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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for September
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Sep 01, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John E. Mitchell, PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic University
Talk Title: A Convex Reformulation of Rank-constrained Optimization Problems
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Abstract: Low rank approximations are desirable in many settings. We show that the problem of minimizing a linear or convex quadratic objective function of a matrix subject to linear constraints and an upper bound on the rank is equivalent to a convex conic optimization problem. The reformulation first represents the problem as a semidefinite program with conic complementarity constraints and then lifts the problem to give an equivalent convex conic optimization problem. The rank-sparsity decomposition problem falls within our framework.
Biography: John Mitchell is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He earned a PhD in operations research from Cornell University. He has multiple publications on interior point column generation, semidefinite programming, mathematical programs with complementarity constraints, integer programming, and applications of optimization. His research is concerned with the interplay between different areas of optimization, for example using continuous optimization techniques to solve discrete optimization problems, or employing integer programming techniques to solve problems with complementarity constraints, or exploiting strong convex relaxations of nonconvex optimization problems. His applied optimization projects include the development of recovery plans for interdependent infrastructure systems after a disaster, scheduling sports leagues, path planning in robotics, and financial optimization.
Host: Dr. Jong-Shi Pang
More Information: September 1, 2015_John Mitchell.pdf
Location: 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Sep 02, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Takashi Tanaka, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: LQG Control with Minimal Information: Semidefinite Programming Approach
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Real-time decision-making procedures in general require continuous acquisition of information from the environment. In this talk, we revisit one of the most fundamental questions in real-time decision-making theory: what is the minimal information acquisition rate to achieve sequential decision-making with desired accuracy? We tackle this question using basic tools from control theory, information theory, and convex optimization theory. Specifically, we consider a Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) control problem where Massey's directed information from the state sequence to the control sequence is taken into account. We show that the most "information-frugal" decision-making policy achieving desired LQG control performance admits an attractive three-stage separation structure comprised of (1) an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, (2) Kalman filter, and (3) a certainty equivalence controller. We also show that an optimal policy can be synthesized using a numerically efficient algorithm based on semidefinite programming (SDP).
Biography: Takashi Tanaka received his B.S. degree from Tokyo University in 2006, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009 and 2012, all in Aerospace Engineering. Currently, he is a postdoctoral associate at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the joint area of control, optimization, game theory and information theory.
Host: Dr. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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Computer Engineering Seminar
Fri, Sep 04, 2015 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yiorgos Makris, University of Texas at Dallas
Talk Title: Applications of Machine Learning in the Design of Trusted and Reliable Analog/RF ICs
Abstract: As electronics continue to penetrate every facet of contemporary life, the analog/RF integrated circuit (IC) market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with its current annual value standing at over $45B. With application domains mainly in wireless communications, real-time control, remote sensing, automotive and health, ensuring reliability and trustworthiness of analog/RF integrated circuits becomes paramount. This seminar elucidates the role that machine learning and statistical analysis can play towards this end. Specifically, we will discuss (i) a classification-based test method for testing whether the performances of a fabricated analog/RF IC meet its specifications, (ii) a regression-based calibration method for tuning the performances of each fabricated device through the use of on-chip knobs in order to increase yield, (iii) a statistical side-channel fingerprinting method for detecting malicious circuit inclusions (a.k.a. hardware Trojans) in wireless cryptographic ICs, and (iv) the design of on-chip analog neural networks for enabling post-deployment built-in self-test, self-repair and self-trust evaluation. Results will be provided using industrial test data and measurements from custom-designed analog/RF ICs.
Biography: Yiorgos received the Diploma of Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1995 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from UC San Diego, in 1998 and 2001, respectively. After spending a decade on the faculty of Yale University, he joined UT Dallas where he is now a Professor of Electrical Engineering, leading the Trusted and RELiable Architectures (TRELA) Research Laboratory. His research focuses on applications of machine learning and statistical analysis in the development of trusted and reliable integrated circuits and systems, with particular emphasis in the analog/RF domain. He is the 2016 general chair and was the 2013-2014 program chair of the IEEE VLSI Test Symposium as well as the 2010-2012 program chair of the Test Technology Educational Program (TTEP). He is an associate editor of the IEEE Design & Test periodical and the Springer Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory and Applications, and served as a guest editor for the IEEE Trans. on Computers and the IEEE Trans. on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, and as a topic coordinator and/or program committee member for several IEEE and ACM conferences. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a recipient of the 2006 Sheffield Distinguished Teaching Award and a recipient of the Best Paper Award from the 2013 Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE'13) conference. His research activities have been supported by NSF, ARO, SRC, DARPA, Boeing, IBM, LSI, Intel, and Texas Instruments.
Host: Prof. Sandeep Gupta
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 349
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Sep 04, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Josephy Bardin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Talk Title: BiCMOS Circuits for Ultra Sensitive Scientific Sensor Systems
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar
Abstract: In a variety of critical scientific fields, the highest performance instrumentation exploits cryogenically cooled electronics to achieve levels of performance far beyond what is feasible using room temperature electronics. For example, the free-space optical communications link-”currently under development by NASA for Gbps communication with spacecraft-”requires the use of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPD) operating at 1 K physical temperature to achieve sufficient earth terminal sensitivity. While much research has been focused on novel device technologies to enable new and more sensitive scientific instrumentation, limited work has focused on the use of semiconductor circuits to optimize the performance of these systems. In this talk, we will describe our research efforts in ultra-sensitive cryogenically cooled SiGe BiCMOS electronics for scalable scientific instruments. The talk will begin with a review of the physics and performance of SiGe HBTs at deep cryogenic temperatures (e.g., 4 K) and a discussion of challenges encountered by designers targeting this unconventional temperature range. We will then present the design, characterization, and system impact of novel circuits for a variety of applications ranging from THz focal plane arrays for radio astronomy to detector systems for quantum optics.
