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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for September
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Aviation Security Program Management - Sep.1-4, 2009
Tue, Sep 01, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
AVSEC 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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CS Colloq: Dr. Sunil K. Agrawal
Tue, Sep 01, 2009 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Time: 4 PM - 5 PMLocation: SSL 150Talk title: Robotic Exoskeletons for Gait Assistance and Training of the Motor Impaired
Speaker: Prof. Sunil K. Agrawal (University of Delaware)
Host: Prof. Gaurav S. SukhatmeAbstract:
Robotics is emerging as a promising tool for training of human functional movements. The talk will describe novel designs of lower extremity exoskeletons, intended for gait assistance and training of motor-impaired patients. The exoskeletons have undergone tests on healthy and chronic stroke survivors to assess their potential. GBO is a Gravity Balancing un-motorized Orthosis which can alter the gravity acting at the hip and knee joints during swing. ALEX is an Actively driven Leg Exoskeleton which can modulate the foot trajectory using motors at the joints. This research was supported by NIH through a BRP program.
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/nov/nihgrant111908.html
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2008/nov/robot110907.htmlBio:
Sunil K. Agrawal received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1990. He is currently the Director of Mechanical Systems Laboratory. He has published close to 250 journal and conference papers. Dr. Agrawal is a Fellow of the ASME and his other honors include a Presidential Faculty Fellowship from the White House in 1994, a Bessel Prize from Germany in 2003, and a Humboldt US Senior Scientist Award in 2007. He has served on editorial boards on several
journals published by ASME and IEEE.
Website: http://mechsys4.me.udel.eduReferences:
S. K. Agrawal, S. Banala, A. Fattah, V. Sangwan, V. Krishnamoorthy, J. P. Scholz, W. L. Hsu, "Assessment of Motion of a Swing Leg and Gait Rehabilitation with a Gravity Balancing Exoskeleton", IEEE Trans. on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2007, 410-420. S. K. Banala, S. H. Kim, S. K. Agrawal, J. P. Scholz, "Robot Assisted Gait Training with Active Leg Exoskeleton (ALEX)", IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2009, 2-8.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium; Why Ethics is Important
Fri, Sep 04, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Douglas Sanders, Principal Ethics Advisor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present "Why Ethics is Important" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Admissions & Student Affairs
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History, Design and Construction of Submerged Offshore Structures for ...
Fri, Sep 04, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
... Beach Protection and Recreational AmenitySpeaker: Jose C. Borrero Ph.D.
Coastal Engineer, ASR Limited, Raglan, New Zealand;
Adjunct Assistant Professor, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringJose C. Borrero Ph.D.1,21-Coastal Scientist/Engineer, ASR Limited, Raglan, New Zealand 2-Adjunct Assistant Professor, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringAbstract:A successful, long-term coastal protection solution seeks to directly address and work with the natural physical processes responsible for the erosion problems, not just the effects of erosion. Time and again it has been shown that 'hard engineering' efforts such as seawalls, jetties/groynes and revetments are forms of 'land protection' – not beach protection – that can ultimately lead to increased erosion and a significant reduction in the recreational and economic value of a beach.In recent years, alternative approaches to coastal protection have proposed the use of submerged, offshore structures to dissipate and redirect wave energy in an effort to minimize beach erosion, increase the time interval between beach nourishments, reduce negative visual impacts, enhance local ecology and provide a recreational amenity in
the form of improved surfing waves or snorkeling/diving attractions.
