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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for September

  • BME 533 Seminar Series: LABOR DAY NO SEMINAR

    Mon, Sep 01, 2008 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM

    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    LABOR DAY (University Holiday - No Seminar)

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta

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  • Combustion Chemistry: Contributions From Theory

    Wed, Sep 03, 2008 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Stephen J. KlippensteinChemical Sciences and Engineering DivisionArgonne National Laboratory Argonne, IL, 60439, USAA quantitative understanding of the chemistry of combustion is central to the improved performance of combustion devices. Advanced engine designs require an enhanced understanding of the ignition process. There is also continued interest in decreasing the production of pollutants such as NOx and soot particles. Chemical models of combustion employ rate coefficients for hundreds to thousands of reactions. The past 10 years have seen a major advance in the predictive capabilities of gas phase theoretical chemical kinetics. Thus, many of the rate coefficients in combustion models are now being obtained from theoretical studies. We will review our contributions to the kinetics of some key combustion reactions including studies of (i) NOx formation and removal, (ii) aromatic ring formation, (iii) fuel decomposition, and (iv) hydrocarbon oxidation. These studies will illustrate the recent progress in theoretical kinetics, while also emphasizing the synergy provided by detailed comparisons with experiment.

    Location: Staufer Lecture Hall (SLH) 102

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: April Mundy

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  • Modeling complex urban systems

    Thu, Sep 04, 2008 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker:
    Dr. Paul M. Torrens, Associate Professor, School of Geographical Sciences, Arizona State UniversityAbstract:
    Urban simulations are an important toolkit for theorizing about cities, testing ideas and hypotheses, and evaluating plans and policies. As a field of research, urban modeling is at an important stage in its development. Urban simulations have, for a long time, grappled with the task of representing the rich complexity of cities as urban systems. The pace of urbanization and city growth, and the ever-increasing rate of adaptation of urban phenomena, have, to some extent, accelerated beyond the abilities of previous generations of modeling methodology to remain practically relevant and diagnostically useful. In response, older technologies based on automata have been retasked as agent-based models, capable of representing massive populations of dynamic and interactive actors, behaviorally, at atomic scales and characteristic times. Such tools may serve as a next generation of urban simulation methodology, but to do so, they must be successfully proven to engage with urban theory at small scales, large scales, and those in between. Urban simulation, as a field of research, is in its relative infancy in developing the rules and heuristics that can bridge large gaps between substantive understanding of how cities work on the ground and how those rich details might be represented in simulations. Data—the dearth of which has previously had a limiting influence on urban modeling—have begun to become available in larger volumes and with greater acuity, expanding our ability to satisfy urban models' voracious appetites for ground truth. Nevertheless, small-scale data that could be mapped to agent-based models are usually in piecemeal supply and existing dataware for calibrating and validating urban models is often out of touch with agent-based approaches.
    This lecture will focus on my work in developing extensible, next generation simulation tools around the concept of geosimulation as a vehicle for building detailed behaviors into urban models, as well as my efforts to build innovative forms of dataware in support of dynamic, agent-based urban modeling, using space-time Geographic Information Systems and information visualization. I will discuss the novelty and usefulness of these approaches in theorizing about urban systems at many scales, through reference to applied models of suburban sprawl, residential mobility, community-level gentrification, and small-scale crowd dynamics in dense urban settings.Biography
    Dr. Paul M. Torrens is an Associate Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University and Director of its Geosimulation Laboratory. Paul is also an Affiliate in the University's Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, as well as the GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation. Paul is Director of Geosimulation Labs, LLC, a research and development consultancy. His research is focused on Geographic Information Science and development of geosimulation and geocomputation tools, applied modeling of complex urban systems, and new emerging cyberspaces.
    Paul holds a Ph.D. from University College London (2004), Master's degrees from Trinity College Dublin (1999) and Indiana University (1998), and a Bachelor's degree from Trinity College Dublin (1996). Paul has been an invited speaker at universities worldwide, from the University of Copenhagen and Trinity College Dublin to MIT, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has given invited lectures and seminars to industry groups as diverse as the Institute for the Future, Microsoft, and France Telecom Orange. Paul has also presented invited talks at major technology conferences, from O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference to Where 2.0. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, and the International Journal of Microsimulation. His projects have been supported by the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Herberger Foundation, Science Foundation Arizona, Autodesk, Inc., and Alias Research. His research has been published widely and his work has featured in a diverse array of outlets, from Vanity Fair and Il Corriere della Sera to Forbes and Discover Magazine. His work earned him a CAREER Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2007. (See http://geosimulation.org for more details.)