Biography: Joseph Bardin received the BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCSB, UCLA, and Caltech in 2003, 2005, and 2009, respectively. From 2003-2005, he was with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In the Spring of 2011, he joined the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an Assistant Professor. His research group explores a broad range of topics in the field of high-frequency circuit design ranging from device modeling to the implementation of sophisticated integrated circuits. He is the recipient of a 2011 DARPA Young Faculty Award, a 2014 NSF CAREER Award, and a 2015 ONR YIP Award.
Host: Hosted by Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam. Organized and hosted by SungWon Chung.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elise Herrera-Green
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NL Seminar-How Much Information Does a Human Translator Add to the Original?
Fri, Sep 04, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Barret Zoph, USC/ISI
Talk Title: How Much Information Does a Human Translator Add to the Original?
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: We ask how much information a human translator adds to an original text, and we provide a bound. We address this question in the context of bilingual text com- pression: given a source text, how many bits of additional information are required to specify the target text produced by a human translator? We develop new compression algorithms and establish a benchmark task.
Host: Nima Pourdamghani and Kevin Knight
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: 6th Flr Conf Rm # 689, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Sep 07, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: NO SEMINAR, LABOR DAY, NO SEMINAR, LABOR DAY
Talk Title: NO SEMINAR, LABOR DAY
Host: NO SEMINAR, LABOR DAY
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Seminars in Biomedical EngineeringMon, Sep 07, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: J. Andrew Mackay, PhD., Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences & BME
Talk Title: BME Faculty Research Areas
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Biography: https://pharmacyschool.usc.edu/faculty/profile/?id=249
Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Sep 08, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jack Xin, PhD, University of California, Irvine
Talk Title: Minimizing the Difference of L1 and L2 Norms and Applications
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Abstract: L1 norm minimization is the widely used convex method for enforcing sparsity in signal recovery and model selection. In this talk, we introduce a non-convex Lipschitz continuous function, the difference of L1 and L2 norms (DL12), and discuss its sparsity promoting properties. Using examples in compressed sensing and imaging, we show that there can be plenty of gain beyond L1 by minimizing DL12 at a moderate level of additional computation via the difference of convex function algorithms. We draw connection of DL12 with penalty functions in statistics and machine learning, and remark on future research.
Biography: Jack Xin has been Professor of Mathematics at UC Irvine since 2005. He received his Ph.D in applied mathematics at Courant Institute, New York University in 1990. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley and Princeton in 1991 and 1992. He was assistant and associate professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona from 1991 to 1999. He was professor of mathematics from 1999 to 2005 at the University of Texas at Austin.
His research interests include applied analysis, computational methods and their applications in multi-scale problems, sparse optimization, and data science. He authored over hundred journal papers and two Springer books. He is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Mathematical Society. He is Editor-in-Chief of Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Interdisciplinary Journal Multi-scale Modeling & Simulation (MMS).
Host: Dr. Jong-Shi Pang
More Information: September 8, 2015_Jack Xin.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Sep 09, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuri Bazilevs, Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of California at San Diego
Talk Title: Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction: Methods Developed and Advanced Simulations Performed
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: The presentation is focused on the computational framework that involves coupling of fluid and structural mechanics, where structures undergo large deformations. The formulation of fluid mechanics on the moving domain is presented, and efficient solution strategies for the underlying linear equation systems are discussed. A framework for computational fluid-structure interaction (FSI) based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation is presented. Basics of Isogeometric Analysis are also shown. The fluid-structure interface discretization is assumed to be nonmatching allowing for the coupling of standard finite-element and isogeometric discretizations for the fluid and structural mechanics parts of the FSI problem, respectively. FSI coupling strategies and their implementation in the high-performance parallel computing environment are also discussed, and computational challenges presented. Applications ranging from cardiovascular mechanics to full-scale offshore wind turbines are presented.
Biography: Prof. Bazilevs received his PhD from the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin in 2006, and he is currently a Full Professor and Vice Chair in Department of Structural Engineering at University of California, San Diego. He has published nearly 100 archival journal papers on computational fluid and solid/structural mechanics, and fluid-“structure interaction. He coauthored a book on isogeometric analysis, a methodology that is now widely used in computational mechanics. He also coauthored a book on computational fluid-structure interaction. He is an Associate Editor of Elsevier journal Computers and Fluids and Assistant Editor of Springer journal Computational Mechanics for the manuscripts on computational fluid mechanics and fluid-structure interaction.
Host: Prof. Roger Ghanem
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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High-resolution Imaging of Myocardial Blood Flow: Enabling Techniques Using First-Pass MRI and Potential Clinical Applications
Thu, Sep 10, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Behzad Sharif, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Talk Title: High-resolution Imaging of Myocardial Blood Flow
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: This talk will cover recent technical advances in MRI methods for assessing blood flow to the heart muscle. I will discuss non-Cartesian data sampling strategies and pulse sequences that mitigate image artifacts and improve the reliability of blood flow measurements across different myocardial layers. I will also discuss image reconstruction techniques that use time-varying sparsity constraints (adaptive compressed sensing). Finally, I will discuss recent translational/clinical studies using these methods.