Another class of similar structures has also been proposed for purely recreational benefits – i.e. "artificial surfing reefs" or "diving reefs" incorporated in to marine parks.This presentation will discuss the conceptualization and history of these efforts including the Narrowneck Reef located at the Gold Coast, Australia, Pratte's Reef in El Segundo California, The Mount Reef in New Zealand and the recently constructed Boscombe Reef in Boscombe, England.The presentation will also highlight the successes, failures and continuing challenges for these types of projects in terms of design, costing, construction methodology and ultimate results. The costs and sizes of such projects completed to date will also be compared to other large-scale 'traditional' coastal protection or modification works so that the projects can be seen in the proper context when direct comparisons are made.Dr. Borrero earned his Ph.D. in civil (coastal) engineering from the University of Southern California in 2002. Since 2006 he has worked with ASR Ltd., a consulting firm based in Raglan New Zealand, specializing in hydrodynamic modelling of aquatic systems, the design and implementation of innovative shore protection schemes and the design and construction of artificial surfing reefs.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209/ ON WEBEX
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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BME 533 (Seminar in Biomedical Engineering)
Mon, Sep 07, 2009 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
LABOR DAY (University Holiday - No Seminar)
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Graduate Students/Faculty
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Spacecraft Rendezvous, Frozen Orbits, and Applications
Tue, Sep 08, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Astronautical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Refreshments will be served at 3:00 after the seminar.Topic 1: Spacecraft RendezvousTerminal rendezvous consists of nulling the position and velocity offset
vectors of the chase vehicle relative to the target vehicle. An example is the
rendezvous of the Discovery Space Shuttle with the International Space
Station on Sunday afternoon, 9/30/09.Topic 2: Frozen Orbits and Sun Synchronous Orbits and Mission
Applications Past/Present/FutureFrozen orbits fix a set of orbit parameters to meet mission requirements
such as repeated overflight of points on the earth at the same altitude. Sun
synchronous orbits fix the spacecraft's orientation with respect to the sun.
Mission applications include the SEASAT spacecraft which introduced the
frozen orbit and the current A-Train in Low (705-km altitude) Earth Orbit.Speaker: Gerald R. Hintz, Adjunct Professor
Division of Astronautical Engineering
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Dan Erwin
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Learning Syntax and Semantics of Descriptions of Shapes from Web-users in the Smart-Bees Project
Tue, Sep 08, 2009 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sergio Guadarrama, Ph.D.,Fundamentals of Soft-Computing Unit
European Centre for Soft Computing
Mieres, SPAINAbstract: Smart-Bees is a project to study how machines can learn and communicate in human-like ways, from a Computing with Words (CW), Actions and Perceptions (CW-AP) perspective. Due to initial stage of development of CW and its complexity, setting up good experiments that can guide the research is crucial; so, following Wittgenstein's ideas about Meaning and Language ("The meaning of a word is its use in Language" and "Language games") we have developed a web-based application for automatically creating natural language-based descriptions of shapes. Smart-Bees is a multi-agent, multi-user system in which multiple smart-bees (agents or synthetic characters) are able to interact and communicate within themselves and with humans; and, where each smart-bee can learn concepts, words and also some sort of syntax and semantics, building a model that is grounded in perceptions and actions. The system learns from the descriptions provided by humans and then uses computational intelligence based methods and fuzzy algorithms to produce its own descriptions. To collect human descriptions of shapes and to test the results of Smart-Bees we have set up an interactive website, which will be described.Bio: Sergio Guadarrama received a PhD degree (Artificial Intelligence) in 2007, from the Technical University of Madrid. During 2003-2004, he spent one year at the University of California, Berkeley, where he collaborated with Prof. Lotfi Zadeh. He has published eight papers in international journals, seven book chapters and more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed conferences. He has participated in the organization of several international conferences, organized special sessions, and has also participated in several research projects funded by European Union, Spanish Government, Madrid Regional Government and Castilla la Mancha Regional Goverment. In recognition of his work, he has received: the "Best Doctoral Dissertation Award" in Computer Science by the Technical University of Madrid, and the "Juan de la Cierva" Grant, as one the top ten most promising young researchers in Computer Science by the Spanish Department of Science and Innovation. His main research focus is in Computing with Words, Actions and Perceptions (CW-AP), in which he is currently developing the project "Smart-Bees: Learning Language in Semi-Supervised Environments". Since November 2007, he is a "Juan de la Cierva" Researcher in the Fundamentals of Soft-Computing Unit at the European Center for Soft-Computing.Hosted by Professor Jerry Mendel
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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Demand Responsive Control in Buildings
Thu, Sep 10, 2009 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lyman Handy Colloquium SeriesPresentsProfessor Peng XuEnvironmental Energy Technologies DivisionLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA Abstract:As an essential of modern life, electricity is different from other commodities. It cannot be stored economically, and the supply of and demand for electricity must be balanced in real time. Demand levels also can change quite rapidly and unexpectedly. Increasing grid capacity to maintain reserve margins sufficient for demand is possible but is not a good solution because the electric system is highly capital-intensive, and both generation and transmission system investments have long lead times.Demand response (DR) is an emerging research field and an effective tool that improves grid reliability and prevents the price of electricity from rising, especially in deregulated markets. This presentation introduces the definition of DR and different methods to achieve demand response control in buildings, including both passive and active thermal mass control. It describes the DR technology utilized at a commercial building in California and the methodologies to evaluate associated demand savings. On the basis of field tests in many large office building, DR is proven to be a reliable and credible resource that ensures a stable and economical operation of the power grid.
