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Events for May 08, 2014
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PhD Defense - Paul Graham
Thu, May 08, 2014 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Title:
A Framework for High-Resolution, High-Fidelity, Inexpensive Facial Scanning
PhD Candidate: Paul Graham
Committee:
Paul Debevec (chair)
Gerard Medioni
Michelle Povinelli (outside member)
Hao Li
Abhijeet Ghosh
Abstract:
We present a framework for high-resolution, high-fidelity, inexpensive facial scanning. The framework combines the speed and cost of passive lighting scanning systems with the fidelity of active lighting systems. The subject is first scanned at the mesoscale, the scale of pores and fine wrinkles. The process is a near-instant method for acquiring facial geometry and reflectance with 24 DSLR cameras and ten flashes. The flashes are fired in rapid succession with subsets of the cameras, which are specially arranged to produce an even distribution of specular highlights on the face. The total capture time is less than the mechanical movement of the eyelid in the human blink reflex. We use this set of acquired images to estimate diffuse color, specular intensity, and surface orientation at each point on the face. With a single photo per camera, we optimize the facial geometry to maximize the consistency of diffuse reflection and minimize the variance of specular highlights using an energy-minimization message-passing technique. This allows the final sub-millimeter surface detail to be obtained via shape-from-specularity, even though every photo is from a different viewpoint. The final system uses commodity components and produces models suitable for generating high-quality digital human characters. The mesostructure is enhanced to include microgeometry through the scanning of skin patches around the face. We digitize the exemplar patches with a polarization-based computational illumination technique which considers specular reflection and single scattering. The recorded microstructure patches can be used to synthesize full-facial microstructure detail for either the same subject or a different subject with similar skin types. We show that the technique allows for greater realism in facial renderings including a more accurate reproduction of skin's specular reflection effects. A microstructure database is provided for easy cross-subject synthesis during the enhancement stage. Additionally, a multi-view camera calibration technique is introduced. This new technique can be accomplished with a single view from each camera of a cylinder wrapped in a checkerboard pattern. It is fast and resolves extrinsic and intrinsic camera parameters to a sub-pixel re-projection error.
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 322
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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CEE Oral Dissertation Defense
Thu, May 08, 2014 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Miguel Hernandez-Garcia, Astani CEE Ph.D. Students
Talk Title: Analytical and experimental studies in modeling and monitoring of uncertain nonlinear systems using data-driven reduced-order methods
Abstract:
Most of the available data-based methodologies developed for system identification and health monitoring of complex nonlinear systems can be considered to be deterministic in nature. These approaches use experimental measurements to characterize the complex systems by means of nominal mathematical (e.g., parametric or non-parametric) models, while neglecting the effects of aleatory and epistemic uncertainties that can be present in real structures. The inherent stochastic nature of the systemsââ¬â¢ components (i.e., randomness in structural, geometric and material properties); the variability in environmental and operational conditions; and the uncertainties associated with the modeling, measurement and data analysis process can lead to unreliable description and characterization of complex nonlinear systems. Consequently, in order to develop robust and reliable models of nonlinear systems, it is imperative to address the issues of quantification and propagation of uncertainties.
This dissertation compiles analytical and experimental studies focused on implementing, analyzing, and validating promising and robust data-driven methodologies to build high-fidelity reduced-order models of uncertain complex nonlinear systems. These data-based reduced-order methodologies were used in structural health monitoring applications, and in the modeling of critical structural components. Experimental datasets from dynamic tests performed in a small-scale lab structure at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); a re-configurable test structure designed, built, and tested at University of Southern California (USC); a scaled-down six-story steel-frame laboratory structure at the National Center for Research in Earthquake Engineering (NCREE); and a seven-story full-scale reinforced-concrete structure at the UCSD-NEES facilities, were used to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of the data-based reduced-order models for detecting, locating and quantifying structural changes. In addition, sensor fault-detection and identification techniques based on statistical monitoring using latent-variable techniques, were implemented and evaluated for detecting and identifying faulty sensors using measurements from an actual cable-supported bridge in the metropolitan Los Angeles (CA) region. Finally, a general methodology for developing probabilistic reduced-order models of critical structural components from experimental measurements was proposed. This methodology was used to develop a probabilistic data-based reduced-order model to characterize the mechanical behavior of a particular type of lap bolted joints with an inclined interface directly from experimental data obtained from dynamic tests performed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209 Conference Room
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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CREATE Seminar w/ Blake Cignarella & Laura Martinez
Thu, May 08, 2014 @ 01:30 PM - 03:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Blake Cignarella & Laura Martinez, CREATE Fellows
Talk Title: Presentation 1: American Airport Security: An Evaluation of the SPOT Program / Presentation 2: Two Years at CREATE: An Experience in Emergency Management and Community Preparedness
Series: CREATE Monthly Seminar Series
Abstract: PRESENTATION #1
Title: American Airport Security: An Evaluation of the SPOT Program
Abstract: Security initiatives allow people to travel and continue living their lives in the hazardous world in which we reside. Specifically, airports in the last decade have become intensely guarded against attacks and invaders that seek to do harm to the United States and its citizens since the attacks of 9/11.
