backman group) to analyze the âroughnessâ of chromatin in the nucleus and how this is modified in disease versus ânormalâ cell lines. I will then discuss work aimed at analyzing how replication origin usage is modified in tumorigenic cells
(Le Beau group). Finally, I will discuss methods for visualization and micromanipulation of individual metaphase chromosomes, which allow direct analysis of chromatin folding and packing (Marko group).
Experiments which reveal a âcross-linked networkâ organization of mitotic chromosomes will be discussed, along with preliminary results showing how metaphase chromosome mechanics are affected by knockdowns of subunits of chromosome-condensing âcondensinâ complexes.
Biography: Professor John F. Marko
Department of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, NCI Physical Sciences and Oncology Center Northwestern University
Host: Center For Applied Molecular Medicine
Location: May Ormerod Harris Hall, Quinn Wing & Fisher Gallery (HAR) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Yvonne Suarez
-
CiSoft Seminar Series 2011
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Jan Dirk Jansen, Delft University of Technology
Talk Title: Closed Loop Reservoir Management
Abstract: Closed-loop reservoir management is a combination of model-based optimization and computer-assisted history matching. The aim is to maximize life-cycle reservoir performance, in terms of recovery or financial measures, by changing reservoir management from a periodic to a near-continuous process. I will present work from our group at Delft University to illustrate the scope for closed-loop water flooding using real-time production data under uncertain reservoir conditions. In particular Iâll address the effect of update frequency, ways to systematically incorporate uncertainties, and approaches to reconcile short-term production optimization and long-term reservoir management.
Biography: Jan-Dirk Jansen is Professor of Reservoir Systems and Control at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His current research is focused on the application of systems and control theory to subsurface flow and well bore flow. Earlier, he worked for Shell in the Netherlands, Norway and Nigeria, in research and operations. He is currently spending a year at Stanford University as Cox Visiting Professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering.
Host: CiSoft
More Info: To participate remotely, please register via this link: http://usccisoft.omnovia.com/register/88521298064699Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 324
Audiences: Please RSVP: legat@usc.edu
Contact: Juli Legat
Event Link: To participate remotely, please register via this link: http://usccisoft.omnovia.com/register/88521298064699
-
W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;The Only Constant is Change
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John McLaughlin, Chief Engineer for WET Design
Talk Title: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;Innovative Water Displays and Design
Abstract: John McLaughlin, Chief Engineer for WET Design, will present "The Only Constant is Change" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium.
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
More Info: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda Atkinson
Event Link: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/
-
Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Afshin Momtaz, Broadcom
Talk Title: Broadcom and ADC based multiGHz wireline transceivers
Host: Prof. Hossein Hashemi and Firooz Aflatouni
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Hossein Hashemi
-
Epstein ISE Administrative Seminar - ISE Chair Candidate
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 @ 09:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Yuan-Shin Lee, Ph.D., P.E., Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering/North Carolina State University/Raleigh, NC
Talk Title: "Why? and Why Not?"
Abstract: Any organizationâs two most important questions are âWhy?â and âWhy not?â - the trick is knowing which one to ask. In this talk, we will discuss the important trends and future direction for the industrial and system engineersâ new role in this evolving new world. Acquiring some understanding of why we, as a living and evolving organization, do and not do things is often a prerequisite to change. We will discuss the lessons and strategies that could possibly lead to the road to translation. This talk will be focused on exploring the possible opportunities and direction within the field the Epstein Department might be able to take advantage of.
