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Events for April 02, 2013
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Codes for Reliability and Security in Distributed Storage Systems
Tue, Apr 02, 2013 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Salim El Rouayheb, Princeton University
Talk Title: Codes for Reliability and Security in Distributed Storage Systems
Abstract: Distributed storage systems are now a growing paradigm for providing online storage of data and making it accessible anywhere and anytime. Such services are now being commercially offered by data centers, such as those run by Google and Amazon, and peer-to-peer (p2p) systems such as Wuala. These systems rely on large distributed networks of individually unreliable commodity nodes to reliably store the data. At this high level of scale and distributivity, new questions arise in terms of understanding the fundamental theoretical tradeoffs among the different system resources (storage, bandwidth, disk I/O, latency, energy, computational complexity, etc.) in order to meet a targeted level of data availability and security.
In this talk, I will answer some of these questions and present new efficient codes for distributed storage that we call Distributed Replication-based Exact Simple Storage (DRESS) codes. DRESS codes permit fast system repair and growth with minimum bandwidth, disk reads, and computational cost at the price of a minimal storage overhead. I will present optimal code constructions from projective planes and Steiner systems and describe simple randomized constructions based on balls-and-bins models. I will also discuss fundamental information theoretic bounds for protecting the data confidentiality and integrity in distributed storage systems in the face of eavesdroppers and malicious adversaries.
Biography: Salim El Rouayheb is an associate research scholar at the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Wireless Foundations (WiFo) Lab at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) Department, University of California, Berkeley (2010-2011). His research interests lie in the broad area of communications with a focus on distributed storage systems, network coding, and information-theoretic security.
He received his Diploma degree in electrical engineering from the Lebanese University, Roumieh, Lebanon, in 2002, and his M.S. degree in computer and communications engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, in 2004. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 2009. During Summer 2006, he was an intern at the Mathematics of Communication Research Department at Bell Labs. He was awarded the Charlie S. Korban award for outstanding graduate student, and the Texas Telecommunication Engineering Consortium (TXTEC) Graduate Fellowship.
Host: Andreas Molisch, x04670, molisch@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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CS Colloquium: Mehmet Dogar (CMU): Physics-Based Robotic Manipulation in Human Environments
Tue, Apr 02, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mehmet Dogar, Carnegie Mellon
Talk Title: Physics-Based Robotic Manipulation in Human Environments
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The list of physics-based actions that we humans use to push, pull, throw, tumble, and play with the objects around us is nearly endless.
My research strives to develop robots with similar capabilities by incorporating physical predictions into manipulation planning. Most existing manipulation planners do not use physical predictions and therefore are limited to pick-and-place actions. I develop manipulation algorithms which enable robots to move beyond pick-and-place.
In this talk I will focus on using physics-based pushing actions. I will describe how a robot can plan pushing actions that are robust to high degrees of uncertainty in the environment. I will show that pushing manipulation leads to very efficient plans in cluttered environments, while pick-and-place manipulation treats clutter like a game of chess where each piece is moved one-by-one. Finally, I will talk about how contact sensor feedback can be used during physics-based actions to reduce uncertainty and to account for errors in the robot's physical predictions.
Biography: Mehmet Dogar is a PhD student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on using physics-based predictions in robotic manipulation which enables robots to accomplish useful tasks in dynamic and cluttered human environments. He received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He was a Finalist for the Best Paper Award at IROS 2010. He received the Fulbright Award for Outstanding Foreign Students in 2008.
Host: Stefan Schaal
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Epstein Institute / ISE 651 Seminar Series
Tue, Apr 02, 2013 @ 03:45 PM - 05:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Liam Oââ¬â¢Neill, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center
Talk Title: "The Happy Hospital: The Impact of Hospital Design and Capacity Management on Patient Satisfaction"
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar Series
Abstract: As mandated by the Affordable Care Act, part of a hospital's reimbursement (1 - 2%) is now based on patient satisfaction. The purpose of this research is to measure the impact of OM functions, such as capacity management, nurse staffing, and hospital design, on patient satisfaction. We distinguish between those organizational and environmental factors that are under management control vs. uncontrollable factors. The study was based on 155 Texas hospitals, including general acute care, teaching, specialty cardiac and orthopedic hospitals. Three databases were used in this study: AHA, HCAHPS, and THCIC. Private rooms, more nurses-per-bed, and physician ownership were associated with increased patient satisfaction. For-profit ownership, a high percentage of Medicaid and emergency admissions, and higher occupancy levels were associated with decreased patient satisfaction. Hospital managers can significantly improve their patient satisfaction scores -- and hence their bottom line -- by focusing on OM core functions, such as nurse staffing, bed utilization, and hospital design.
Biography: Liam Oââ¬â¢Neill is an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. His primary research interests are in health care operations and information systems, including hospital efficiency analysis, hospital marketing, technology diffusion, and managerial benchmarking. Before joining the faculty at the University of North Texas in 2006, Oââ¬â¢Neill was on the faculties of the University of Iowa and Cornell University. He serves on the editorial board of Health Care Management Science and other journals and is past president of the Health Care Applications Section of INFORMS.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-O'Neill.doc
Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - Room 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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Study NightsTue, Apr 02, 2013 @ 07:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Come out to Study Nights and conquer your procrastination!
Group Study Rooms to work with your peers, quiet study spaces available, tutors, coffee, tea and snacks.
Sponsored by The Center for Engineering Diversity and The Viterbi Academic Resource Center.
Need more information? E-mail viterbi.ced@usc.edu.Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 111
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Center for Engineering Diversity