Biography: Behzad Sharif is an Assistant Professor at the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, under Yoram Bresler. His current research focuses on the development of cardiovascular MRI methods that enable quantification of dynamics in the cardiovascular system, with the goal of addressing unresolved challenges in clinical cardiology. He received the 2013 Early Career Award from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, a national Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association, and a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Host: Professor Krishna Nayak
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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NL Seminar-Neuromorphic Language Understanding
Fri, Sep 11, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Guido Zarella, MITRE Corporation
Talk Title: Neuromorphic Language Understanding
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Recurrent neural networks are effective tools for processing natural language. RNNs can be effectively trained to perform sequence processing tasks such as translation, classification, language modeling, and paraphrase detection. However despite major gains in fields related to these power hungry artificial neural networks, it remains difficult to construct functional models of cognition inspired by biological nervous systems. In this talk I'll describe how RNNs can be trained to excel at language understanding tasks and then adapted to run on ultra-low power neuromorphic hardware which simulates the spiking of individual neurons. The result is an interactive embedded system that uses recurrent neural networks to process language while consuming an estimated .000048 watts (48 microwatts).
Biography: Guido Zarrella is a Principal Artificial Intelligence Engineer at the MITRE Corporation in Denver, Colorado. He leads a R&D effort pursuing advances in deep learning for language understanding. He is a former President of the Association for Computational Linguistics, having served in this role on December 5th, 201
Host: Nima Pourdamghani and Kevin Knight
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 6th Flr Conf Rm # 689, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Computer Science 2015 Retreat
Sat, Sep 12, 2015
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Speakers to be Announced, USC Computer Science
Talk Title: Talks, Meetings to be Announced
Abstract: Details coming soon
Host: Computer Science Department
More Info: http://www.cs.usc.edu/news/events/2015csretreat.htm
Location: JW Marriott Los Angeles LA Live
Audiences: Registration Required
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
Event Link: http://www.cs.usc.edu/news/events/2015csretreat.htm
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Computer Science 2015 Retreat
Sun, Sep 13, 2015
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Speakers to be Announced, USC Computer Science
Talk Title: Talks, Meetings to be Announced
Abstract: Details coming soon
Host: Computer Science Department
More Info: http://www.cs.usc.edu/news/events/2015csretreat.htm
Location: JW Marriott Los Angeles LA Live
Audiences: Registration Required
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
Event Link: http://www.cs.usc.edu/news/events/2015csretreat.htm
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Sep 14, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Krishna Nayak, PhD (Professor in Electrical Engineering & BME); Bartlett Mel, PhD (Associate Professor in BME); Keyue Shen, PhD (Assistant Professor in BME); Natasha Lepore, PhD (Assistant Professor of Research Radiology),
Talk Title: BME Faculty Research Areas
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Biography: Professor Krishna Nayak, PhD
http://sipi.usc.edu/~knayak/
Professor Bartlett Mel, PhD
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/bartlett-w-mel/
Professor Keyue Shen, PhD
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/keyue-shen/
Professor Natasha Lepore, PhD
http://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/natasha.lepore
Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Sep 15, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Andrew Liu, PhD, Purdue University
Talk Title: Convergent Decentralized Algorithms for Certain Nash Equilibrium Problems
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Dr. Suvrajeet Sen
More Information: September 15, 2015_Andrew Liu.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Wed, Sep 16, 2015
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
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).
This course is available on-campus and online.
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Sep 16, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mahdi Soltanolkotabi, Assistant Professor, USC
Talk Title: Structured signal recovery without the shackles of convexity
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Many problems in science and engineering ask for solutions to underdetermined systems of linear equations. The last decade has witnessed a flurry of activity in understanding when and how it is possible to solve such problems using convex programming. Structured signal recovery via convex methods has arguably revolutionized signal acquisition, enabling signals to be measured with remarkable fidelity using a small number of measurements. In this talk I will argue that the over insistence on convex methods has stymied progress in this field. I will review my past and ongoing research efforts to "unshackle" structured signal recovery from the confines of convexity opening the door for new applications. This is based on joint work with collaborators who shall be properly introduced during the talk.
Biography: Dr. Soltanolkotabi obtained his B.S. in electrical engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2009. He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 2011 and 2014, respectively, under the supervision of Emmanuel Candes. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley from August 2014 - August 2015. He joined the EE Department at USC in 2015 as an assistant professor.
Host: Dr. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Sep 16, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Al Bowers, Senior Aerodynamicist, NASA Dryden
Talk Title: Spanload Implications for the Flight of Birds: On the Minimum Induced Drag of Wings
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: Birds do not require the use of vertical tails. They do not appear to have any mechanism by which to control yaw. The solution requires aerodynamic efficiency, minimum structural weight, and for coordination of roll and yaw. Until now the solution has eluded researchers, and remained unknown. The solution has far reaching effects on the design of aircraft and promises efficiency improvement. This solution requires discarding the elliptical spanload. The new solution uses a three-dimensional downwash and is manipulated by birds to control roll and yaw with superior aerodynamic performance and minimum structure.
