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Events for September 05, 2018

  • Repeating EventMeet USC: Admission Presentation, Campus Tour, and Engineering Talk

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018

    Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    University Calendar


    This half day program is designed for prospective freshmen (HS seniors and younger) and family members. Meet USC includes an information session on the University and the Admission process, a student led walking tour of campus, and a meeting with us in the Viterbi School. During the engineering session we will discuss the curriculum, research opportunities, hands-on projects, entrepreneurial support programs, and other aspects of the engineering school. Meet USC is designed to answer all of your questions about USC, the application process, and financial aid.

    Reservations are required for Meet USC. This program occurs twice, once at 8:30 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.

    Please make sure to check availability and register online for the session you wish to attend. Also, remember to list an Engineering major as your "intended major" on the webform!

    RSVP

    Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - USC Admission Office

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

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    Contact: Rebecca Kinnon

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  • Emergent Hierarchies and Social Stability

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Márton Pósfai , Complexity Sciences Center and Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

    Talk Title: Emergent Hierarchies and Social Stability

    Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things

    Abstract: Hierarchy of social organization is a ubiquitous property of animal and human groups, linked to resource allocation, collective decisions, individual health, and even to social instability. In my talk, I will discuss aspects of modelling the dynamics of hierarchy formation. I will first focus on the role of talent versus social feedback in obtaining rank. Experimental evidence shows that both impact hierarchies; existing mathematical models, however, focus on the latter. I will introduce a rigorous model that incorporates both features and show effects that arise from the interaction of the two. In the second half of my talk, I will discuss our collaboration with the California National Primate Research Center, this joint work aims to model the social structure and stability of rhesus macaque groups. Rhesus macaques live in cohesive hierarchically-structured groups of approximately one hundred individuals. Their social organization is regulated by a multiplex network defined by kinship and a number of interactions including grooming, fighting and formal submission. A notable property of macaque societies is that they can become unstable: the hierarchical organization may collapse, culminating in large-scale fighting, dissolution of social order and disbanding of entire groups. I will briefly describe the structure of their social networks and how modelling their dynamics help us understand social collapse.

    Biography: Márton Pósfai received his PhD in statistical physics at the Eötvös University, Budapest. During his PhD he spent two years at the Northeastern University, Boston in the lab of Prof. Albert-László Barabási and six months at TU Berlin as German Academic Exchange Service scholarship-holder. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis working together with Prof. Raissa D'Souza. He is interested in complex systems and network science, with focus on network control, phase transitions in complex networks, emergence in social systems, and social organization of non-human primates.

    Host: Professor Paul Bogdan

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • PhD Defense

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Jiun-Yu (Joanne) Kao, University of Southern California

    Talk Title: Human Activity Analysis with Graph Signal Processing Techniques

    Abstract: Analyzing and understanding human actions has long been a popular yet challenging research area with a broad range of applications. In this thesis, we explore model-based approaches to construct representations for captured skeleton-based motion data with prior knowledge about human skeletons being considered. The main challenge in achieving so is the irregularity in the skeletal structure and its corresponding actions, which we propose to leverage graph structures to tackle with, since graph has shown its superiority in modeling complex relationships among entities in irregular domains. In this
    work, we propose graph-based motion representations which start with constructing a skeletal or skeletal-temporal graph, followed by applying a graph transform such as Graph Fourier Transform (GFT) or Spectral Graph Wavelet Transform (SGWT) to the graph signals, i.e., motion data, defined on the graph. We discuss the construction of a skeletal graph and further derive the spatial and spectral properties associated with this type of graphs, as well as the interpretations brought by GFT basis. Additionally, we discuss several desirable properties of the proposed representations, including
    computational efficiency and easier generalization. As an extension, we explore the possibility of learning a set of action dependent graphs for classification purpose, where we propose a general discriminative graph learning problem together with an iterative algorithm to solve it. Furthermore, a closed-form solution can be derived when graph topology satisfies certain properties.

    As for applications, we consider two real-world scenarios where skeleton-based motion data is captured for automated action analysis. The first one is a mobility assessment system where activities performed by patients with musculoskeletal disorders are captured and utilized to predict their current medication states. The other one is skeleton-based action recognition, which has been a popular research problem in computer vision. Employing our proposed representations can achieve recognition performance comparable to the state of the art, while at the same time provides
    benefits in significantly lower time complexity, robustness to noisy and missing data, and easiness to re-apply to new datasets. Theoretical interpretations and comprehensive experimental results are presented for the proposed methods.

    Biography: Jiun-Yu (Joanne) Kao is a PhD candidate in Department of Electrical Engineering at University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA. She received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan in 2012. Her research focuses on human activity analysis and video understanding, with particular interests in graph based approaches.

    Host: C.-C. Jay Kuo

    More Information: Jiun-Yu Kao PhD Defense.pdf

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gloria Halfacre

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  • Resume Lab - Bring your Laptop!

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Labs are an activity where you can work on your resume in the presence of a career advisor to get tips on the spot.

    Bring your Laptop!

    For more information about Labs & Open Forums, please visit viterbicareers.usc.edu/workshops.

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • CAIS Seminar: Dr. Michael Best (Georgia Institute of Technology) - Ethics, Peace and Development: AI and Social Media Research Within the United Nations

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Michael Best, Georgia Institute of Technology

    Talk Title: Ethics, Peace and Development: AI and Social Media Research Within the United Nations

    Series: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series

    Abstract: AI is an increasingly prominent issue across the UN system, particularly driven by the personal interests of Secretary General António Guterres. We will present results emanating from a new framework for ethical AI which we developed to help UN stakeholders along with ministers and regulators from member states think about relevant policy action. Also, we will overview a system developed to aggregate and analyze communications from a variety of online platforms (SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, and others). This system has been used to support real-time understanding and response during national elections across Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium


    Biography: Michael L. Best is associate professor with the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he studies the role of computers and communication technologies in social, economic, and political development. He was founding director of the United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society in Macau, SAR China. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT and has served as director of Media Lab Asia in India and head of the eDevelopment group at the MIT Media Lab.


    Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 301

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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  • Progressive Degree Information Session

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Viterbi Graduate Admissions will be holding a Progressive Degree Program (PDP) Information Session on Wednesday September 5th at 5pm in RTH 211.

    Immediately following the Viterbi Graduate Admissions presentation, the Computer Science department will present on the progressive M.S. programs in Computer Science & Informatics. CS Advisors will be available to answer any questions you may have.

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211

    Audiences: Undergrad

    Contact: Ryan Rozan

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  • Accenture Info Session

    Wed, Sep 05, 2018 @ 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join Accenture for a Trojan Talk focused on careers in consulting and to learn more about full time and internship opportunities!

    Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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