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Events for April 24, 2024
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PhD Thesis Defense - Pei Zhou
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 02:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Thesis Defense - Pei Zhou
Committee Members: Xiang Ren (Chair), Jay Pujara (Co-Chair), Toby Mintz, Jieyu Zhao
Title: Common Ground Reasoning for Communicative Agents
Abstract: Effective communication requires reasoning to reach mutual beliefs and knowledge among participants, a process called grounding. Large language model (LLM)-powered conversational AIs have displayed impressive capabilities, showing the potential of building AI agents that can interact with humans and the world smoothly. However, challenges remain unsolved for AI models to become capable communicative agents including understanding implicit intents and reaching goals. My PhD thesis outlines my research aiming to tackle these challenges by teaching models to reason to build common ground to become better communicators. Specifically, I focus on 1) enhancing conversational models with common sense knowledge; 2) modeling theory-of-mind capabilities to build goal-driven dialogue agents; and 3) eliciting metacognition by planning reasoning strategies for diverse scenarios. I will also discuss future directions including life-long self-learning with evolving common ground for personalization, interactive super-alignment to supervise models stronger than us, and measuring and improving safety to deploy agents in the wild.
Venue: RTH 306 and Zoom https://usc.zoom.us/j/2065614640
Date: 04/24/2024, 2-4PMLocation: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/2065614640
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Incident Investigation/Analysis IIA 24-2Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Aviation Safety and Security Program
University Calendar
This course is designed for managers and supervisors who may be required to investigate, implement or review safety findings and recommendations resulting from aviation incidents. The course presents the principles of Management, Investigation and Analysis. It will explain how incidents are discovered, investigated, and reported in writing. The student will learn the techniques of data collection and analysis.
Location: Century Boulevard Building (CBB) - 920
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daniel Scalese
Event Link: https://avsafe.usc.edu/wconnect/CourseStatus.awp?&course=24AIIA2
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Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Aviation Safety and Security Program
University Calendar
This course is designed to provide knowledge and understanding of human factors in the realm of aviation safety with a focus on the role of the maintainer. It presents human factors issues as conditions/hazards that must be managed. Specific issues such as fatigue management, deviations from approved procedures, situation awareness, and the Dirty Dozen are presented. Data collection methodologies such as MEDA and LOSA are examined as viable safety information methods and hazard identification tools in an organization’s SMS. This course satisfies the Human Factors Course requirement for the USC Safety & Security Certificate.
Location: Century Boulevard Building (CBB) - 960
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daniel Scalese
Event Link: https://avsafe.usc.edu/wconnect/CourseStatus.awp?&course=24AHFMX2
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to stop by the EiS Communications Hub for one-on-one instruction for their academic and professional communications tasks. All instruction is provided by Viterbi faculty at the Engineering in Society Program.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home?authuser=0
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Engineering in Society Program
Student Activity
Drop-in hours for writing and speaking support for Viterbi Ph.D. students
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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ECE Seminar: Dr. Yuejie Chi, "Solving Inverse Problems with Generative Priors: From Low-rank to Diffusion Models"
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yuejie Chi, Sense of Wonder Group Endowed Professor in AI Systems | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Solving Inverse Problems with Generative Priors: From Low-rank to Diffusion Models
Abstract: Generative priors are effective countermeasures to combat the curse of dimensionality, and enable efficient learning and inversion that otherwise are ill-posed, in data science. This talk begins with the classical low-rank prior, and introduces scaled gradient descent (ScaledGD), a simple iterative approach to directly recover the low-rank factors for a wide range of matrix and tensor estimation tasks. ScaledGD provably converges linearly at a constant rate independent of the condition number at near-optimal sample complexities, while maintaining the low per-iteration cost of vanilla gradient descent, even when the rank is overspecified and the initialization is random. Going beyond low rank, the talk discusses diffusion models as an expressive data prior in inverse problems, and introduces a plug-and-play posterior sampling method (Diffusion PnP) that alternatively calls two samplers, a proximal consistency sampler solely based on the forward model, and a denoising diffusion sampler solely based on the score functions of data prior. Performance guarantees and numerical examples will be demonstrated to illustrate the promise.
Biography: Dr. Yuejie Chi is the Sense of Wonder Group Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in AI Systems at Carnegie Mellon University, with courtesy appointments in the Machine Learning department and CyLab. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, and B. Eng. (Hon.) from Tsinghua University, all in Electrical Engineering. Her research interests lie in the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of data science, signal processing, machine learning and inverse problems, with applications in sensing, imaging, decision making, and generative AI. Among others, Dr. Chi is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the inaugural IEEE Signal Processing Society Early Career Technical Achievement Award for contributions to high-dimensional structured signal processing, and multiple paper awards including the SIAM Activity Group on Imaging Science Best Paper Prize and IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award. She is an IEEE Fellow (Class of 2023) for contributions to statistical signal processing with low-dimensional structures.