Biography: Al Bowers is the Chief Scientist at the NASA Neil A Armstrong Flight Research Center located at Edwards Air Force Base. Al spent 20 years as a research aerodynamicist and as chief engineer of many aircraft projects including the NASA F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle, the NASA SR-71s, and the NASA Kelly Eclipse Aerotow F-106 project. Al was an aerodynamicist on the F-8 Oblique Wing, the X-30 National Aerospace Plane, and the X-29 Forward Swept Wing. Al has also served at NASA Armstrong as the Chief of Aerodynamics, the Deputy Director of Research, the Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Aeronautics in Washington DC, the Director of Aeronautics Projects, and now as the Chief Scientist. He has been awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal. Al has spent 20 years working on the problem of flying wings, and how birds are able to fly without vertical tails.
Host: Prof. Geoffrey Spedding
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Wed, Sep 16, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 04:50 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Auroop Gunguly, Associate Professor of CE Northeatern University, Boston
Talk Title: Climate Extremes Impacts on Critical Infrastructures and Key Resources
Abstract: Weather and hydrological extremes exhibit what has been called nonstationarity with deep uncertainty under the backdrop of natural climate variability and global climate change. Non stationary trends and patterns motivate fundamental changes in hazards preparedness, infrastructures operations, resource management, engineering design and sustainable planning. Deep uncertainties may be epistemic and aleatory, or inherent systemic variability, which challenge traditional design and planning principles based on likelihood based risks. Critical infrastructures and key resources, ranging from urban lifelines, global logistics chains, and coastal ecosystems, to hydraulic structures, and the water-energy nexus, are under increasing stress from climate extremes, as well as changes in population and economy. The growing interconnected nature of these systems may exacerbate their fragility to disruptions and change. Data, computational and network science methods offer innovative ways to characterize the robustness of these interdependent systems and develop effective restoration strategies. A quick summary of prior research by the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab) of Northeastern University is presented. This includes intensifying heat waves together with persisting cold snaps, changes in design curves based on evolving statistics of precipitation extremes, meteorological droughts and wind extremes, coastal upwelling and ecosystems restoration, climate networks and teleconnections as well as sensor diagnostics and transportation security. Case studies in hazards resilience of transportation infrastructures and water stress on power production highlight how climate change acts as a threat multiplier and how data and network science can help guide adaptation and resilience.
Biography: uroop R. Ganguly is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Northeastern University in Boston since August 2011, where he directs the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory. He has seven years experience at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, about five years at Oracle Corporation and a year at a best of breed startup subsequently acquired by Oracle, besides several years as visiting and joint faculty. He has published in Nature, PNAS, Nature Climate Change, Nature's Scientific Reports and in journals related to climate change, water resources, nonlinear dynamics, civil and electrical engineering, supply chain, statistics and computer science. He has won multiple best paper awards at peer-reviewed computer science conferences and workshops, co-invented two (pending) patents, and published edited books on Knowledge Discovery from Sensor Data. He is an associate editor of AGU's Water Resources Research and the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, and on the editorial board of Nature's Scientific Reports.
Host: Dr. Kelly Sanders
Location: 200
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Thu, Sep 17, 2015
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
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).
This course is available on-campus and online.
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Distinguished Lecture: Megan Robertson
Thu, Sep 17, 2015 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Megan Robertson, Univ. of Houston
Talk Title: Biorenewable Polymers for Energy and the Environment
Series: MFD Distinguished Lecture
Abstract: A great challenge to overcome is the replacement of traditional petroleum-based plastics with polymers derived from sustainable, alternative resources. Though there are many facets to the design of truly sustainable materials, including the raw material source, energy demands of processing, and fate of the material post-consumer use, utilization of a more ecofriendly raw material source is an important first step. Ultimately, the full life cycle of the materials must be evaluated, including end-of-life options such as recycling, composting, and disposal in landfills. Of particular interest to our research group is the design of structured polymers from sustainable, plant-derived sources with well-defined molecular characteristics and competitive properties to conventional, petroleum-derived materials. We are developing a diverse array of polymers derived from plant sources spanning many classes of materials, such as thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, and elastomers. The raw material sources that we have employed are vegetable oils (such as soybean and castor oils), plant sugars, biobased phenolic acids (found in fruits and vegetables), and rosin acids (found in conifers).
Vegetable oils are an attractive source for polymers, due to their low cost, abundance, annual renewability, and ease of functionalization. Long-chain polyacrylates derived from vegetable oilbased fatty acids have been investigated as components of thermoplastic elastomers, polymers which behave as an elastomer at room temperature yet are processable at elevated temperatures. The thermal and mechanical behavior of the polymers can be readily tuned through variation of the alkyl chain length of the fatty acid.
Phenolic acids are sustainable, plant-derived chemicals found in a variety of natural sources such as the skins, seeds, and leaves of fruits and vegetables. Phenolic acids are advantageous sources for polymers due to their aromatic rings, which provide mechanical strength, and the presence of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, which provide routes to polymerization. Two classes of materials were investigated derived from phenolic acids: soft thiol-ene elastomeric networks (appropriate for applications such as coatings and adhesives) and epoxy resins (found in a variety of composite materials, such as wind turbine blades). Fundamental relationships
between the molecular structure of the phenolic acids and the thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting polymers have been developed.