Increase measures have been put in place to guard against terror through governmentally run aviation security programs, such as The Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program in airports. This program seeks to detect threatening behavior based on behavioral queues before passengers go through screening. Through this program passengers are visually inspected by a behavioral detection officer (BDO) to find threating behavior. Although successful in concept, in other countries such as Israel, SPOT has failed to prove to the U.S. Government Accountability Office it is effective in continuing to spend tax payerââ¬â¢s dollars. This study probes at the methodology of the SPOT program by finding the capacity of the process and its vulnerabilities.
PRESENTATION #2
Title: Two Years at CREATE: An Experience in Emergency Management and Community Preparedness
Abstract: Laura will discuss how she has spent her time at CREATE crafting a well-rounded experience focused on emergency management and community preparedness. Her talk will cover three separate topics. She will first discuss ââ¬ÅEmergency Education: A Case for Compulsory Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Curricula in Los Angeles County Schools,ââ¬Â arguing that although children are among the most vulnerable to disasters and emergencies, they are arguably also an apt and readily reachable audience. She will highlight international and domestic examples that have proven that children can become agents of change within their families and communities and act as first responders in their own right. Ultimately, she builds the case for school-based emergency education, an ideal way to decrease the individual vulnerability of LAââ¬â¢s children while increasing the Countyââ¬â¢s resilience.
She will then discuss her second year as a Fellow working for the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department as an Emergency Management Intern. In her work with the City, Laura gained extensive project management experience in functional, hazard-specific, and disabilities, access and functional needs plan writing. She was also heavily involved in other aspects of local level emergency management, such as interdepartmental and community collaboration, grant management, budgeting, and emergency operations center activities.
Finally, she will describe her work on CREATEââ¬â¢s current project to enhance Disaster Survivor Assistance Teamsââ¬â¢ faith-based outreach. She contributed Catholic-specific research, and job aids for Catholic interaction and general best practices.
Refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP to calicchi@usc.edu by May 6.
Biography: Presenter:
Blake Cignarella, a native of New Jersey, is a current University of Southern California graduate student and a fellow for the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE). She will be graduating with her masters and will be continuing her studies as a candidate in the doctors of philosophy program in Industrial Systems Engineering in the fall. During her tenure at CREATE she has developed interest in root cause analysis and improvement on security processes. Her employment with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority allowed her to contribute towards system security for crime on the rail lines, as well as police response timeââ¬â¢s improvement.
Blake graduated Magna Cum Laude and second in her class from Rutgers University, where she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Systems Engineering. She is an active member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honors Society. Diverse sectors of homeland security utilized Blakeââ¬â¢s talents, and added to her expertise, prior to the fall 2013 when she joined CREATE. Blakeââ¬â¢s team at the National Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce developed a Detection-Action-Resilience Strategy for Small Vessel Security in the Port of New York and New Jersey. She performed network modeling and parameter identification for Rutgersââ¬â¢ Command, Control and Interoperability Center through a grant from the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA); completing the statistical analysis and modeling for flood mitigation efforts which is currently under review for publishing.