Biography: Yuan-Shin Lee is Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, U.S.A. He received his Ph.D. and MS degrees from Purdue University, USA, both in industrial engineering, and his BS degree from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, in mechanical engineering. His research interests include computational geometry for design and manufacturing, system automation, CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, 5-axis sculptured surface manufacturing, computer-aided molecular design (CAMD), human-computer interface development, re-generative medicine manufacturing system, and micro-scale medical devices development. He is a registered professional engineer (PE) in mechanical engineering. He is also a certified
manufacturing engineer (CMfgE) in system integration and control. Dr. Lee is Fellow of Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). He is also Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Dr. Lee received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. He also received the 1997 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the 1998 Norman Dudley Award from the Taylor & Francis Journals, London, U.K., the 1999 Anderson Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2000 Alumni Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award from North Carolina State University, the 2001 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award, the 2006 IIE Technical Innovation Award for Industrial Engineering, the 2007 IIE Fellow Award from Institute of Industrial Engineers and the 2008 ASME Fellow Award from American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Dr. Lee serves as the Department Editor of IIE Transactions. He also serves as an Associate Editor for several research journals, including the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Journal of Manufacturing Systems, the Journal of Computer Aided Design and Applications, the International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, the Journal of Computer-Aided Drafting, Design and Manufacturing, and the Journal of Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers. He also serves as the Director of the Summer Research at NCSU Program at NCSU.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
CENG Seminar
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Peng Li, Texas A&M University
Talk Title: From Integrated Circuit Design to Brain Modeling: Coping with System Complexity by Leveraging Application-Specific Parallel Computing
Abstract: We are confronted with system complexity while dealing with large natural and engineered systems such as a multi-billion transistor microprocessor, or the 100 billion neuron human brain. In the meantime, the recent change in the computing landscape has rendered the use of parallel compute power critical for dealing with the complexity in a broader spectrum of engineering and healthcare applications.
The drive for higher performance has resulted in an explosion of IC design complexity. To push the envelope of design algorithms and tools, âgoing parallelâ is both a natural choice and a necessity. Nevertheless, one must rethink how compute-intensive algorithms shall be designed on disparate hardware platforms to make the best use of parallel compute power. I will present our work on highly parallel circuit simulation, where a rich set of application-specific intra- and inter-algorithm parallelisms are explored to help remove the simulation bottleneck from the IC design flow. I will describe how âsmartâ numerical algorithms can be designed to expose the âhiddenâ data parallelism to allow for efficient hybrid GPU-CPU based analysis of large power delivery networks, thereby facilitating the design of high-performance & low-power chips.
Computing also plays an increasingly vital in understanding mammalian brains. With a vast amount of data made available by neuron recording and imaging, one holy grail is to map out the circuitry of the human brain and unravel the mysteries of brain functions by computer simulation. If successful, this would have profound implications: it will enable the test of hypotheses of neurological disorders and the development of treatments; it will stimulate new bio-inspired computing and biomimetics. To examine some of the grand challenges and opportunities, I will describe a large-scale thalamocortical model that includes multicompartmental Hodgkin-Huxley neuron models capturing dynamics of ion channels and dendrites, detailed cortical microcircuitry, local/global connectivity, all modeled on a biophysical basis. While exploring the dynamic properties of the network, advanced numerical and parallel computing techniques have been developed to alleviate the significant simulation challenge. The biological realism of the model allows us to attribute network-level spike-and-wave oscillations, a characteristic of generalized absence epilepsy, to cell-level biophysical interactions and shed light on the therapeutic treatments of this brain disorder.
Biography: Peng Li received the Ph.D. degree in ECE from CMU in 2003. He is an associate professor of ECE at Texas A&M University, where he is also a member of the Faculty of Neuroscience. His research interests include integrated circuits and systems, CAD, parallel computing, biophysical modeling of nervous systems, computer-aided diagnosis and therapy of brain disorders. He has edited two books, published over 100 papers, and six book chapters. He is a recipient of two IEEE/ACM DAC Best Paper Awards and one DAC Best Paper Award nomination, four nominations for the IEEE/ACM William J. McCalla ICCAD Best Paper Award, an NSF CAREER Award, four Inventor Recognition Awards from SRC and MARCO, and an ECE Outstanding Professor Award from Texas A&M. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on CAD and IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems II. He has served on the committees of DAC, ICCAD, ISQED, ISCAS, TAU and VLSI-DAT, the selection committees of ICCAD Best Paper Award and ACM Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award in EDA. He served as the program chair and general chair of the ACM TAU Workshop.