Host: Prof. Malancha Gupta
More Information: DLSRobertsonAb.pdf
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jason Ordonez
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Astronautical Engineering Seminar
Thu, Sep 17, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Astronautical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Firouz Naderi, Director for Solar System Exploration, NASA-JPL
Talk Title: Designing an Architecture for Human Journey to Mars
Abstract: Refreshments will be served before the seminar.
Biography: Dr. Firouz Naderi is the Director for Solar System Exploration at NASA's JPL where he is responsible for the Cassini mission at Saturn, Dawn mission at the dwarf planet Ceres, Juno mission on its way to Jupiter, InSight lander being prepared for launch to Mars and the Clipper mission being formulated to explore Europa's ocean for life.
He has previously served as NASA's Mars Program manager and the Associate Director of JPL for project formulation and strategy.
Dr. Naderi is a Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and recipient of a number of awards including NASA's Leadership Medal, and NASA's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal.
Host: Dan Erwin
More Information: FirouzNaderi-Seminar-2015-09-17.pdf
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Dan Erwin
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Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement
Fri, Sep 18, 2015
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
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).
This course is available on-campus and online.
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-green-belt-process-improvement
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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AI SEMINAR
Fri, Sep 18, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Philipp Singer, post doc (GESIS) in Cologne (Germany)
Talk Title: Comparing Hypotheses about Human Trails on the Web
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: When users interact with the Web today, they leave sequential digital trails on a massive scale. Examples of such human trails include Web navigation, sequences of online restaurant reviews, or online music play lists. Understanding the factors that drive the production of these trails can be useful for e.g., improving underlying network structures, predicting user clicks or enhancing recommendations. In this talk, I present a general approach called HypTrails for comparing a set of hypotheses about human trails on the Web, where hypotheses represent beliefs about transitions between states. The approach utilizes Bayesian inference and the core idea is to incorporate hypotheses as priors into the inference process and utilize the sensitivity of Bayes factors on the prior for gaining insights into the relative plausibility of hypotheses. I will also present results from empirical experiments studying several different kinds of human trails such as (i) human navigational trails, (ii) online editing trails or (iii) human mobility trails.
Biography: Dr. Philipp Singer is a post doctoral researcher at the Computational Social Science Department of the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS) in Cologne (Germany). Philipp is interested in data science, statistics with a focus on Bayesian statistics, machine learning and web science. In the past few years, Philipp has been mainly concerned with modeling aspects of human trails on the Web. Human trails can emerge by any kind of human interaction with the Web such as the navigation of websites. In detail, he has been dedicated to provide tools that facilitate future research concerned with the study of regularities, patterns and strategies in human trails on the Web. Philipp has published his work in top-tier conferences and journals such as WWW, ISWC, CIKM or IJHCS.
Host: Kristina Lerman
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=21f9e396f7834b709900db913153f91f1dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 689
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=21f9e396f7834b709900db913153f91f1d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute
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Munushian Seminar
Fri, Sep 18, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dan M. Goebel, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Talk Title: The Asteroid Retrieval Robotic Mission using High Power Electric Propulsion
Abstract: Recent splashes in the media about asteroid mining by two new companies backed by celebrities is based on a real idea by John Brophy of JPL: retrieve all or part of an asteroid and bring it close enough to Earth using advanced, high power electric propulsion to easily send astronauts out to mine it. The same mission may also investigate deflecting an asteroid in anticipation that an ARMAGEDDON-like killer asteroid is found headed toward Earth. A recent study at the Keck Institute at Caltech backed by further work by NASA has investigated robotically capturing and returning a near-earth asteroid (NEA) to various Earth and lunar orbits for study by astronauts and potentially mining by commercial ventures. Moving an asteroid up to several meters in diameter weighing nearly 500,000 kg is a daunting task, but not impossible. Studies show that recent breakthroughs in high power electric thrusters at JPL and the possibility of large area, high voltage solar arrays directly driving these thrusters makes the concept of rearranging the solar system feasible. The ideas behind asteroid retrieval and mining, novel direct drive electric thrusters, and capturing and studying NEA by astronauts in the vicinity of the moon will be explored and described.
Biography: Dan M. Goebel received a B.S. in physics, an M.S. in electrical engineering, and a Ph.D. in applied plasma physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1977, 1978 and 1981 respectively. He is a Senior Research Scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an Adj. Prof. of Electrical Engineering at USC and an Adj. Prof. of Aerospace Engineering at UCLA. At JPL he is responsible for the development of high efficiency ion and Hall thrusters and advanced components such as cathodes and grids. Previously he was a Research Scientist at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, CA and Principal Scientist at Hughes/Boeing EDD in Torrance, CA where he was the supervisor of the Advanced Technology Group for microwave tube development and the lead scientist of the XIPS ion thruster program for commercial satellite station keeping. Dr. Goebel is a membe3r of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the AIAA, Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). He is the author of over 125 technical journal papers, 150 conference papers, one book entitled Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters published in 2008, and holds 43 patents.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Sep 21, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Arek Gertych ((Research Adjunct Assistant Professor, Cedars Sinai); James Finley (Assistant Professor in Biokinesiology, Physical Therapy & BME); Terry Sanger (Provost Associate Professor of BME, Neurology & BKN); Amir Kashani (Asst. Professor),
Talk Title: BME Faculty Research Areas
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Biography: Professor Arek Gertych, PhD
http://bio.csmc.edu/view/15048/Arkadiusz-Gertych.aspx
Professor James Finley, PhD
http://pt.usc.edu/jfinley/
Professor Terry Sanger, MD, PhD
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/terence-sanger/
Professor Amir Kashani, MD,PhD
http://www.keckmedicine.org/doctor/amir-kashani/
Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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How Voice Quality Works Articulatorily
Mon, Sep 21, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John H. Esling,Professor Emeritus , Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria
Talk Title: How Voice Quality Works Articulatorily
Abstract: The Laryngeal Articulator Model is a novel phonetic view of the vocal tract and the foundation for a revised theory of voice quality. The vocal folds, ventricular folds, aryepiglottic folds, epilaryngeal tube, and larynx height have been shown to be responsible for the generation of multiple types of periodic vibration and complex modification of the pharyngeal resonating chamber, accounting for a wide range of contrastive auditory qualities in the languages of the world. Instrumental phonetic images, drawn from laryngoscopy, ultrasound, and cineradiography illustrate states of the larynx, phonation types, and linguistic exemplars from a range of language families, and measurements leading to multimedia 3D modelling of the larynx within the vocal tract are presented. Canonical voice quality categories are illustrated auditorily with videos of well-known speakers and musical performers.