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100
Audiences: The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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CS Colloq: Dr. P. Anandan - CANCELLED
Fri, Sep 11, 2009
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Talk title: Inventing the Future from India: 5 Years of Microsoft Research IndiaSpeaker: Dr. P. Anandan(Managing Director, Microsoft Research India)Host: Prof. Gerard MedioniAbstract:
Postponed till Thursday September 17Bio:
TBA
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium; A Star is Born - the story of stars, earth, and you
Fri, Sep 11, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Andrea Urban, NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will present "A Star is Born - the story of stars, earth, and you" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Admissions & Student Affairs
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Human Factors In Aviation Safety - Sep.14-18, 2009
Mon, Sep 14, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
HFH 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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BME 533 (Seminar in Biomedical Engineering)
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations:
(Farkas, Madhukar, McNitt-Gray, Weiland)Daniel Farkas, PhD,
Research Professor, Director, Minimally Invasive Surgical Technologies Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los AngelesAnupam Madhukar, PhD,
Kenneth T. Norris Professor of Engineering and Professor of Materials Science,
Biomedical Engineering and PhysicsJill McNitt-Gray, PhD,
Department of Kinesiology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biological SciencesJames Weiland, PhD,
Associate Professor, Opthalmology & Biomedical Engineering
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Graduate Students/Faculty
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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A Class of Restless Bandit Problems: Indexability and Optimality of Whittles Index
Wed, Sep 16, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Qing Zhao
Assoc. Professor
U.C. Davis
Abstract:
The long‐standing multi‐armed bandit problem (MAB), propounded in early 1930's, was
solved by Gittins almost 40 years later in late 1960's when he established the simple
index structure of the optimal policy. In 1988, Whittle generalized MAB to the so‐called
restless multi‐armed bandit problem (RMAB) to take into account system dynamics that
cannot be directly controlled. Gittin's index policy is no longer optimal, and RMAB has
been shown to be PSPACE‐hard in general.
In this talk, we present a brief history of bandit problems and some recent results on a
special class of RMAB. We show that this class of RMAB is indexable, and Whittle's index
policy has a simple semi‐universal structure and achieves optimality.
This class of RMAB is particularly relevant to cognitive radio, user/server scheduling,
and optimal activation in multi‐agent systems.
Bio:
http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~qzhao/
Qing Zhao received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001 from Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY. In August 2004, she joined the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at UC Davis where she is currently an Associate Professor.
Her research interests are in the general area of dynamic systems and communication
networks. She received the 2000 Young Author Best Paper Award from IEEE Signal Processing
Society and the 2008 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the UC Davis College of
Engineering.
