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Events for March 30, 2016

  • Continuous Mobile Vision Systems for Efficiency and Privacy

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Robert LiKamWa, Rice University

    Talk Title: Continuous Mobile Vision Systems for Efficiency and Privacy

    Abstract: The future of computing is in allowing our devices to see what we see. I envision wearable systems that continuously interpret vision data for real-time analytics. Today's system software and imaging hardware are ill-suited for this goal of "continuous mobile vision." Current systems, highly optimized for photography, fail to achieve sufficient energy efficiency or privacy preservation. This talk provides a rethinking of the vision system stack that includes application frameworks, operating system and sensor hardware to improve efficiency by two orders of magnitude. This cross layer rethinking contributes: (1) a split-process application framework that eliminates redundancy in data movement and processing across multiple concurrent applications, (2) operating system optimizations for energy proportional image capture, and (3) a mixed-signal image sensor architecture that processes data in the analog domain to eliminate the efficiency bottleneck of analog-digital conversion. The talk will briefly share future plans to further continuous mobile vision by exploiting the hardware/software boundary for improved energy efficiency and effective privacy preservation, opening the door to integrate our devices with our real world-environments and ultimately, our own lives.

    Biography: Robert LiKamWa is a final-year PhD Student at Rice University. As a Mobile Systems researcher, he operates at the intersection of Operating Systems and Computer Architecture. His dissertation research focuses on system support for continuous mobile vision. He has interned and collaborated with Microsoft Research and Samsung Mobile Processor Innovation Lab on various projects related to vision systems. LiKamWa is supported by a Texas Instruments Graduate Fellowship, and received best paper awards from ACM MobiSys 2013 and PhoneSense 2011.



    Host: Konstantinos Psounis

    Location: 248

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Suzanne Wong

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  • AI SEMINAR

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Information Sciences Institute

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Oren Etzioni, Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute for AI

    Talk Title: Myths and Facts about the Future of AI

    Series: AI Seminar

    Abstract: AI recent success has led to excess. We see headlines like : Artificial Intelligence is Coming, and it Could Wipe Us Out if We are Not Careful, Professor Warns. While some successes are real (for example, AlphaGos amazing Go playing), many challenges remain. My talk will put AlphaGo (and related learning systems) in context, and attempt to debunk some of the popular myths about AI. I will conclude by talking about AI2s mission of AI for the Common Good-”as illustrated by our AI-based scientific search engine: Semantic Scholar (www.semanticscholar.org).

    Biography: Dr. Oren Etzioni is Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He has been a Professor at the University of Washington's Computer Science department since 1991, receiving several awards including Seattle's Geek of the Year (2013), the Robert Engelmore Memorial Award (2007), the IJCAI Distinguished Paper Award (2005), AAAI Fellow (2003), and a National Young Investigator Award (1993). He was also the founder or co-founder of several companies including Farecast (sold to Microsoft in 2008) and Decide (sold to eBay in 2013), and the author of over 100 technical papers that have garnered over 25,000 citations. The goal of Oren's research is to solve fundamental problems in AI, particularly the automatic learning of knowledge from text. Oren received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991, and his B.A. from Harvard in 1986.

    Host: Craig Knoblock

    Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=2d841545cb9d4a61bfc960a713d84e821d

    Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 1135 - 11th fl Large CR

    WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=2d841545cb9d4a61bfc960a713d84e821d

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute

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  • Computer Science General Faculty Meeting

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Receptions & Special Events


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

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

    Audiences: Invited Faculty Only

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Ran Gabai, Dynamics and Mechatronics Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion IIT, Haifa, Israel

    Talk Title: Acoustic Levitation and Propulsion Based on Traveling Waves Control

    Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series

    Abstract: Acoustic levitation is generated by inducing ultrasonic vibrations to a surface above which a levitated object is held by elevated pressure. A thin film of gas separating the vibrating surface and the levitated body exhibits both rapid fluctuations and a rise in the average pressure. An application being researched currently involves the handling of silicon wafers in clean rooms with no mechanical contact thus eliminating a significant contamination sources. The elevated pressure is capable of levitating objects weighting several kg by a vibrating surface 100mm in diameter. By creating a traveling pressure wave, it is possible to add propelling forces to the levitating component thus creating a contactless transportation system. By sensing the position of the levitated object one can control, in a closed loop feedback scheme, the levitation height and the planar position and orientation.
    The dynamics of the mechanical structure has to be carefully tailored to enhance the electromechanical efficiency leading to sufficient amplitudes of the ultrasonic vibrations to provide appropriate levels of acoustic levitation and traveling waves. Ultrasonic structural traveling waves are generated by exciting two modes of vibrations that are tuned, in real time, to generate the required traveling wave direction and amplitude. Small structural uncertainties spoil the symmetry of the structure and detune the conditions for traveling waves. Therefore, an optimization process is introduced to experimentally map the exact traveling wave excitation conditions.
    This work presents the analytical background, numerical simulations, and several experimental set-ups validating the applicability of acoustic levitation and propulsion.

    Biography: Ran Gabai is a post-doctoral researcher at the Dynamics and Mechatronics Laboratory at the Technion working with Prof. Izhak Bucher. He earned his PhD (2008) at the Faculty of Mechanical engineering at the Technion as well as his M.S. (2003) and B.S. (2000). His research focuses on dynamic and vibrations, mechatronics, signal processing, control, and embedding digital brains in dynamical systems. Dr. Gabai is the co-founder and CTO of a start-up company developing a Coriolis-based mass flow meter.

    Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Valerie Childress

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  • ASBME GM 9: Technical Skills Info Session

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations

    Student Activity


    The jack of all trades, the master of... All! Join ASBME at GM 9: Technical Skills Info Session to find out what technical skills employers seek in a biomedical engineer. How much is learned on the job and what should you come to the interview already knowing how to do? Sara Voisin, an R&D Product Engineer at Medtronic, will be discussing the ideal/necessary skills with which we biomedical engineers should become equipped. Additionally, she will be covering topics including: the technical skills needed as BMEs; how we can learn said skills; the practical uses of these various software; how they impact the BME field; and demonstrations of solidworks, minitab, and/or matlab. If time permits, there will be a Q&A session at the end, so come prepared with questions. As always, food will be provided!

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering

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  • USC WiC: Tech talk - Gavin Doughtie

    Wed, Mar 30, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations

    Student Activity


    USC Women in Computing will be hosting Gavin Doughtie. Gavin is currently an employee at Google, working out of the Los Angeles office. He has worked at companies such as DreamWorks Animation, Idealab and ArsDigita as well as other companies! Gavin is also a USC alum, who graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Come excited and with questions, Gavin will be giving us a great talk!

    More Info

    Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - 101

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Sanskriti

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