Host: Alice Parker
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
BME 533 - Seminar in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Matthew Tirrell, UC Berkeley
Series: Invited Chair Series
Host: Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
Chlorinated phenol based biocides and the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sudeshna Ghosh, University of Michigan
Talk Title: Chlorinated phenol based biocides and the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Abstract: Increasing resistance to antimicrobials among bacteria is a growing problem. While antimicrobials are used to treat infections, their use also selects for drug resistant bacteria that elude treatment. Understanding the ecology of antibiotic resistance has been an important part of my research. Recently, I started looking at this problem from a different angle. I am asking if certain biocides, in addition to selecting for resistant bacteria, have other roles, such as increasing the infectivity of pathogens.
My presentation concerns an opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, that infects people with lower immunity. Infections caused by P. aeruginosa are particularly hard to treat due to its large arsenal of defense mechanisms against antimicrobials. Prominent among its antibiotic resistance mechanisms is antibiotic efflux by the MexAB-OprM efflux pump, which confers resistance to a wide spectrum of antibiotics. I have found that chlorinated phenols control the expression of the MexAB-OprM efflux pump by interacting with a protein regulator of the pump. This interaction renders P. aeruginosa more resistant to antibiotics. Additionally, it raises the possibility that chlorinated phenols may influence other microbial characteristics, including virulence. Chlorinated phenol based biocides such as triclosan and chloroxylenol are commonly used as disinfectants in household cleaners, in health-care facilities and on medical devices. Is it possible that our use of these chlorinated phenol based biocides is self-defeating? This is the question that I am addressing now.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
Data Transmission: Non-Asymptotic Fundamental Limits
Tue, Mar 29, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yury Polyanskiy, Princeton University
Talk Title: Data Transmission: Non-Asymptotic Fundamental Limits
Abstract: Noise is an inalienable property of all communication systems appearing in nature. Such noise acts against the very purpose of communication, namely the delivery of data to its destination with minimal possible distortion. This creates a problem that has been addressed by various disciplines over the past century. In particular, information theory studies the question of the maximum possible rate achievable by an ideal system under certain assumptions regarding the noise generation and structural design constraints. The study of such questions, initiated by Claude Shannon in 1948, has typically been carried out in the asymptotic limit of an infinite number of signaling degrees of freedom (blocklength).
At the same time, the increasing focus on latency and delay (such as in audio and video streaming), as well as the advent of modern sparse graph codes require characterizing the fundamental limits non-asymptotically, i.e. for blocklengths of the order of 1000. A systematic study of these practically motivated questions necessitates the development of new theoretical tools and techniques, which is the subject of this work. In particular, by obtaining precise non-asymptotic results, it is demonstrated that in many engineering problems a significant back-off from the (Shannon) capacity is incurred at finite blocklengths.
Knowledge of the behavior of the fundamental limits in the non-asymptotic regime enables the analysis of many related questions, such as the assessment of the suboptimality of modern codes, energy efficiency, benefits of feedback, effects of dynamically varying channel state, fading, etc. As a result it is shown that in several instances classical (asymptotics-based) conclusions do not hold under this more refined approach.
Biography: Yury Polyanskiy received the M.S. degree (with honors) in applied mathematics and physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ in 2010.
In 2000-2005, he was with the Department of Surface Oilfield Equipment, Borets Company LLC, where he rose to the position of Chief Software Designer. His research interests include information theory, coding theory and the theory of random processes.
Dr. Polyanskiy won a silver medal at the 30th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), held in Padova, Italy. He was a recipient of the Best Student Paper Awards at the 2008 and 2010 IEEE International Symposia on Information Theory (ISIT). His final year of graduate studies was supported by a Princeton University Honorific Dodds Fellowship (2009-2010).
