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Events for April 25, 2016
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Moderating Factors in Predicting Substance Use: Listening to Therapists and Clients Interact
Mon, Apr 25, 2016 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paul C. Amrhein, Columbia University
Talk Title: Moderating Factors in Predicting Substance Use: Listening to Therapists and Clients Interact
Abstract: During psychotherapy, and motivational interviewing (MI), in particular, the counselor and client construct a conversation. Besides treatment-specific mechanisms invoked by the counselor (e.g., exploration of ambivalence), the content of this conversation is the result of well-learned discourse mechanisms entailing language fluency, communication skills, goal-directed motivation and social learning, shared by orparticular to these individuals. Shared discourse mechanisms can enable but disparate mechanisms can inhibit a conversation that reliably leads to improved treatment outcomes. Important in this regard is the extent of mutual speaker entrainment at phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic levels. The pragmatic level, specifically, speech acts, will be the focus of my talk, as I discuss how matches and mismatches in counselor and client discourse mechanisms can promote or derail the therapeutic conversation, triggering,e.g., client face management, that can skew the meaning and prognostic value of client talk, as a measure of therapeutic engagement and treatment outcomes. The Technical Hypothesis of MI posits that counselor verbal behavior indirectly influences unhealthy client behavior through increases in the strength or frequency of client change talk. Poorly understood, however, is whether or how counselor and client language indices (measured by MITI, MISC or DARNC coding schemes), as markers for discourse mechanisms, interact to determine the predictive value of client change talk.I will present findings of two recent MI training studies based on Swedish Corrections exit interviews and New York City community treatment sessions for substance abuse to demonstrate how and why change talk does not always lead to behavior change.To better understand how the MI conversation engages mechanisms of change, it is clearly important to understand when it doesnt.
Biography: Dr. Amrhein has attracted national and international attention for his research on motivational interviewing and the study of commitment language. He earned his PhD in Experimental Psychology and M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research has important implications for understanding and predicting changes in drug use. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University in New York and he holds a tenured faculty position in the Department of Psychology at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Dr. Amrhein also served on the faculty of the University of New Mexico, where he worked closely with Dr. William R. Miller on studies of motivational interviewing.
Host: Prof. Panayiotis Georgiou
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tanya Acevedo-Lam/EE-Systems
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Apr 25, 2016 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Bruce Wheeler, PhD, Emeritus Professor (University of Florida), Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Talk Title: Perspectives on BME: from Editorial Review of Papers to the Role of Informatics Technologies on the Future
Abstract:
TIPS FOR SCIENTIFIC WRITING AND WHAT EDITORS AND REVIEWERS ARE LOOKING FOR
This is a seminar aimed for students of all ages who wish to improve their writing skills for the purpose of publishing scientific papers. The presentation is a combination of two presentations available at the IEEE EMBS GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) site: http://www.gold.embs.org/resources.html, originally given by Michael Neuman and Bruce Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler relates a number of issues that are important to reviewers and editors which, if carefully considered, can greatly increase the odds of acceptance. He also gives a shortened version of the materials presented by Dr. Neuman on the classic structure of a scientific article.
Perspectives on Health Informatics
This talk gives and overview of the predominance, both current and future, of the field of biomedical and health informatics in shaping the future of health care delivery. Implicit is the argument that the future is exceptionally bright for biomedical engineers, especially those cross-trained in physiology and molecular biology on the one hand and computational science and engineering on the other. There will be growing application in genomic and molecular bioinformatics, as well as multiscale computational modeling of physiological systems. Still the greatest growth and employment will be in the medical and health informatics that are integral to the delivery of healthcare world wide, in both advanced and advancing nations. IEEE EMBS, like other computationally strong biomedical engineering societies, sees great growth for our members and students and is developing programs to help serve their needs.
Biography: Dr. Wheeler's research interests lie in the application of electrical engineering methodologies to neuroscience. His work influenced the development of neural spike sorting technologies, demonstrated that microelectrode array recording from brain slices was possible and productive, and has been a leader in the development of lithography to control cells, especially neurons, in culture. This work aims at basic science understanding of the behavior of small populations of neurons, in hopes of creating better insight into the functioning of the brain.
https://www.bme.ufl.edu/people/wheeler_bruce
Host: James Weiland
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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EE 598 Cyber-Physical Systems Seminar Series
Mon, Apr 25, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Joao Hespanha, UC Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Opportunities and Challenges in Control Systems arising from Ubiquitous Computation and Communication
Abstract: Advances in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design and fabrication have resulted in the availability of low-cost, low-power, small-sized devices that have significant computational power and are able to communicate wirelessly. In addition, advances in MEMS (Micro Electric Mechanical Systems) technology have resulted in wide availability of solid-state sensors and actuators. The net result is ubiquitous sensing, communication, and computation that can be incorporated into small low-power devices.
In this talk, I will discuss how the above-mentioned technological advances present important opportunities and interesting challenges for control system designers. To this effect, I will discuss how the introduction of digital communication in control loops gives rise to a need for new tools for the design and analysis of feedback control systems. I will also describe recent work demonstrating that feedback control based on on-line optimization is a viable approach to solve a wide range of control problem.
Biography: João P. Hespanha received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and applied science from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut in 1998. From 1999 to 2001, he was Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002, where he currently holds a Professor position with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prof. Hespanha is the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Executive Committee for the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB). Dr. Hespanha is the recipient of the Yale University's Henry Prentiss Becton Graduate Prize for exceptional achievement in research in Engineering and Applied Science, the 2005 Automatica Theory/Methodology best paper prize, the 2006 George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award, and the 2009 Ruberti Young Researcher Prize. Dr. Hespanha is a Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE distinguished lecturer from 2007 to 2013.
Dr. Hespanha's current research interests include hybrid and switched systems; multi-agent control systems; distributed control over communication networks (also known as networked control systems); the use of vision in feedback control; stochastic modeling in biology; and network security.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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Best Dissertation Symposium
Mon, Apr 25, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Doctoral Programs
Receptions & Special Events
Each year, the Viterbi School of Engineering's academic departments awards PhD candidates who submitted exceptional research dissertations the honor of Best Dissertation. Each PhD student who receives the Best Dissertation award will also be nominated to compete for the William F. Ballhaus, Jr. Prize for Excellence in Graduate Engineering Research. A faculty committee will review the dissertations, then narrow down the nominees to three finalists. The finalists will be invited to present their research at the Best Dissertation Symposium on April 25, 2016. From these nominees, a final winner will be selected.
RSVP requested via https://gapp.usc.edu/events/best-dissertation-symposium by April 21, 2016.
More information can be found at https://gapp.usc.edu/students/doctoral-students/awards/best-dissertation-symposiumLocation: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jennifer Gerson