Host: Bhaskar KrishnamachariLocation: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shane Goodoff
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Ocean Modeling, Prediction and Energy Harvesting
Wed, Sep 16, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yi Chao, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of TechnologyAbstractOcean circulation and variability involve multi-scales in both space and time. To correctly model the ocean therefore requires a multi-scale (or nested) modeling approach so that both the local fine-scale features and the global large-scale patterns are simultaneously resolved. This talk will describe a hierarchy of nested models resolving both the Pacific Ocean climate variability with a relatively coarse resolution (on the order of 10-km) and several coastal regions off the U.S. west coast with a spatial resolution as fine as 1-km. Advanced data assimilation algorithms have been developed to integrate the available observations from different sensors and platforms in a statistical optimal but dynamically consistent manner. Results from several field experiments will be described to test and validate the developed ocean prediction system. Preliminary results to integrate the physics/dynamics with biogeochemistry, marine ecosystem and fish will be described. Possibilities to extend this ocean forecast system to the climate time scale (e.g., El Nino) will be discussed.
The ocean prediction skill is limited by how well ocean can be measured on the routine basis. While ships are expensive to operate, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) have to be frequently recovered for battery change/recharging. Prototyping a fundamentally new platform that can be deployed underwater over a long period of time is described. The idea is to extract the local renewable thermal energy in the ocean to power both the vehicle including navigation/communication and scientific sensors. A Phase Change Material (PCM) has been identified. It can be melted in warm waters at sea level and frozen in cold waters at deeper ocean depths. This melting/frozen process will generate a significant volume change and therefore a high-pressure fluid that can drive a hydraulic motor for power generation. The potential for this robotic vehicle in monitoring long-term ocean and climate change will be presented. Commercial applications to harvest ocean energy will also be discussed.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian 209/ on WEBEX
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Meet the Chair: U.G.
Wed, Sep 16, 2009 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
If you are a new, current, or prospective student in CSCI, CECS, CSBA, or CSGM, please join us for our annual New Student Welcome/Meet the Chair - an afternoon of food and conversation with our new Chairman, Dr. Shang-Hua Teng.This event is designed to be both an introduction to the department for our new students and an open forum for all to ask questions, express concerns, and make suggestions to your Chair and academic advisors.This is a great opportunity for you to help shape the future of our program!Hope to see you all there. PLEASE RSVP by Monday, September 14 athttp://www.cs.usc.edu/MeetTheChair/Pizza and drinks will be served!
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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SWE Meet and Mingle - Cisco Systems
Wed, Sep 16, 2009 @ 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Location: TBA
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Society of Women Engineers
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Failures of Iterative Decoders
Thu, Sep 17, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Shashi Kiran Chilappagri,
University of ArizonaAbstract: Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have been the focus of much research in the last decade due to their capacity approaching performance even when decoded with low-complexity algorithms. The message passing algorithms to decode LDPC codes are iterative in nature and work on the Tanner graph representation of the code. While these algorithms are optimal when the underlying graph is a tree, they exhibit surprisingly good performance on loopy graphs. The sub-optimality of these algorithms, however, manifests in the low noise regime leading to a abrupt performance degradation known as the error floor.In this talk, we provide an overview of the recent developments in understanding the error floor phenomenon. For the special case of the Gallager A algorithm, we analyze the trapping sets (the sub-graphs that lead to decoding failures) and present a combinatorial characterization of the underlying topological structure of these sub-graphs. We present tight upper and lower bounds on the guaranteed error correction capability of column-weight-three codes under the Gallager A algorithm. We also show how the knowledge of trapping sets can be used for performance estimation as well as code design.Biography: Shashi Kiran Chilappagri obtained his B.Tech and M.Tech degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2004 and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, Tucson in 2008, all in electrical engineering. He is currently a Research Engineer at the University of Arizona. His research interests include coding theory, graph theory as well as application of coding theory to inference problems in biology.Host: Alex Dimakis, dimakis@usc.edu, EEB 532, x09264