The model has implications for theories of speech acquisition and sound change. The Laryngeal Articulator is the principal mechanism that infants first learn to control as they test and practice their phonetic production skills from birth through the first several months of life. The auditor acoustic cues generated in the pharynx in the wide range of languages we have observed experimentally are the same elements of sound production observed in early infancy. The infant vocalization data illustrate that laryngeal quality is primal, that control of the articulatory and acoustic cues of speech originate in the pharynx, and that the acquisition of the ability to produce manners of articulation spreads from the pharynx in a process that parallels and complements the ability of infants to discriminate speech-sound categories perceptually. Laryngeal coarticulation is shown to be an endemic element of speech acquisition. Implications extend to the re-evaluation of how the human speech capacity evolved and to the modelling of speech.
Host: Prof. Shirkanth Narayanan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Sep 22, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mahdi Soltanolkotabi, PhD, Department of Electrical Engineering -“ Systems, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Solving Quadratic Equations via Non-convex Optimization: Theory and Algorithms
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Dr. Jong-Shi Pang
More Information: September 22, 2015_Mahdi Soltanolkotabi.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Behavioral Signal Processing
Wed, Sep 23, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Matthew P. Black, Research Computer Scientist, ISI-USC
Talk Title: Behavioral Signal Processing
Abstract: Understanding human behavior is a central goal of many fields in human-centered science and engineering. This includes not only understanding how people move, communicate, and interact, but also understanding how people judge human behavior. Human judgments on behavior occur everywhere (e.g., everyday life, educational settings, human-centered research, clinical/medical settings) and are an important part of interpersonal interactions and many assessment and intervention designs. While people have evolved to be adept at processing behavioral information, there are some basic challenges. Human descriptions on behaviors are oftentimes qualitative, and there is natural variability between people's judgments due to the subjective nature of the judgment process. These challenges present many exciting research opportunities for high-impact signal processing work that supports and enhances human decision-making with machine decision-making. Automatic engineering methods may be better suited at quantifying aspects of human behavior (e.g., a speaker's pitch) and could provide an invaluable ancillary in some cases and enable novel insights in others.
In this talk, I will discuss the emerging field of Behavioral Signal Processing (BSP), which entails the development of computational methods that model abstract human behaviors in real-life scenarios. Specifically, I will describe how we automatically quantified and predicted human subjective judgments on human behavior from speech signals in the context of three societally-significant domain applications explored in my Ph.D. dissertation: education (children's literacy assessment), family studies (couples therapy research), and health (autism diagnosis). I will describe the unique technical challenges in BSP (e.g., multiple sources of variability, including heterogeneity of the human behavior and subjectivity in human perception) and highlight the technological contributions of this work. Finally, I will end the talk with ongoing and intended future work and discuss how these research efforts can make an impact by being employed in real-life applications.
Biography: Matthew P. Black received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering (EE) with highest distinction and thesis honors from The Pennsylvania State University in 2005, with minors in Mathematics and Physics. While a member of the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory, directed by Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan, he received his M.S. (2007) and Ph.D. (2012) in EE from the University of Southern California (USC). Matthew is currently a research computer scientist at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI). From 2012-2014, he worked as a freelance technical consultant in speech and language processing and as an actuary at Farmers Insurance Group, Los Angeles, CA. In the summer of 2007, Matthew was a graduate research intern at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in the Human Language Technologies Dept., Yorktown, NY.
Matthew's research interests are in behavioral signal processing (BSP) and informatics, human-centered engineering, speech and language processing, automatic speech recognition and assessment, computational paralinguistics, emotion recognition, affective computing, multi-person interaction modeling, human-computer interaction, pattern recognition, machine learning, and societally-significant applications of technology. He is a member of IEEE and ISCA and a member of the honors societies: Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu. Matthew was an EE Ming Hsieh Institute Ph.D. Scholar at USC (2011-2012) and was awarded the Alfred E. Mann Innovation in Engineering Doctoral Fellowship (2010-2012), the Simon Ramo Fellowship (2009-2010), and the Dean's Fellowship (2005-2009) at USC. He won the Best Student Paper Award for the Ming Hsieh Dept. of EE at USC (2010-2011), the ISCA Interspeech Best Paper Award (2010), and was a multi-year winning team member of the ISCA Interspeech Computational Paralinguistics Challenge Award (2011, 2014, 2015). Matthew has authored or co-authored 40 refereed journal, conference, and workshop publications.