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • Aviation Safety Managment Systems - Sept. 8-19, 2008

    Mon, Sep 08, 2008

    Aviation Safety and Security Program

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    ASMS 09-1
    For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.

    Audiences: Registered Attendees Only

    Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs

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  • BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations (Weiland, DArgenio, Loeb)

    Mon, Sep 08, 2008 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM

    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Presenters:
    Jim Weiland, David D'Argenio, Gerald Loeb

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta

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  • Development of Multilayer Thermoelectric Energy Harvesters

    Wed, Sep 10, 2008 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Shih-Ming Yang, ProfessorDepartment of Aeronautics and AstronauticsNational Cheng Kung UniversityTaiwan, ROCABSTRACTA novel micro thermo-electric generator (μTEG) design is developed to harvest thermal gradient. Compared with conventional in-plan and cross-plan design, the μTEG is in hybrid configuration in which the heat flux from the top to bottom surface is confined passing through the in-plane P- and N-thermolegs. The thermolegs (thermal couples) of poly silicon are isolated by a cavity to prevent heat loss and maintain the temperature gradient thereby improving the output power. Analyses show that the μTEG performance can be further improved by stacking multilayered thermolegs and adapting low-dimensional thermoelectric materials. Design verification on a two-layered µTEG by TSMC 0.35μm 2P4M CMOS foundry process shows that the thermoleg design of 120 × 4 μm (length x width) has the highest power factor of 0.0427 µW/cm2 K2 and voltage factor of 3.417 V/cm2K2. The energy harvesters can be applied to autonomous sensor nodes.

    Location: Staufer Lecture Hall (SLH) 102

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: April Mundy

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  • Tethered Vesicle Assembly as Monitored by QCM-D

    Thu, Sep 11, 2008 @ 12:45 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Lyman Handy Colloquium SeriesPresentsCurtis FrankProfessor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering,
    Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305Abstract: One of the stable forms of assemblies that amphiphilic phospholipids can generate in an aqueous solution is that of the vesicle or liposome, which consists of a spherical "sack" encapsulating a liquid (buffer or water) and having a lipid bilayer as the enclosing membrane. In a highly reductionist view, this structure may be able to mimic the cell membrane to some extent. Our research objective has been to develop assembly protocols such that an array of such vesicles could be used as a substrate for a bioanalytical device. The key to such potential devices is that the vesicles be localized at a solid substrate, and we accomplish this through use of a biotin-streptavidin-biotin tethering scheme. Moreover, this tethering protocol permits use of surface-sensitive tools to monitor the array fabrication. In this presentation, we will describe the use of the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring to follow the lipid assembly process. We will show how the build-up of the tethered vesicle array may be followed quantitatively, and we will give one example of an antibody-antigen recognition experiment based on the tethered vesicle platform.

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir

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  • Linear Relaxation Techniques for Task Management in Uncertain Settings

    Fri, Sep 12, 2008 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Pradeep Varakantham (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pradeepv/)Abstract:In this work, we consider the problem of assisting a busy user in managing his/her workload of pending tasks. We assume that our user is typically oversubscribed, and is invariably juggling multiple concurrent streams of tasks (or work flows) of varying importance and urgency. There is uncertainty with respect to the duration of a pending task as well as the amount of follow-on work that may be generated as a result of executing the task. The user's goal is to be as productive as possible; i.e., to execute tasks that realize the maximum cumulative payoff. This is achieved by enabling the assistant to provide advice about where and how to shed load when all tasks cannot be done. We present two techniques that are based on linear relaxation for solving this oversubscribed problem. Given an ordering of tasks, these algorithms identify which tasks to ignore, which to compress and by how much, to maximize quality. We show experimentally that our approaches perform significantly better than techniques adapted from prior research in oversubscribed scheduling.

    Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: CS Colloquia

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  • Honors Colloquium: An Inside View of the Cassini Mission to Saturn

    Fri, Sep 12, 2008 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Lecture offered by Mr. Robert Mitchell, Cassini Project Manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

    Audiences: Honors Program Students and All USC Faculty and Staff are Invited to Attend

    Contact: Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs

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  • BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations (Meng, Madhukar)

    Mon, Sep 15, 2008 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM

    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Presenters:
    Ellis Meng
    Anupam Madhukar

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Graduate/Department/Sponsors only

    Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta

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  • Advances in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 08:00 AM - 05:00 AM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    A Special International Symposium on "Advances in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering" Will be hosted by the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering on Friday, 19 September 2008. The symposium is being held in honor of Professor Ahmed M. Abdel-Ghaffar of the USC faculty. The Symposium is being held in Ronald Tutor Hall on the USC Campus near downtown Los Angeles. The event is scheduled from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and lunch will be served. Attendance at the Symposium is complementary and is open to everyone; however, reservations are required. Please contact Jennifer Cantwell (jenc@usc.edu) to confirm your attendance and to obtain further details.

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall, Room 526

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Jennifer Cantwell

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  • Competitiveness Crisis Council Education Summit

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    California Education Crisis Summit - Securing Our Competitiveness in a Global Market. This two-day summit will highlight issues to this State and National educational crisis and advocate for solutions such as an efficient educational pipeline in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

    Location: Davidson Executive Conference Center

    Audiences: University, K-12 Educators, Industry

    Contact: Larry Lim

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  • International Symposium on Advances in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Type: LecturesDescription: An international symposium in honor of the late Professor Ahmed Abdel-Ghaffar. Lunch will be served. Attendance at the Symposium is complimentary and is open to everyone; however, reservations are required.Link: http://www.usc.edu/dept/civil_eng/dept/news/abdel-ghaffar-symposium/

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall, Room 526

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • Percolation Theory and Large-Scale Wireless Networks: Connectivity, Transmission Delay, and Network

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    SPEAKER: Professor Edmund Yeh
    Department of Electrical Engineering
    Yale UniversityFriday, September 19, 2008
    10:00-11:30 am
    EEB 248ABSTRACT: The mathematical theory of percolation has become a valuable tool for the analysis of large-scale wireless networks deployed in challenging environments. In this talk, we present some recent results on connectivity, transmission delay, and network resilience from a percolation-based perspective.We first study a model for wireless networks where each link in a random geometric graph is active or inactive according to a Markov on-off process. In this case, we show the existence of a phase transition where the dynamic network is either percolated for all time (supercritical) or the network is percolated at no time (subcritical). Due to the dynamic on-off behavior of links, a delay is incurred for information dissemination even when propagation delay is ignored. We show that this transmission delay scales linearly with the Euclidean distance between the sender and the receiver when the network is in the subcritical phase, and the delay scales sub-linearly with the distance if the network is in the supercritical phase. More interestingly, we show that these results can be used to study information dissemination in wireless networks with mobile nodes. Using a new analysis which maps a network of mobile nodes to a network of stationary nodes with dynamic links, we show that messages can be disseminated to all nodes in a mobile network even when the network is not percolated at any fixed instant.Finally, we study the problem of wireless network resilience to node failures from a percolation-based perspective. In practical wireless networks, it is often the case that nodes with larger degrees (i.e., more neighbors) are more likely to fail. We model this phenomenon as a degree-dependent site percolation process on random geometric graphs. We obtain analytical conditions for the existence of phase transitions within this model. Furthermore, in networks carrying traffic load, the failure of one node can result in redistribution of the load onto other nearby nodes. If these nodes fail due to excessive load, then this process can result in cascading failure. We analyze this cascading failure problem, and show that it is equivalent to a degree-dependent site percolation on random geometric graphs. We obtain analytical conditions for cascades in this model.Joint work with Zhenning Kong, Yale University.BIOGRAPHY: Edmund Yeh received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering with Distinction from Stanford University in 1994, his M.Phil in Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 1995, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2001. Since 2001, he has been on the faculty at Yale University, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (with joint appointments in Computer Science and Statistics).HOST: Prof. Michael Neely, mjneely@usc.edu

