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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for October
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Lyman L. Handy Series: Honggang Cui
Thu, Oct 01, 2015 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Honggang Cui, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Talk Title: Self-Delivering Supramolecular Nanomedicine
Series: MFD Lyman L. Handy
Host: Prof. Pin Wang
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jason Ordonez
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CS Colloquium: Raheem Beyah (Georgia Tech) - Password Security, Measurement, and Correlation Quantification
Thu, Oct 01, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Raheem Beyah, Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Password Security, Measurement, and Correlation Quantification
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: In this talk, results from a large-scale study on the crackability, correlation, and security of over 115 million real world passwords that were leaked from several popular Internet services and applications will be presented. Additionally, I will discuss a prototype system that provides a uniform comprehensive research platform for password security, measurement, and correlation quantification. Using this system, we analyze and evaluate 11 state-of-the-art password cracking algorithms, systematically and comprehensively evaluate these algorithms in multiple scenarios and identify their advantages and disadvantages. The system further consists of the implementation of 8 academic password meters, and 15 commercial password checkers/meters (both online and offline versions) from the top 150 websites. We identify that some commercial meters do little to guide users to select strong passwords, and often lead users to select vulnerable passwords. Additionally, a password correlation quantification framework will be presented, which is used to provide the correlation of different password datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that our quantification is consistent with the cracking results and existing observations. Finally, I will summarize and discuss future research directions (e.g., hybrid password cracking, social profile-aware/hybrid password meters) and challenges of password research.
The lecture will be available to stream HERE
Biography: Raheem Beyah, a native of Atlanta, Ga., is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech where he leads the Communications Assurance and Performance Group (CAP) and is a member of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy (GTIISP) and the Communications Systems Center (CSC). Prior to returning to Georgia Tech, Dr. Beyah was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Georgia State University, a research faculty member with the Georgia Tech CSC, and a consultant in Andersen Consulting's (now Accenture) Network Solutions Group. He received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in 1998. He received his Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Dr. Beyah has served as a Guest Editor for MONET and is currently an Associate Editor of the (Wiley) Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Journal. His research interests include network security, wireless networks, network traffic characterization and performance, and critical infrastructure security. He received the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2009 and was selected for DARPA's Computer Science Study Panel in 2010. He is a member of AAAS, ASEE, a lifetime member of NSBE, and a senior member of ACM and IEEE.
Host: CS Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/156406552Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/156406552
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Oct 02, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yurii Vlasov, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Applications of Integrated Photonics Technology -” from Optical Interconnects to Neurophotonics
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar
Abstract: I will give an overview of the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics project that I led for over a decade from its early scientific exploration stage to technology transfer and qualification in IBM microelectronics foundry fab. The technology is aimed at low-power cost-efficient optical interconnects for internet mega-datacenters and high-performance computer systems. Such a disruptive technology is a result of a decade of multidisciplinary exploration in materials science, fundamental optics that extended further into advanced device and system engineering. I will touch upon its historical development, technology differentiators, current status and a roadmap. Time permits, I will also review a new area of neuro-engineering and neuro-photonics that I started to be engaged lately and discuss how integrated optics can be applied to the advancement in the brain science.
Biography: Dr. Yurii Vlasov is a Principal Member of Research Staff and a Manager of the Department of Brain-Inspired Technologies at the IBM T.J.Watson Research Center. He has been recognized as the founder and long-term leader of the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics project. He led the project from its early fundamental research state in 2001-2007 to advanced technology development in 2008-2010. In 2011-2013 Dr. Vlasov led the company-wide effort on transitioning the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics Technology to commercial manufacturing aimed at cost-optimized low-power optical transceivers for mega-datacenters and supercomputers. Dr. Vlasov is a Fellow of the OSA, the APS, and the IEEE. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, filed over 100 patents, and delivered over 100 invited, plenary and tutorial talks. He was awarded the IBM Corporate Award, "Best of IBM" Award, as well as was named, "Scientist of the Year" by the Scientific American Journal. Prior to IBM, Dr. Vlasov developed semiconductor nanophotonics at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton and at the Strasbourg IPCMS Institute in France. For over a decade, he was also a Research Scientist with the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg, Russia working on optics of nanostructured semiconductors. He received his MS from the University of St. Petersburg (1988) and PhD from the Ioffe Institute (1994), both in Physics. Being an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Department of Electrical Engineering Dr. Vlasov taught courses on microelectronics and photonics.
Host: Hosted by Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam. Organized and hosted by SungWon Chung.
Location: 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elise Herrera-Green
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Oct 02, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yurii Vlasov, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Applications of Integrated Photonics Technology - from Optical Interconnects to Neurophotonics
Abstract: I will give an overview of the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics project that I led for over a decade from its early scientific exploration stage to technology transfer and qualification in IBM microelectronics foundry fab. The technology is aimed at low-power cost-efficient optical interconnects for internet mega-datacenters and high-performance computer systems. Such a disruptive technology is a result of a decade of multidisciplinary exploration in materials science, fundamental optics that extended further into advanced device and system engineering. I will touch upon its historical development, technology differentiators, current status and a roadmap. Time permits, I will also review a new area of neuro-engineering and neuro-photonics that I started to be engaged lately and discuss how integrated optics can be applied to the advancement in the brain science.