Host: Professor Sandeep Gupta, sandeep@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Sep 23, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Majid Zamani, Technische Universität München
Talk Title: When Lyapunov meets Church, automated synthesis of complex systems emerges
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Software plays a crucial role in many everyday applications. Modern vehicles and airplanes, for instance, use interacting software and hardware components to control steering, fuel injection, and airbag deployment. These applications are examples of cyber-physical systems (CPS), where software components interact tightly with physical systems. Recent advances in device manufacturing, computation, storage, and networking have made tremendous advances in hardware and systems platforms for CPS. However, the development of core software controllers that run on these systems is still ad hoc and error-prone. Many CPS applications are safety-critical, and much of the engineering costs today are consumed with ensuring that software works correctly. In this talk, I will proposes a transformative design process, in which the controller code is automatically synthesized from higher-level correctness requirements. Requirements for modern CPS applications go beyond conventional requirements in control theory (stability, synchronization, and tracking) and beyond traditional protocol design in computer science. Accordingly, I will propose unified methodologies for automatic controller synthesis by combining techniques from discrete systems theory from computer science with continuous dynamical systems from control theory. The proposed automated synthesis of correct-by-construction controllers holds the potential to develop complex yet reliable CPS applications while considerably reducing verification and validation costs.
Biography: Majid Zamani is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technische Universität München where he leads the Hybrid Control Systems Group. He received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and an MA degree in Mathematics both from University of California, Los Angeles in 2012, an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2007, and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in 2005. From September 2012 to December 2013, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Delft Centre for Systems and Control at Delft University of Technology. Between December 2013 and May 2014, he was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology.
Host: Prof. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Sep 23, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Todd Coleman, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California at San Diego
Talk Title: Towards Advancing Health with Flexible Multi-Functional Electronics and Efficient Inference Architectures
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: Dr. Coleman will discuss his research group's efforts in developing flexible multi-functional electronics and scalable inference tools to provide vulnerability profiles and decision support tools for improved clinical decision-making. The advancement of wearable, "tattoo-like" flexible electronics will be discussed, with an emphasis on new fabrication approaches compatible with scalable industry-adopted fabrication methods. Dr. Coleman will also introduce novel inference and decision support methods, which lie at the intersection of statistics, optimization theory, and large scale computing. These algorithms, which build upon the theory of optimal transport and Bayesian inference, will be demonstrated both in the cloud and in energy-efficient integrated circuit architectures. Dr. Coleman will emphasize the importance of transforming "big data" into "small, relevant" data for improvised decision making. Example partnership with clinicians on these endeavors will be provided within the context of perinatal health and chronic disease management. Throughout the talk, Dr. Coleman will emphasize the inter-disciplinary nature of this research, involving researchers from applied mathematics to electrical engineering to bioengineering to medicine.
Host: Prof. Paul Newton
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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Environnmental Engineering Seminar
Fri, Sep 25, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jason Dadakis, Orange County Water District
Talk Title: Groundwater Resource Management in California: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Drinking Recycled Sewage
Host: Amy Childress
More Information: Dadakis Announcement.pdf
Location: 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Viterbi Career Conference
Fri, Sep 25, 2015 @ 01:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBD, TBD
Talk Title: Viterbi Career Conference
Abstract: The Viterbi Career Conference, designed specifically for Viterbi undergraduates, takes place once each fall. The conference provides an invaluable opportunity for all students, freshmen through seniors, to develop job search skills and to connect with company representatives and alumni.
More Information Can Be Found Here
Host: Viterbi Career Connections
Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - Grand Ballroom
Audiences: All Viterbi Undergraduate Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Sep 25, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. John A. McNeill, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Talk Title: Fundamental Limits on Noise Performance of VCO-Based ADCs
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar
Abstract: Low-cost energy-efficient analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are needed in many rapidly growing mixed-signal application areas such as wireless communication, autonomously powered sensing and monitoring nodes, and implanted biomedical devices for assistive technology. In systems constrained by battery power or scavenged energy limits, ADC energy efficiency as expressed by the fJ/step figure-of-merit is a critical design driver. Scaling of CMOS to nanometer dimensions has enabled dramatic improvement in digital power efficiency; however, most traditionally dominant ADC architectures are not well suited to the lower supply voltage environment. The improvement in time resolution enabled by increased digital speeds naturally drives design toward time-domain ADC architectures such as voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) based ADCs. Despite much recent work on techniques to improve SNR performance, the overhead of additional circuitry to mitigate VCO nonlinearity imposes a power penalty that has until now kept efficiency performance far above the minimum capability of the VCO-based approach. This talk will begin with a brief overview of the VCO-based approach and previous techniques to improve linearity in VCO-based ADCs. Next, the talk covers application of the "split ADC" architecture to enable lookup-table (LUT) based digital background calibration for a family of reconfigurable VCO-based ADCs in 28nm CMOS, targeting sample rates from 1 to 300 MSps and resolutions of 8 to 14 bits. Finally, work on fundamental sources of VCO jitter will be applied to determine the ultimate limit on performance for techniques such as VCO-based ADCs which perform the ADC function in the time domain.