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos

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  • Challenges of a Theoretician / Experimentalist

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: Theory and experiment are two sides of the research coin, each with its own peculiar challenges, and both necessary for knowledge to advance. Too often, though, theorists and experimenters speak different languages. They fail to understand or appreciate each other's work and how they should fit together. In this seminar, we will discuss some of the important differences between theory and experiment, and we will also talk about how theoretical and experimental research should be kept relevant to each other.Speakers: Profs. Todd Brun and Robert Hellwarth*Pizza will be provided by the EE Department.*

    Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos

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  • Honors Colloquium

    Fri, Sep 19, 2008 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Lecture offered by Dr. Walt Baxter, Principal Scientist at Medtronic Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management, Therapy Delivery

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

    Audiences: Honors Program Students and All USC Faculty and Staff are Invited to Attend

    Contact: Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs

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  • Competitiveness Crisis Council Education Summit

    Sat, Sep 20, 2008 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    California Education Crisis Summit - Securing Our Competitiveness in a Global Market. This two-day summit will highlight issues to this State and National educational crisis and advocate for solutions such as an efficient educational pipeline in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

    Location: Davidson Executive Conference Center

    Audiences: University, K-12 Educators, Industry

    Contact: Larry Lim

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  • Human Factors in Aviation Safety - Sept. 22-26, 2008

    Mon, Sep 22, 2008

    Aviation Safety and Security Program

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    HFH 09-1
    For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.

    Audiences: Registered Attendees Only

    Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs

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  • BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations (Berger, Maarek, Singh, Valero-Cuevas)

    Mon, Sep 22, 2008 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM

    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Presenters:
    Ted Berger, Jean-Michel Maarek, Manbir Singh, Francisco Valero-Cuevas)

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Graduate/Department/Sponsors only

    Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta

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  • Reactive Transport Modeling: From CO2 Geological Sequestration to Geothermal Energy Development

    Mon, Sep 22, 2008 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Tianfu Xu of the Earth Sciences Division, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be speaking.Reactive transport modeling can solve problems and answer questions related to CO2 geological sequestration, geothermal energy development, and petroleum engineering such as (1) fate and transport of injected CO2, amount of CO2 dissolved in groundwater and trapped by carbonate minerals, and variations of these storage forms over time, (2) chemical stimulation in a Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS), and optimizing injection water chemistry to avoid mineral precipitation in the geothermal reservoir, and (3) geological disposal of H2S (with CO2), and optimization of injection water chemistry to avoid formation damage due to waterflooding. Comprehensive reactive transport models such as TOUGHREACT have been developed that incorporate aqueous reactions, mineral dissolution and precipitation under equilibrium and kinetic conditions, and gas dissolution and exsolution coupled to multi-phase fluid flow. Practical examples for addressing geological problems and issues in these areas are presented. Recent advances and open challenges are also discussed.

    Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Takimoto Idania

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  • Future of Games

    Tue, Sep 23, 2008 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Integrated Media Systems Center

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Focuses on the current trends in digital games – what is happening now and why – and points toward the future of the medium. Trends are grounded in business and technical realities and supported with both social science research and market research. The always-on culture of the internet and mobile phones continues to gain prominence in today's world. As that happens more and more applications relay on game structures to entertain us, inform us, strengthen our communities, organize us around social causes, and make us more productive. Speaker: Chris Swain, Assistant Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts. Swain is a game designer, educator, and co-author of the textbook Game Design Workshop. Co-founded the EA Game Innovation Lab at USC. The lab works to expand the conventional wisdom about what games are and can be.Small group discussion between 12:30 & 1:30 over lunch

    Location: Kerckhoff Hall (KER) - ckhoff Hall

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Greg Constante

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  • Optimal Dynamic Operation of Chemical Processes