Presenter:
Laura Martinez, originally from Sacramento, is a graduate student at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and a research fellow for the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE). In 2014, she will receive her Master of Public Administration degree and a certificate in homeland security and public policy. While at CREATE, Laura has focused on emergency management issues related to community preparedness, including K-12 education and faith based outreach. Her work with the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department has allowed her to broaden her emergency management background through grant management, plan writing, community and interdepartmental relations, GIS and project management. She hopes to continue working at the local level in the future, and is an active member of the Municipal Management Association of Southern California, the International City/County Management Association, and the International Association of Emergency Managers.
Laura graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and a minor in music from California State University, Sacramento, where she was also inducted into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Prior to coming to USC and CREATE in fall 2012, she served as a Capital Fellow under the Chief of Staff at the California Governorââ¬â¢s Office of Emergency Services, working on technology policy, special projects, and disaster response. She also worked for a nonpartisan non-profit in Washington, D.C., writing about both security and non-security related legislation to inform the California congressional delegation.
Host: CREATE at USC
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Pearson (Calicchio)
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PhD Defense - Juan P. Fasola
Thu, May 08, 2014 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Defense - Juan P. Fasola
Thursday, May 08, 2014 @ 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
RTH 406
Computer Science
PhD Candidate: Juan P. Fasola
Title:
Socially Assistive and Service Robotics for Older Adults:
Methodologies for Motivating Exercise and Following Spatial Language Instructions in Discourse
Committee:
Maja J Mataric' (chair)
Gaurav S. Sukhatme
Aaron Hagedorn (outside member)
Abstract:
The growing population of aging adults is increasing the demand for healthcare services worldwide. Socially assistive robotics (SAR) and service robotics have the potential to aid in addressing the needs of the growing elderly population by promoting health benefits, independent living, and improved quality of life. For such robots to become ubiquitous in real-world human environments, they will need to interact with and learn from non-expert users in a manner that is both natural and practical for the users. In particular, such robots will need to be capable of understanding natural language instructions in order to learn new tasks and receive guidance and feedback on task execution.
Research into SAR and service robotics-based solutions for non-expert users, and in particular older adults, that spans varied assistive tasks generally falls within one of two distinct areas: 1) robot-guided interaction, and 2) user-guided interaction. This dissertation contributes to both of these research areas.
To address robot-guided interaction, this dissertation presents the design methodology, implementation and evaluation details of a novel SAR approach to motivate and engage elderly users in simple physical exercise. The approach incorporates insights from psychology research into intrinsic motivation and contributes five clear design principles for SAR-based therapeutic interventions. To evaluate the approach and its effectiveness in gaining user acceptance and motivating physical exercise, it was implemented as an integrated system and three user studies were conducted with older adults, to investigate: 1) the effect of praise and relational discourse in the system towards increasing user motivation; 2) the role of user autonomy and choice within the interaction; and 3) the effect of embodiment in the system by comparing user evaluations of similar physically and virtually embodied SAR exercise coaches in addition to evaluating the overall SAR system.
To address user-guided interactions, specifically with non-expert users through the use of natural language instructions, this dissertation presents a novel methodology that allows service robots to interpret and follow spatial language instructions, with and without user-specified natural language constraints and/or unvoiced pragmatic constraints. This work contributes a general computational framework for the representation of dynamic spatial relations, with both local and global properties. The methodology also contributes a probabilistic approach in the inference of instruction semantics; a general approach for interpreting object pick-and-place tasks; and a novel probabilistic algorithm for the automatic extraction of contextually and semantically valid instruction sequences from unconstrained spatial language discourse, including those containing anaphoric reference expressions. The spatial language interpretation methodology was evaluated in simulation, on two different physical robot platforms, and in a user study conducted with older adults for validation with target users.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 406
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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Mork Family Department 2014 Alumni Reception & Dinner
Thu, May 08, 2014 @ 05:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Receptions & Special Events
Please join us to honor award recipients H.E. Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber (CEO, Masdar and Minister of State, UAE) and David Kilpatrick (President, Kilpatrick Energy Group).
Please RSVP by e-mailing halexand@usc.edu by April 30.More Information: Alumni invitation.pdf
Location: University Club Restaurant: 705 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, California 90089
Audiences: Department Only
Contact: Ryan Choi