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 539
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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CS Colloq: Dr. P. Anandan-CANCELLED
Thu, Sep 17, 2009 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED.Talk title: Inventing the Future from India: 5 Years of Microsoft Research IndiaSpeaker: Dr. P. Anandan(Managing Director, Microsoft Research India)Host: Prof. Gerard MedioniAbstract:
TBABio:
TBA
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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Community College Counselor Conference (Transfer Admission)
Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Coordinated by the USC Office of Admission, the Community College Counselor Conference aims to give Community College Counselors more information relative to their students about applying to USC and the transfer admission process.If you are a Community College Counselor and would like more information, please contact us at viterbi.admission@usc.edu
Location: USC University Park Campus
Audiences: CA Community College Counselors
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium; Action, because brains alone are not enough
Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Mr. Adam Carlton Lynch, Owner and General Manager of Premier Processing, LLC, will present "Action, because brains alone are not enough" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Admissions & Student Affairs
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Aviation Safety Management Systems - Sep.21-Oct.2, 2009
Mon, Sep 21, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
ASMS 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Mathematics For System Safety Analysis - Sep.21-23, 2009
Mon, Sep 21, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
MATH 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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BME 533 (Seminar in Biomedical Engineering)
Mon, Sep 21, 2009 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
BME Faculty Research Overview Presentations: Grzywacz, Khoo, Nayak, SangerNorberto Grzywacz, PhD,
Professor of Biomedical Engineering & NeuroscienceMichael Khoo, PhD,
Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum ChairKrishna Nayak, PhD,
Associate Professor, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Terry Sanger, MD, PhD,
Provost Associate Professor, BME, Neurology and Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Graduate Students/Faculty
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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CS Colloq: Prof. Dellaert
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Talk title: Inference in Large-Scale Graphical Models and its application to SFM, SAM, and SLAMSpeaker: Prof. Frank Dellaert (Georgia Tech)Host: Prof. Gaurav S. SukhatmeAbstract:
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), Smoothing and Mapping (SAM), and Structure from Motion (SFM) are important and closely related problems in robotics and vision. Not surprisingly, there is a large literature describing solutions to each problem, and more and more connections are established between the two fields. At the same time, robotics and vision researchers alike are becoming increasingly familiar with the power of graphical models as a language in which to represent inference problems. In this talk I will show how SFM, SAM, and SLAM can be posed in terms of this graphical model language, and how inference in them can be explained in a purely graphical manner via the concept of variable elimination. I will then present a new way of looking at inference that is equivalent to the junction tree algorithm yet is - in my view- much more insightful. I will also show that, when applied to linear(ized) Gaussian problems, the lgorithm yields the familiar QR and Cholesky factorization algorithms, and that this connection with linear algebra leads to strategies for very fast inference in arbitrary graphs. I will conclude by showing some published and preliminary work that exploits this connection to the fullest.Bio:
Frank Dellaert is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing at Georgia Tech. His research is in the areas of Robotics and Computer vision. He is particularly interested in graphical model techniques to solve large-scale problems in mapping and 3D reconstruction. You can find out about his research and publications at http://frank.dellaert.com.
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 107
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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Academy Lecture Series
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 @ 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Featured Speaker: Dr. Peter DiamandisDr. Diamandis is founder and chairman of X PRIZE foundation, an educational non-profit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In addition, he is creator of the Rocket Racing League, a cross between Indy car racing and rocket-powered flight. Dr. Diamandis is co-founder and a director of Space Adventures, Ltd which has flown four private citizens to the International Space Station!