    Tue, Sep 23, 2008 @ 01:30 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Distinguished Lecture SeriesPresentsProfessor Jim RawlingsDepartment of Chemical and Biological Engineering
    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI "Optimal dynamic operation of chemical processes:
    assessment of the last 20 years and current research opportunities"Abstract: This talk, intended for the general chemical engineering audience, provides a critical assessment of the research progress in the fields of dynamic operation of chemical processes and process control. The following points are discussed:• What new intellectual ideas, concepts, and tools have emerged from this research field during the last 20 years.•How successfully have the research innovations in problem conceptualization, formulation, and solution been reduced to industrial practice.• What application areas have benefited from this research. Next we present a selection of open problems and research challenges. These research challenges are formulated by enumerating the current industrial needs in different application areas, and identifying common themes that can be addressed by developing new tools in systems theory and engineering. We focus on two topics of interest to our research group:• How do we distribute tasks in a large-scale application to a collection of agents/controllers so that the overall system achieves near optimal operation.• How do we use systems and control tools to address the larger goal of optimizing process economic performance rather than traditional lower level tasks such as setpoint tracking and disturbance rejection.

    Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir

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  • Optimization and Uncertainty Analysis of .....

    Wed, Sep 24, 2008 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars



    Computationally Expensive Environmental Models Speaker:
    Christine A. Shoemaker,
    Joseph P. Ripley Professor,
    School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and
    School of Operations Research and Information Technology
    Cornell University,
    Abstract:Many important problems in engineering and science require optimization of computationally expensive (costly) functions. These applications include calibration of simulation model parameters to data and optimizing a design or operational plan to meet an economic objective. With costly functions (like nonlinear systems of partial differential equations), this optimization is made difficult by the limited number of model simulations that can be done because each simulation takes a long time (e.g. 10 minutes to many hours). The optimization problem is even more difficult if it has multiple local optima, thereby requiring a global optimization algorithm. Estimating the uncertainty associated with prediction of calibrated models based on the available data is even more computationally expensive.Computational efficiency is important because it is not feasible to make many thousands of simulations to do calibration and uncertainty analysis for computationally expensive models. Hence the purpose of this research is to make it feasible to do this analysis on environmental and watershed models that are computationally expensive because they incorporate spatial heterogeneity and more detail on hydrological and environmental processes over longer periods of time. The algorithms also apply to costly simulation models in other fields.Our algorithms use function approximation methods to approximate the objective function based on previous costly function evaluations. Our latest derivative-free algorithms are ORBIT (which is based on trust-region radial-basis function models) and GORBIT, which is an extension of ORBIT to global optimization. These algorithms perform very well in comparison to alternative algorithms if the number of simulations is limited. We have convergence proofs. Working with Prof. Ruppert's statistics group, we have also developed a method SOARS that expands the use of function approximation to Bayesian analysis (including MCMC) of uncertainty for costly functions. Numerical results for an environmental PDE problem demonstrated excellent accuracy and a 60-fold reduction in costly simulations with SOARS over that required for conventional MCMC analysis. I will also describe the application of SOARS to the 1200 km2 Cannonsville watershed. The results include a statistically rigorous analysis of multiple watershed model outputs and prediction intervals for future events.This presentation will summarize results from several papers that include work by S. Wild, D. Ruppert, N. Bliznyuk and D. Cowan.

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • New Metric for Regulation of Diesel Vehicle Emissions

    Wed, Sep 24, 2008 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    New Metric for Regulation of Diesel Vehicle Emissions Heejung Jung Professor Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & CE-CERT
    University of California
    Riverside, CA 92507 As regulatory limits in California and the US for 2007 heavy-duty diesel engines introduce dramatic reductions in PM emissions, there is considerable interest in new emission metrology that can more accurately measure low PM levels. One such metrology, particle number measurement, has been extensively investigated in Europe as part of Europe's Particle Measurement Program (PMP) for light-duty diesel vehicles. This program has put forth a new methodology, including instrument specifications and sampling protocols, for "solid" particle number measurements. While counting only solid particles results in better precision, it may not be fully indicative of the diesel PM exhaust components of interest from a health effects perspective. The PMP protocol still represents a significant advancement as it is currently the only methodology with low enough detection limits to produce precise measurements of Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) equipped engines. Evaluation study of the PMP methodology will be presented.