Biography: John McNeill received his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1983, M.S. from the University of Rochester in 1991, and Ph.D. from Boston University in 1994. From 1983 to 1990 he worked in industry in the design of high speed, high resolution analog-to-digital converters and low noise interface electronics used in wide dynamic range imaging systems. In 1994, he joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he now is a Professor and Associate Head in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. In 1999 he received WPI's Award for Outstanding Teaching. In 2006, with co-authors Michael Coln and Brian Larrivee of Analog Devices, he received the Lewis Winner award for Best Paper at the 2005 ISSCC. His research interests are in the areas of low-jitter VCO design and self-calibrating analog-to-digital converters.
Host: Hosted by Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam. Organized and hosted by SungWon Chung.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elise Herrera-Green
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NL Seminar- Automated Deep Multi-Phenotyping with Noisy Labels
Fri, Sep 25, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David Kale, USC/ISI
Talk Title: Automated Deep Multi-Phenotyping with Noisy Labels
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: The increasing volume of electronic health records (EHR) data has spurred significant interest in the development of algorithmic phenotyping, used to identify patient cohorts in massive databases. Data-driven phenotyping, which formulates phenotyping as a statistical learning problem, offers superior scalability and generalization. Building upon previous work at Stanford, we propose a deep multi-phenotyping model: we train a single multi-task neural network to recognize multiple phenotypes, trained on noisy labels generated via an automatic process. We present preliminary results on classifying over 30 different phenotypes on a data set of over one million patients from the Stanford clinical system. This is joint work with Nigam Shah at Stanford University Center for Biomedical Informatics Research.
Biography: Dave Kale is a fourth year PhD student in Computer Science and an Alfred E. Mann Innovation in Engineering Fellow at the University of Southern California. He is advised by Greg Ver Steeg. Before joining USC and ISI, he worked in the Whittier VPICU at Children's Hospital LA and co-founded the Meaningful Use of Complex Medical Data (MUCMD) Symposium. Dave holds a BS and MS from Stanford University.
Host: Nima Pourdamghani and Kevin Knight
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 6th Flr Conf Rm # 689, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Sep 28, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David D'Argenio (Professor of BME); Stacey Finley (Assistant Profesor of BME); Jean-Marie Bouteiller (Research Assistant Professor in BME); Dong Song (Research Associate Professor in BME),
Talk Title: BME Faculty Research Areas
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Biography: Professor David D'Argenio, PhD
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/david-z-dargenio/
Professor Stacey Finley, PhD
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/stacey-finley/
Professor Jean-Marie Bouteiller, PhD
http://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/jean.bouteiller
Professor Dong Song, PhD
http://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/dong.song
Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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CS Seminar Series: Nour Ali (University of Brighton, UK) - Self-Adaptation to Resources in Service Oriented Architecture
Mon, Sep 28, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nour Ali, University of Brighton, UK
Talk Title: Self-Adaptation to Resources in Service Oriented Architecture
Series: CS Seminar Series
Abstract: Pervasive and distributed systems continuously change their environments and resources (e.g. battery or bandwidth). Mobile applications require different services when they enter or exit environments and as their resources change. In this seminar, we present a service oriented architectural approach that supports self-adaptation to changes in resources and location topology when mobility occurs, by reconfiguring the software architecture at runtime. The location topology and mobility primitives are inspired from ambient calculus. Our approach considers ambients to be autonomic elements that can manage elements located in them to their environment and provide them with new services suited to the available resources when mobility occurs. The seminar will also present the background research that has been undertaken in the areas of mobile ambient software architecture as well as architecture recovery and consistency.
Biography: Nour Ali is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK. She holds a PhD in Software Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia-Spain for her work in Ambients in Aspect-Oriented Software Architecture. She is Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy (HEA). Her research area encompasses service oriented architecture, software architecture, model driven engineering, adaptive software and distributed and mobile systems. In 2014, the University of Brighton granted her a Rising Stars award in Service Oriented Architecture Recovery and Consistency. She is currently leading the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project for migrating legacy software systems using architecture centric approach. She has also been the Principal Investigator for an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Project in Architecture Recovery and Consistency and co-investigator in several funded projects. Dr. Ali is the Applications Track Chair for 2015 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Services (MS 2015) and serves on the Programme Committee for several conferences (e.g., ICWS, ICMS, HPCC etc) and journals (e.g., JSS, or JIST). She has co-chaired and co-organized several workshops such as the IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Mobile Service Oriented Systems (EMSOS) and the IEEE Workshop on Future of Software Engineering for/in the Cloud. She was the co-editor of the JSS Special Issue on the Future of Software Engineering for/in the Cloud published in 2013 and Agile and lean service-oriented development: foundations, theory, and practice published in 2012. Her personal website is: http://www.cem.brighton.ac.uk/staff/na179/
Host: Neno Medvidovic
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Epstein Institute Seminar
Mon, Sep 28, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: C.F. Jeff Wu, Coca Cola Chair, the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Title: From real world problems to esoteric research: examples and personal experience
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
More Information: September 28, 2015_C. F. Jeff Wu.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Sep 29, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jingyan Dong, PhD, North Carolina State University
Talk Title: Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing for high resolution 2D patterning and additive manufacturing
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Dr. Yong Chen
More Information: September 29, 2015_Jingyan Dong.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Sep 30, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Man Mohan Rai, NASA Ames Research Center
Talk Title: TBA
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