Host: Dr. Richard Leahy, leahy@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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DEN@Viterbi: How to Apply Virtual Info Session
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 06:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Join USC Viterbi representatives for a step-by-step guide and tips for how to apply for formal admission into a Master's degree or Graduate Certificate program. The session is intended for individuals who wish to pursue a graduate degree program completely online via USC Viterbi's flexible online DEN@Viterbi delivery method. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives and ask questions about the admission process throughout the session.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/rc27fb4d2eca819b32bd1291a6c684fce
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/rc27fb4d2eca819b32bd1291a6c684fce
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AAI-CCI-MHI Seminar on CPS
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Rose Faghih, Associate Professor New York University
Talk Title: Smartwatch-Brain Interface Architectures for Mental Well-Being and Productivity
Series: EE598 Seminar Series
Abstract: Smartwatch-like wearables have enabled seamless tracking of vital signs and physical activities. An unexploited capability is that the pulsatile physiological time series collected by wrist-worn wearable devices can be used for recovering internal brain dynamics. We design algorithms for a closed-loop brain-aware wearable architecture called MINDWATCH for tracking and regulating neurobehavioral states of arousal and performance. This closed-loop smartwatch-brain interface framework includes (1) an inference engine for recovering arousal-related autonomic nervous system (ANS) activations, (2) Bayesian state-space decoders for tracking cognitive arousal and performance states, (3) control algorithms for maintaining these neurobehavioral states within desired ranges, and (4) neurofeedback experiments for closing the loop via safe actuation. The methods are validated by analyzing experimental data as well as simulation studies. Results demonstrate a promising approach for tracking and regulating neurocognitive arousal and performance states through wearable devices. Since smartwatches can be used conveniently in one’s daily life, smartwatch-brain interface architectures have a great potential to monitor and regulate one’s neurocognitive stress seamlessly in real-world situations.
Biography: Rose T. Faghih is an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at the New York University (NYU) where she directs the Computational Medicine Laboratory within the NYU Langone Health's Tech4Health Institute. She received a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in Electrical Engineering (Honors Program Citation) from the University of Maryland, and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She completed her postdoctoral training at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT as well as the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Rose is the recipient of various awards including a 2023 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award for Early-Stage Investigators, a 2020 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a 2020 MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 award, and a 2016 IEEE-USA New Face of Engineering award. In 2020, she was featured by the IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine as a “Woman to Watch”. She is on the editorial board of PNAS Nexus by the National Academy of Sciences and IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Her research interests include wearable technologies, and medical cyber-physical systems, as well as neural and biomedical signal processing.
Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ariana Perez
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AME Seminar
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Adam Fincham, USC
Talk Title: The Effect of Reef Geometry On Breaking Wave Shape. Computational and Field Data Comparative Study
Abstract: With growing demand for inland surfing and interest in artificial surf reefs, CFD methods supplemented with field data constitute an effective tool that allows for analysis, optimization, and verification of the design performance of surfing waves. Bringing surfing to non-coastal areas provides big opportunities for a new market. This led to the formation of a new sub-genre of hydrodynamics engineering, where one is looking at transformation of shallow-water waves through a slightly different lens. In classical coastal engineering, wave characteristics can affect various design conditions of certain structures – however, in the following case, one is looking specifically into analysis, optimization, and verification of design performance of the surf-zone wave itself, i.e. its surfability aspect. This presentation provides a high-level overview of the scientific process behind the creation of the Kelly Slater Wave Company basin in Lemoore, CA. Some details of the new and much larger wave basin opening in Abu Dhabi, where excess energy from the main wave is reformed and broken again providing a secondary surfing experience will also be discussed.
Biography: Adam Fincham is a Scientist, Engineer and an Entrepreneur. Dr. Fincham is currently the Chief Scientist and Engineer for the World Surf League’s (WSL) Kelly Slater Wave Company (KSWC). He is a Research Associate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC. He has successfully founded two technology companies and is the primary named inventor on dozens of US and International Patents.
Fincham’s research interests include; Geophysical Fluid dynamics, turbulence and vortex structures in stratified and/or rotating flows, advanced algorithms for Digital Particle Imaging Velocimetry, particle dynamics in turbulent flows with application to oceanic plankton ecosystems, sonic boom interactions with the ocean surface, turbulent combustions at high Reynolds numbers, surfing wave dynamics, wave erosion and Computational Fluid Mechanics approaches to resolving breaking waves.
Fincham is from the island of Jamaica, he obtained his PhD in 1994 at the University of Southern California and was Chargé de Recherche at the Laboratoire des Ecoulements Geophysiques et Industriels, CNRS-INPG, Universite Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble, France. From 1995-2004. He has close ties to the University of the West Indies in Kingston Jamaica and interacts with scientists there.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95892885119?pwd=QXZOZUhrcTJRYk5qZzZwVThrTytVZz09Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 252
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95892885119?pwd=QXZOZUhrcTJRYk5qZzZwVThrTytVZz09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