    Location: Stauffer Science Lecture Hall, Room 102 (SLH 102)

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: April Mundy

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  • IN SITU HREM OF MATERIAL REACTIONS

    Thu, Sep 25, 2008 @ 12:45 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Distinguished Lecture SeriesPresentsProfessor Robert SinclairDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering,
    Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305Abstract:
    The reactions which occur at material interfaces and in thin films have a profound effect on the resulting structure and properties. One effective method to investigate such behavior is to follow its progress, in real time, using high-resolution imaging in a transmission electron microscope. This provides direct viewing, at the atomic level, and allows kinetic measurements by changing the sample temperature in a controlled fashion. The focused-ion beam machine (FIB) further extends this capability. The development of these methods, particularly for materials of interest for semiconductor devices, will be described, and their importance emphasized using an historical analogy.

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir

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  • Honors Colloquium: Combine Biology, Nanotechnology, and Devices into Therapies

    Fri, Sep 26, 2008 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Lecture offered by Mr. Bill Van Antwerp, Technical Fellow, Bakken Fellow, and Distinguished Scientist for Medtronic S&T

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

    Audiences: Honors Program Students and All USC Faculty and Staff are Invited to Attend

    Contact: Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs

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  • Aircraft Accident Investigation - Sept. 29 - Oct. 10, 2008

    Mon, Sep 29, 2008

    Aviation Safety and Security Program

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    AAI 09-1
    For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.

    Audiences: Registered Attendees Only

    Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs

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  • BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations (Han, Yen, Chow, Valero-Cuevas)

    Mon, Sep 29, 2008 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM

    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Presenters:
    View As Web Page BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations: (1)Dr. Bo Han, Asst Professor of Research, Dept. of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine;
    (2) Dr. Jesse Yen, Asst Professor of Biomedical Engineering;
    (3) Dr. Robert Chow, Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Keck School of Medicine;
    (4) Dr. Francisco Valero-Cuevas, Assoc. Prof. of Biomedical Engineering and Biokinesiology.

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Graduate/Department/Sponsors only

    Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta

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  • DIFFRACTION OF SH-WAVES BY SURFACE OR SUB-SURFACE ...

    Mon, Sep 29, 2008 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars



    TOPOGRAPHIES WITH APPLICATION TO SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION ON SHALLOW FOUNDATIONSOral Defense by:Hao LuoSonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringAbstract:Seismic response of local sites is a fundamental problem that has been broadly researched for decades. It is an essential step in evaluating maximum intensity of earthquake effects for a specified local site that might happen in the future considering the effects of local topography or various massive artificial structures, so it is crucial to seismic hazard, risk analysis, and earthquake microzonation. Seismic waves can be categorized into body waves and surface waves. Among the three types of body waves: P-, SV-, and SH-waves, the response of SH-waves, is restrained to the out-of-plane unidirection, thus is the most fundamental one and studied in this dissertation.
    The objectives of this dissertation are: first, to explore diffraction of incident plane or cylindrical SH-waves by various topographies or underground irregularities; secondly, to investigate the Soil-Structure Interaction (S.S.I.) effects. Two-dimensional plane strain models studied are as diverse as ground surface irregularities (e.g., hills, canyons, canyons), geotechnical engineering (e.g., tunnels, underground cavities, excavations, foundations), and Soil-Structure Interaction models with non-, rigid, or flexible foundations. Although the geometries adopted in those models are relatively much simpler than the ones by numerical methods, the analytical solutions gained by these simple models are indispensable in verifying solutions by various numerical methods (e.g., Finite Element Method; Boundary Element Method). All the models attempted are sitting or encased in an elastic half-space. All the materials appeared are isotropic, homogeneous, and perfectly elastic.
    Wave function expansion method is used for solving all the mathematical models in an analytical scheme. The model is computed by mathematically assembling different segments together on their interfaces adjacent to each other. Finally, the problem is reduced to solving a series of infinite linear equations. The governing finite linear equation systems after truncation via this way are always ill-conditioned that require carefully coped with to ensure the accuracy of solutions.
    With the analytical solution attained, the response of displacement and stress along the free ground surface are discussed. Displacement and stress residues are calculated to verify the validity of those numerical results. Great effects on dynamic stress concentration and motion nearby due to the existence of those irregularities are expected and analyzed.

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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