Biography: Dr. Yurii Vlasov is a Principal Member of Research Staff and a Manager of the Department of Brain-Inspired Technologies at the IBM T.J.Watson Research Center. He has been recognized as the founder and long-term leader of the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics project. He led the project from its early fundamental research stage in 2001-2007 to advanced technology development in 2008-2010. In 2011-2013 Dr. Vlasov led the company-wide effort on transitioning the IBM Silicon Nanophotonics technology to commercial manufacturing aimed at cost-optimized low-power optical transceivers for mega-datacenters and supercomputers. Dr. Vlasov is a Fellow of the OSA, the APS, and the IEEE. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, filed over 100 patents, and delivered over 100 invited, plenary and tutorial talks. He was awarded the IBM Corporate Award, "Best of IBM" Award, as well as was named "Scientist of the Year" by the Scientific American journal. Prior to IBM, Dr. Vlasov developed semiconductor nanophotonics at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton and at the Strasbourg IPCMS Institute in France. For over a decade, he was also a Research Scientist with the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg, Russia working on optics of nanostructured semiconductors. He received his MS from the University of St.Petersburg (1988) and PhD from the Ioffe Institute (1994), both in physics. Being an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Department of Electrical Engineering Dr. Vlasov taught courses on microelectronics and photonics.
Host: Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Oct 02, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Haeng Sik Ko, Ph.D. Student , Astani CEE
Talk Title: DEVELOPMENT OF A HYDRAULIC-CONTROL WAVE-MAKER (HCW) FOR THE STUDY
Abstract: The aim of the research presented here is to develop a new experimental device which would permit the study of multi-scale and vertically-variable oceanographic flows using a system called the Hydraulic-Control Wave-maker (HCW). Both the inlet and outlet flume boundaries are composed of an adjustable set of vertical baffles. Each baffle is connected to an individual flow control system, such that the vertical distribution of flow is entirely controllable. In such a system, any arbitrary flow can be reasonably created, and different sets of baffles can be connected to different reservoirs to create vertical density profiles. In this study, before constructing the experimental device, numerical analyses to verify the method of HCW, such as its ability to generate waves are carried out. Moreover, the prototype with one baffle connected to our own flow control system is developed. Long and short sine waves are generated by a small-scale HCW and the snapshots are presented. The large scale physical model with 3 baffles is built and wave generation by the equipment is verified.
Refreshment is served after the seminar in KAP 203 CEE Lounge
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 05, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: James Weiland, PhD (Professor of Ophthalmology & BME), John Wood, MD (Professor of Pediatrics, Keck, Children's Hospital Los Angeles); Ted Berger, PhD (Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Neuroscience); Arek Gertych, PhD (Asst. Prof., Cedars Sinai),
Talk Title: BME Faculty Research Areas
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Biography: James Weiland, PhD (Professor of Ophthalmology & BME)
http://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/james.weiland
John Wood, MD (Professor of Pediatrics, Keck, Children's Hospital Los Angeles)
http://www.chla.org/profile/john-wood-md-phd
Ted Berger, PhD (Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Neuroscience)
http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/theodore-w-berger/
Arek Gertych, PhD (Assistant Professor, Cedars Sinai)
http://bio.csmc.edu/view/15048/Arkadiusz-Gertych.aspx
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, Oct 06, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Xuegang (Jeff) Ban, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Talk Title: Emission Modeling and Control on Dynamic Transportation Networks
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Professor Jong-Shi Pang
More Information: October 6, 2015_Xuegang (Jeff) Ban.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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CS Distinguished Lecture: Christos Papadimitriou (UC Berkeley) - Life Under the Lens
Tue, Oct 06, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Christos Papadimitriou, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Life Under the Lens
Series: CS Distinguished Lectures
Abstract: Applying the algorithmic point of view to the natural, life, and social sciences often results in unexpected insights and progress in central problems, a mode of research that has been described as "the lens of computation." I will focus on examples in the life sciences, from joint work with Erick Chastain, Costis Daskalakis, Adi Livnat, Umesh Vazirani, Santosh Vempala, and Albert Wu: Evolution of a population through sexual reproduction can be rethought of as a repeated game between genes played through the multiplicative weight updates algorithm. In an infinite population, when selection acts not on genes alone but on pairs of genes, fixation can take exponentially many generations. And a neurally plausible device can be the basis of spontaneous unsupervised learning.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium. The lecture can be screened HERE.
Biography: Christos H. Papadimitriou is the C. Lester Hogan Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Before joining Berkeley in 1996, he taught at Harvard, MIT, NTU Athens, Stanford, and UCSD. He has written five textbooks and many articles on algorithms and complexity, and their applications to optimization, databases, control, AI, robotics, economics and game theory, the Internet, evolution, and the brain. He holds a PhD from Princeton, and eight honorary doctorates. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Engineering. He has also written three novels: "Turing," "Logicomix" (with Apostolos Doxiadis) and "Independence" (in Greek).