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 123
Audiences: Freshmen Students
Contact: Freshmen Academies
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Hazard Effects And Control Strategies - Sep.24-25, 2009
Thu, Sep 24, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
HAZ 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Functional biomaterials for drug and vaccine delivery
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Distinguished Lecture SeriesPresentsDavid A. PutnamCornell UniversityAbstract:The Putnam laboratory’s research interests focus on the application of chemical, biological and engineering principles to solve problems in medicine, particularly drug delivery. We focus our efforts in three areas. First, we work to synthesize new biomaterials derived from structures represented in natural human metabolic pathways, and attempt to understand how their molecular compositions provide functionality to the biomaterials. Second, we work to engineer new ways to entice bacteria to express, correctly fold and stabilize non-native proteins, particularly for the formulation and delivery of antigenic sequences for vaccines. Third, we work to understand how the molecular composition and architecture of water-soluble polymers collectively function to transfer nucleic acids (i.e., plasmid DNA, siRNA, microRNA) from the bloodstream to cells. This seminar will encompass two areas, showing our current work in the design and synthesis of surgical biomaterials for the treatment of postoperative seroma, and in the engineering of E. coli to enhance the immunogenicity of poorly antigenic proteins.
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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CS Colloq: Dr. K L. Bellman
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PMLocation: SSL 150Talk title: To be announced
Speaker: Dr. Kirstie L. Bellman, Principal Scientist, The Aerospace Corporation
Host: Prof. Ari RequichaAbstract:
The purpose of this talk is to stimulate a discussion about the architectural requirements for complex adaptive systems, as well as to broaden our definitions of "architecture."
Our ability to engineer large complex systems has been greatly impacted by the open, de facto information, computational, and device architectures that are springing up (e.g. Web, Internet, GIG, GRID computing, swarms of robots or UAVs, "internet of things" etc.) These architectures are characterized by a dynamic, constant insertion of new information sources and computational or device capabilities and by diverse users, stakeholders, viewpoints and goals. One implication of the above is that it may be infeasible to design and control large-scale complex adaptive systems in the top-down, heavy-handed, developer-driven style of yesterday. Complexity and scale are now forcing on system engineering, what has always been known in space systems because of distance and time lag: One cannot control quickly or accurately enough the complex system; it must help us to monitor, control, and manage itself. Recently Organic Computing in Europe and other movements have argued that the complexity requires the help of the system to co-design and indeed co-develop itself.
In our work, a key component of enabling such abilities has been "computational reflection" or the ability of a system to explicitly reason about its own goals, resources, activities, and relationship to its operational environment. In this talk, we will introduce several important concepts in engineering complex adaptive systems, define a reflective architecture, and briefly discuss our approach to implementing reflection, based on the wrappings approach.
We then discuss how all of the above changes the concept of ?architecture? as a compact description of a fixed configuration of components and relationships to "meta-architectures". That is, given such characteristics as the ability to insert new system components, system processes, and system configurations and dynamically determine context-sensitive relationships and configurations, one may well ask: what is invariant in an architecture? In the case of Wrappings applications, the invariant is the meta-architecture: The roles and purposes of the reflective processes and system level processes remain the same, regardless of application domain, domain resources, and the implementation of the reflective processes. As time permits we will discuss some early work to develop a reflective architecture for an Organic Computing chip design application with German colleagues.BIO:
Dr. Kirstie L. Bellman is a Principal Scientist in the Computer Systems Division and head of the Aerospace Integration Sciences Center (AISC), which she started upon returning to the Aerospace Corporation after four years at DARPA. The center serves as a research and development capability for a number of DoD and government agencies. AISC's focus is on the development of advanced system and model integration methods, new analytic techniques, and evaluation tools for assessing the impacts of new technologies. Upon completion of her term at DARPA as a Program Manager for the Domain-Specific Software Architectures (DSSA) program, Prototech (rapid prototyping technology and formally-based specification languages), projects in the Formal Foundations program, the large Computer-Aided Education and Training Initiative (CAETI), and several Technology Readiness Projects (TRP), she received an award from the Office of the
Secretary of Defense for excellence in her programs.Dr. Bellman has over thirty-five years of academic, industrial, and consulting experience in both laboratory research and the development of models and information architectures for large military and government programs. Her published research spans a wide range of topics in Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Among her awards, she recently received the 2008 Award in Technology from the Telluride Technology Festival. Other past awardees include Vint Cerf, Murray Gellman, Charles Townes, and Freeman Dyson.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium The Really Big Picture: Things We Know About Our Universe