Host: Giuseppe Caire, caire@usc.edu, EEB 540, x04683
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
Epstein ISE Research Seminar - ISE Chair Candidate
Tue, Mar 29, 2011 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Yuan-Shin Lee, Ph.D., P.E., Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering/North Carolina State University'Raleigh, NC
Talk Title: "Embracing Challenges"
Abstract: This is a talk that deals with todayâs technologies and the possible future of industrial and systems engineering. Within our imaginations, we probably all share a similar futuristic vision of internet real-time information, electronic and global commerce, micro and nano-scale product development, innovative medicine and healthcare breakthrough, virtual reality and teleoperation technology for the future world to come. This talk includes exploratory discussions on the new role of industrial and system engineering in the emerging areas of: service systems and health systems management, re-generative medicine, biotechnology and medical devices innovation, energy, manufacturing systems of micro- and nano-scale products development, emerging development of consumer electronics and electromechanical devices, the medicine and drug discovery, and the global product innovation processes with new virtual reality, remote teleoperation and human computer interface technologies. Quite certainly the Internet, information, nano-technology, bio-technology, and the science breakthroughs of the 21st century will be vastly enriched. In this talk, we will explore and discuss the industrial and system engineersâ new role in this evolving new world.
Biography: Yuan-Shin Lee is Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, U.S.A. He received his Ph.D. and MS degrees from Purdue University, USA, both in industrial engineering, and his BS degree from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, in mechanical engineering. His research interests include computational geometry for design and manufacturing, system automation, CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, 5-axis sculptured surface manufacturing, computer-aided molecular design (CAMD), human-computer interface development, re-generative medicine manufacturing system, and micro-scale medical devices development. He is a registered professional engineer (PE) in mechanical engineering. He is also a certified
manufacturing engineer (CMfgE) in system integration and control. Dr. Lee is Fellow of Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). He is also Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Dr. Lee received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. He also received the 1997 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the 1998 Norman Dudley Award from the Taylor & Francis Journals, London, U.K., the 1999 Anderson Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2000 Alumni Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award from North Carolina State University, the 2001 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award, the 2006 IIE Technical Innovation Award for Industrial Engineering, the 2007 IIE Fellow Award from Institute of Industrial Engineers and the 2008 ASME Fellow Award from American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Dr. Lee serves as the Department Editor of IIE Transactions. He also serves as an Associate Editor for several research journals, including the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Journal of Manufacturing Systems, the Journal of Computer Aided Design and Applications, the International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, the Journal of Computer-Aided Drafting, Design and Manufacturing, and the Journal of Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers. He also serves as the Director of the Summer Research at NCSU Program at NCSU.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
Epstein Institute Seminar Series / ISE 650 Seminar
Tue, Mar 29, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: S. Jack Hu, Ph.D., G. Lawton and Louise G. Johnson Professor of Engineering/Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial and Operations Engineering/The University of Michigan
Talk Title: "Assembly System Design and Operations for Product Variety"
Abstract: Assembly is the capstone process for product realization where component parts and subassemblies are integrated together to form the final products. As product variety increases due to the shift from mass production to mass customization, assembly systems must be designed and operated to handle such high variety. In this presentation we first review the state of the art research in the areas of assembly system design, planning and operations in the presence of product variety. Methods for assembly sequence generation, system configuration design and assembly line balancing are presented and summarized. Operational complexity in assembly systems are then discussed in the context of product variety. Finally we conjecture a future manufacturing paradigm of personalized products and production and discuss the assembly challenge for such a paradigm.
Biography: Dr. S. Jack Hu is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the G. Lawton and Louise G. Johnson Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He also holds a joint appointment as Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at Michigan. He co-directs the General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory in Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering. Prior to his current appointment, he was Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. Dr. Hu conducts research and teaches courses in assembly, manufacturing systems, and statistical quality methods. He has published more than 100 papers in professional journals and 40 papers in conferences. Dr. Hu is the recipient of various awards, including the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, ASME Design Engineering Conference Best Paper Award, and the College of Engineering Research Excellence Award. He was elected a fellow of ASME in 2003.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
-
CENG Seminar
Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Janet Roveda , University of Arizona, Tucson
Talk Title: Conquering Variability for Robust VLSI Circuit Design
Abstract: Growing variability has been observed in nanometer CMOS due to limits in design and manufacture technology. The resulting diminished accuracy has caused a significant reduction in the parametric yield. In the presence of significant variations, the worst-case-based analysis is too pessimistic and the simulation based sampling schemes require excessive computation time due to the large parametric space. A new, efficient approach that models variability in the polynomial chaos domain through a set of orthogonal polynomials is proposed. The new method provides a functional presentation of circuit response in terms of process variations. The approach significantly reduces turnaround time for the pre-silicon stage, and provides accurate full chip verification down to 40nm technology. The presentation addresses a range of techniques that have been developed by Dr. Rovedaâs group: second order cone for robust optimization, fast probability collocation method, Principal Hessian Direction, and Chebyshev probability bound estimation. Looking forward, we focus our efforts on the creation of a unified framework that maps quality of applications to quality of circuit design. Additional comments on present efforts in Interface Models for smart grid, Nano-Sim for CNT based circuit design, and self-tuning techniques for robust and low power multi-core systems will conclude the discussion.
