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Events for April 15, 2014
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Tue, Apr 15, 2014
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Talk Title: Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
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 a 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.
*A financial services organization saw $128,000 in cost savings per quarter when they reduced transaction processing rework
*A state agency reduced project cost over-runs by 28 percent
*A transportation company saved more than $875,000 per year in turnover costs by improving the employee communications process
*Reduced errors in a painting operation led to increased first pass acceptance and more than $197,000 in annual savings
*A Web developer increased annual profits by 10 percent by cutting cycle time
*A wave solder operation saw defects reduced by half and costs reduced by $60,000 per year
Host: Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%2526systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Second USC/VSoE Symposium on the Futures of Robotics
Tue, Apr 15, 2014 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Multiple, Multiple
Talk Title: Second USC / VSoE Symposium on the Futures of Robotics
Series: CS Symposium Series
Abstract: The second USC Symposium on the Futures of Robotics will be held on the USC campus (Davidson Conference Center [DCC] Club Suite AB) on April 15, 2014. The academic community is cordially invited. No registration is necessary.
The symposium is a day long set of talks by young- to mid-career roboticists breaking new ground in emerging areas in robotics and related fields.
This event will be held on:
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
9:00am - 5:00pm
Agenda
08:30 - 09:00 Breakfast and Greetings
09:00 - 09:10 Gaurav Sukhatme, Maja Matarić, Stefan Schaal, Nora Ayanian - Welcoming remarks
09:15 - 09:50 Andrea Thomaz, Georgia Institute of Technology
- "Social Robot Learning"
09:55 - 10:30 Julie Shah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- "Integrating Robots into Team-Oriented Environments"
10:35 - 10:50 Break
10:55 - 11:30 Stephanie Gil, CSAIL, MIT
- "Adaptive Communication Networks for Heterogeneous Teams of Robots"
11:35 - 12:10 M. Ani Hsieh, Drexel University
- "Control and Coordination of Robot Teams in Geophysical Flows: Exploiting the Environment for Prolonged Autonomy"
12:15 - 13:30 Lunch - University Club [By Invitation Only]
13:35 - 14:10 Cynthia Sung, CSAIL, MIT
- "Geometric Design of Print-and-Fold Robots via Composition"
14:15 - 14:50 Sonia Chernova, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- "Crowds and Robots: Enabling Robots to Learn from Everyday People"
14:55 - 15:10 Break
15:15 - 15:55 Brenna Argall, Northwestern University
- "Turning Assistive Machines into Assistive Robots"
15:55 - 16:30 Anca Dragan, Carnegie Mellon University
- "A Mathematical Formalism for Legible Robot Motion"
16:35 - 16:40 Walk to labs
16:40 - 18:00 USC Robotics labs tours [Ronald Tutor Hall, 4th Floor]
18:00 - 18:30 Travel to dinner
18:30 - 22:00 Dinner (by Invitation only)
Perch [448 S Hill St, Los Angeles, CA, 90013, 213-802-1770]
Event Location
The Davidson Continuing Education Conference Center
University of Southern California, 3415 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0871
Contact Us
Jacob Beal
Event Coordinator
jbeal@usc.edu
213-740-4498
Biography: More details, lecture abstracts and biographies can be found at the dedicated page here.
Host: Gaurav Sukhatme
More Info: http://www.cs.usc.edu/research/2nd-usc-symposium-futures-of-robotics.htm
More Information: ROBOTICS_Fullsheet.jpg
Location: Charlotte S. & Davre R. Davidson Continuing Education Conference Center (DCC) - Club AB
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
Event Link: http://www.cs.usc.edu/research/2nd-usc-symposium-futures-of-robotics.htm
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CS Student Colloquium: Benjamin Ford - Adaptive Resource Allocation for Wildlife Protection against Illegal Poachers & Thanh H. Nguyen - Stop the Compartmentalization: Unified Robust Algorithms for Handling Uncertainties in Security Games
Tue, Apr 15, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Benjamin Ford, Thanh H. Nguyen, USC CS
Talk Title: Benjamin Ford - Adaptive Resource Allocation for Wildlife Protection against Illegal Poachers & Thanh H. Nguyen - Stop the Compartmentalization: Unified Robust Algorithms for Handling Uncertainties in Security Games
Series: Student Seminar Series
Abstract: Benjamin Ford - Adaptive Resource Allocation for Wildlife Protection against Illegal Poachers
Abstract: Illegal poaching is an international problem that leads to the extinction of species and the destruction of ecosystems. As evidenced by dangerously dwindling populations of endangered species, existing anti-poaching mechanisms are insufficient. This paper introduces the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS) application - a joint deployment effort done with researchers at Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) with the goal of improving wildlife ranger patrols. While previous works have deployed applications with a game-theoretic approach (specifically Stackelberg Games) for counter-terrorism, wildlife crime is an important domain that promotes a wide range of new deployments. Additionally, this domain presents new research challenges and opportunities related to learning behavioral models from collected poaching data. In addressing these challenges, our first contribution is a behavioral model extension that captures the heterogeneity of poachers’ decision making processes. Second, we provide a novel framework, PAWS-Learn, that incrementally improves the behavioral model of the poacher population with more data. Third, we develop a new algorithm, PAWS-Adapt, that adaptively improves the resource allocation strategy against the learned model of poachers. Fourth, we demonstrate PAWS’s potential effectiveness when applied to patrols in QENP, where PAWS will be deployed.
Thanh H. Nguyen - Stop the Compartmentalization: Unified Robust Algorithms for Handling Uncertainties in Security Games
Given the real-world applications of Stackelberg security games (SSGs), addressing uncertainties in these games is a major challenge. Unfortunately, we lack any unified computational framework for handling uncertainties in SSGs. Current state-of-the-art has provided only compartmentalized robust algorithms that handle uncertainty exclusively either in the defender’s strategy or in adversary’s payoff or in the adversary’s rationality, leading to potential failures in real-world scenarios where a defender often faces multiple types of uncertainties. Furthermore, insights for improving performance are not leveraged across the compartments, leading to significant losses in quality or efficiency. In this paper, we provide the following main contributions: 1) we present the first unified framework for handling the uncertainties explored in SSGs; 2) based on this unified framework, we propose the first set of “unified” robust algorithms to address combinations of these uncertainties; 3) we introduce approximate scalable robust algorithms for handling these uncertainties that leverage insights across compartments; 4) we present experiments demonstrating solution quality and runtime advantages of our algorithms.
Host: CS PHD Committee
Location: 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CANCELLED - Vanir Construction Management, Inc. Information Session
Tue, Apr 15, 2014 @ 05:00 PM - 07:15 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Please note, this information session has been cancelled.
Informational Session - Area Manager and Project Manager will sharing information about Vanir Construction Management, specific projects, and career opportunities.Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