Fri, Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Charles Lawrence, Principal Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will present "The Really Big Picture: Things We Know About Our Universe and How We Know Them" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Admissions & Student Affairs
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Computation and Communication - Two sides of one tapestry
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael Gastpar,
University of California at BerkeleyAbstract: Networks have been studied in depth for the past several decades, but one feature has received little attention until recently: Interference. There is, of course, a good reason for this: In classical networks such as supply chains and the wired internet, interference can be addressed in a near-optimal fashion via simple protocols that avoid it. However, in the networks of prime interest today, such as wireless ad hoc networks, interference is often the dominant bottleneck and simply avoiding it entails major performance penalties. Therefore, the next important step is a thorough understanding of the nature of interference.In this talk, we argue that interference can be understood as computation: Multiple input signals are garbled together to produce a certain output. This is nothing but a certain computation performed on the input signals, possibly subject to noise or other stochastic effects. We show how this perspective inspires novel paradigms for thinking about communication in networks, including cooperation, "wireless network coding," and interference management. In particular, the computational perspective may help resolve the nagging question concerning the nature of information in networks: We have argued earlier that the "bit", a universal currency of information in single noisy channels, is inappropriate in general networks. A more appropriate currency of information could result from computational primitives, retaining algebraic structure as a fundamental property of information.Joint work with Bobak Nazer and, in part, with Jiening Zhan.Biography: Michael Gastpar (Ph.D. EPFL, 2002, M.S. UIUC, 1999, Dipl. El-Ing, ETH, 1997) is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a visiting professor (2008/09) at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. He was also a student in electrical engineering and philosophy at the Universities of Edinburgh and Lausanne, and a summer researcher in the Mathematics of Communications Department at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. His research interests are in network information theory and related coding and signal processing techniques, with applications to sensor networks and neuroscience. He won the 2002 EPFL Best Thesis Award, an NSF CAREER award in 2004, and an Okawa Foundation Research Grant in 2008.Host: Gerhard Kramer, gkramer@usc.edu, EEB 536, x07229Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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BME 533 (Seminar in Biomedical Engineering)
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Philip Requejo, PhD, Director, Rehabilitation Engineering Program, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Downey,CA, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Biomedical Engineering, USC, and and Carolee Winstein, Professor & Director of Research,USC Div. of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, and Director, Rehabilitation Engineering
Research Center for Technologies for Successful Aging with Disability, USC & Rancho Los
Amigos National Rehabilitation Hospital: "Rehabilitation Engineering for Optimal Wheeled Mobility"Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Graduate Students/Faculty
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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CS Colloq: Dr. Hanumant Singh
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Underwater Robotics and Imaging: Recent Advances in Imaging the Deep SeafloorSpeaker: Hanumant Singh, Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionHost: Gaurav SukhatmeAbstract:This talk examines the recent successes in utilizing optical and acoustic imaging from underwater vehicles in the deep sea. Using examples from a variety of application areas - including Arctic Operations, Fisheries, Deep Sea Archaeology and Coral Reef Ecology - we look at how recent advances in the technology are contributing to our understanding of the deep sea environment and use this work to motivate some of the challenges that the upcoming generation of researchers are in a position to tackle.Bio:Hanumant Singh completed his Ph.D. in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in 1995. Since then he has been on the scientific staff at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where his interests lie at the intersection of underwater robotics and imaging. He has worked on a variety of underwater vehicles including the US Navy's NR-1 submarine, the DSV Alvin, the Jason ROV, and the Abe, Odyssey, Hugin and Seabed class of AUVs.
He has been to sea on numerous expeditions across the globe. His academic awards include the 2006 King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Transactions on Robotics Paper Award of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the Ruth and Paul Fye Award for the Best paper in Oceanographic Engineering between 2000 and 2005.Links:http://www.whoi.edu/DSL/hanu
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition11/index.html
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition12/index.html
http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/expedition2/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/102-icy_depths.html
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