Biography: Janet Roveda received a B.S. degree in Computer Science from The East China Institute in 1991, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 and 2000, respectively. She was a recipient of the NSF career award and the PEACASE award in 2005 and 2006, respectively. She received the best paper award in ISQED 2010 as well as best paper nominations in ASPDAC 2010, ICCAD 2007, and ISQED 2005. She is the recipient of the 2008 R. Newton Graduate Research Project Award from DAC, and the 2007 USS University of Arizona Outstanding Achievement Award. Her primary research interests focus on robust circuit design, VLSI circuit modeling and analysis, and low power multi-core system design.
Host: Massoud Pedram
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
Field measurements and numerical modeling of energy transport in urban areas
Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Zhihua Wang, Princeton University
Talk Title: Field measurements and numerical modeling of energy transport in urban areas
Abstract: Changes of surface landuse types, resulting from rapid global urbanization and anthropogenic stressors, have significant impacts on urban environmental and engineered systems such as heat island formation and modification of the hydrological cycle and air quality. A better understanding of the transport and storage of energy in urban areas, in particular, is essential to the long term sustainability of cities. The last few decades have seen increasing efforts to characterize the energy transport in the lower urban atmosphere; one of the useful tools that have emerged is the physically-based urban canopy model (UCM). We developed an energy transport model based on the single-layer UCM used in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Our implementation does not require coupling to an atmospheric flow model and features several improvements in the urban surface energy exchange scheme including: (1) derivation and implementation of a spatially-analytical method that captures surface temperatures and heat storage better, (2) statistical characterization of uncertainties in the surface input parameter space using Markov-Chain Monte Carlo simulations, and (3) coupling to a hydrological model to better parameterize the water transport and evaporation from urban surfaces. Intensive field measurements are also carried out through a large wireless network of sensors deployed over the campus of Princeton University. Data collected from the sensor network are used to provide input parameters as well as to validate the proposed numerical scheme.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
-
AME Department Seminar
Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jay Kudva, President, NextGen Aeronautics Inc.
Talk Title: 25 Years of Adaptive Structures â A Subjective Perspective
Abstract: While âsmart materials,â particularly piezoelectrics, have been known and used by the scientific community for more than a century, the term âsmart structuresâ came into vogue in the 1980s. The impetus for the research at that time was sparked by the initial demonstration of embedded fiber optic sensors in a composite laminate. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D investment has been made in the broad area of smart or multi-functional materials and structures. This presentation traces the historical development of this field, starting from about the mid-80s to the present, in three areas:
1. Health monitoring, mainly for structures, wherein sensors are attached or embedded in the structures to monitor its (internal) health, to increase safety, reliability and possibly increase the flight envelope;
2. Integration of antennas and other sensors to provide multi-function capabilities at the component level â for instance provide optimal structural and antenna performance, enhancing overall system capability;
3. Adaptive structures where sensors and actuators are integrated in the structure or the overall system to change shape or state to optimize its performance for differing external conditions such as loads and flight regimes. The rationale in this case is to provide multi-point optimization at the system level, for example to realize wing shapes which could be optimal across a wide speed range, resulting in multi-mission capabilities.
While much fundamental and applied research has been conducted in all three areas, transition of the developed technologies with demonstrated performance improvements has been limited. The reasons for this are many and varied; the presentation provides a broad brush, subjective, assessment of the overall R&D commercialization efforts in the field and a speculative vision of the future of smart structures.
Host: Dr. F. Udwadia
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcomingLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming
-
CS Seminar
Thu, Mar 31, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Sven Dickinson, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Talk Title: The Role of Intermediate Shape Priors in Perceptual Grouping and Image Abstraction
Abstract: Perceptual grouping played a prominent role in support of early object recognition systems, which typically took an input image and a database of shape models and identified which of the models was visible in the image. When the database was large, local features were not sufficiently distinctive to prune down the space of models to a manageable number that could be verified. However, when causally related shape features were grouped, using intermediate-level shape priors, e.g., cotermination, symmetry, and compactness, they formed effective shape indices and allowed databases to grow in size. In recent years, the recognition (categorization) community has focused on the object detection problem, in which the input image is searched for a specific target object. Since indexing is not required to select the target model, perceptual grouping is not required to construct a discriminative shape index; the existence of a much stronger object-level shape prior precludes the need for a weaker intermediate-level shape prior. As a result, perceptual grouping activity at our major conferences has diminished. However, there are clear signs that the recognition community is moving from appearance back to shape, and from detection back to unexpected object recognition. Shape-based perceptual grouping will play a critical role in facilitating this transition. But while causally related features must be grouped, they also need to be abstracted before they can be matched to categorical models. In this talk, I will describe our recent progress on the use of intermediate shape priors in segmenting, grouping, and abstracting shape features. Specifically, I will describe the use of symmetry and non-accidental attachment to detect and group symmetric parts, the use of closure to separate figure from background, and the use of a vocabulary of simple shape models to group and abstract image contours.
Biography: Sven Dickinson received the B.A.Sc. degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he has also served as Acting Chair (2008-2009), Vice Chair (2003-2006), and Associate Professor (2000-2007). From 1995-2000, he was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University, where he also held a joint appointment in the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) and membership in the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS). From 1994-1995, he was a Research Assistant Professor in the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, and from 1991-1994, a Research Associate at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Toronto. He has held affiliations with the MIT Media Laboratory (Visiting Scientist, 1992-1994), the University of Toronto (Visiting Assistant Professor, 1994-1997), and the Computer Vision Laboratory of the Center for Automation Research at the University of Maryland (Assistant Research Scientist, 1993-1994, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1994-1997). Prior to his academic career, he worked in the computer vision industry, designing image processing systems for Grinnell Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, 1983-1984, and optical character recognition systems for DEST, Inc., Milpitas, CA, 1984-1985.
Host: Prof. Gerard Medioni
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
-
CS Colloquium
Thu, Mar 31, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Zhichun Li, NEC Research Labs
Talk Title: Towards Scalable User-Agnostic Attack Defense
Abstract: Security has become one of the major concerns for todayâs Internet. End users, however, are slow in adopting new security technologies. Many users cannot do good security management by themselves. On the other hand, IT managers desire efficient and scalable protection mechanisms.
Towards solving these issues, in this talk, I would like to introduce two of my efforts I did at Northwestern University. First, I will present the design of NetShield, a new vulnerability signature based NIDS/NIPS, which achieves high throughput comparable to that of the state-of-the-art regular expression based systems while offering much better accuracy. In particular, I propose a candidate selection algorithm which efficiently matches thousands of vulnerability signatures simultaneously, and design a parsing transition state machine that achieves fast protocol parsing.
Second, I will talk about WebShield, a secure web proxy design that protects clients from web-based exploits by processing potentially malicious JavaScript in a sandboxed environment (shadow browser) on a middlebox. With shadow browsers, WebShield also aims to deploy client-based defenses against various classes of web attacks without client modifications.
Biography: Zhichun Li currently is a research staff member at NEC Research Labs. Before joining NEC, he received his Ph.D. on Dec 2009 from Northwestern University, and continued working in the same university as a research associate for half a year. He earned both M.S. and B.S. degrees from Tsinghua University in China. His research interests span the areas of security, networking and distributed systems with an emphasis on network security, web security, smartphone security, cloud security, social network security, network measurement and distributed system diagnosis. He has conducted research at Microsoft Research Redmond and International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of UC Berkeley.
Host: Prof. William Halfond
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