Host: Computer Science Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/548743552Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/548743552
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Oct 07, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Forman Williams, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California at San Diego
Talk Title: Quasi-Steady Combustion of Normal Alkane Droplets Supported by Cool-Flame Chemistry
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: Combustion of liquid fuel droplets in gaseous oxidizing atmospheres has been studied thoroughly for more than 60 years because of interest in applications related to liquid-fuel propulsion. Idealized models of droplet combustion impose spherical symmetry to simplify the equations and contribute to understanding. In both theory and experiment, because of the small ratio of gas to liquid density the gas-phase equations are quasi-steady, with fuel and oxygen forming equilibrium products and releasing heat at a hot spherical flame. Microgravity experiments enable spherically symmetrical droplet combustion to be investigated for larger droplets that experience longer burning times. Nearly 5 years ago, experiments employing normal alkane droplets initially 3 or 4 mm in diameter, burning in air, performed in the International Space Station, revealed a different mode of combustion in which quasi-steady burning was supported not by hot-flame chemistry but rather by cool-flame chemistry, involving only partial burning of the fuel and oxygen and not producing equilibrium products. Cool flames, first named that in 1934 and thought to be responsible for the will o' the wisp, are fleeting blue flames caused by the same chemistry that produces two-stage ignition processes, which are being studied for potential applications in RCCI engines. The seminar will contrast hot-flame and cool-flame chemistry and describe current experimental and theoretical efforts to improve understanding of quasi-steady droplet combustion supported by cool-flame chemistry.
Biography: Dr. Forman A. Williams is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Engineering Physics and Combustion (2015-present) in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Engineering of Mexico. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Among his numerous honors, Prof. Williams has been awarded the Silver and the Bernard Lewis Gold Medal of The Combustion Institute, as well as the prestigious AIAA Propellants and Combustion Award. He has authored more than 400 publications, including textbook Combustion Theory. His research focus is on flame theory, asymptotic analysis, combustion in turbulent flows, fire research, reactions in boundary layers, and other areas of combustion and fluid mechanics.
Host: Prof. Fokion Egolfopoulos
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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AI SEMINAR
Fri, Oct 09, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Pedro Szekely, Research Associate Professor
Talk Title: Domain Specific Search Where No Search Has Gone Before
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: We are investigating crawling, extraction, alignment, entity resolution, database and indexing technologies to enable rapid creation of large domain-specific knowledge graphs. We are also investigating analytics, query and visualization techniques that use these graphs to deliver sophisticated, yet easy to use query and analysis capabilities to end-users. Our goal is to build technology that can use any source of information on the Web, including Web pages and services, text, images, text-delimited files and databases, and that scales to 1 billion Web pages. The project is a collaboration of the ISI information integration and natural language processing groups, Columbia University (deep learning for image analysis), JPL (Web crawling), Inferlink (extraction from Web pages and entity resolution) and NextCentury (user interface and visualization). The MEMEX program runs at a frantic pace (interview and demos in CBS 60 minutes, briefings and demos in the White House situation room, deployment to law enforcement in February 2015). The talk will cover the goals and key challenges of the project, and describe the system we built in several domains, including the human trafficking domain with over 50 million escort ads updated hourly, and the deployment to users in law enforcement.
Biography: Dr. Pedro Szekely is a Research Team Leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and a Research Associate Professor at the USC Computer Science Department. Dr. Szekely joined USC in 1988 after receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 and 1987 respectively. His research interests include Big-Data, Semantic Web and Human-Computer Interaction. His focus is on techniques and tools to extract and integrate data from a wide variety of sources (Web pages, databases, spreadsheets, etc.), and on methods to index the integrated data to support accurate querying and sophisticated analysis. The resulting software tools, Karma and DIG, released as Open Source, have been used in a variety of applications, including intelligence analysis, bioinformatics, environmental engineering and cultural heritage. A notable example is the work with the Smithsonian American Art Museum to publish the meta-data about the museums collection as Linked Open Data. Dr. Szekely is currently applying this work to combat human trafficking, deploying the tools to victim-support agencies and law enforcement.
Host: Craig Knoblock
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 1135 - 11th fl Large CR
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Oct 09, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Eric Fogleman, Maxlinear
Talk Title: Full-Spectrum Capture Receivers in Home Gateways: Circuit and Architecture Challenges
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar
Abstract: Full-Spectrum Capture or Direct Sampling architectures have emerged as a power-efficient solution in systems where channel bonding or aggregation is the path to increased throughput. While the classic notion of a direct-sampling receiver promises the simplicity of "direct to bits" signal path and leverages efficient digital signal processing, there are many challenges to a practical implementation. This talk will use the example of a DOCSIS home gateway - a system where Full-Spectrum Capture is now the industry norm - to walk through the system-level requirements and how they impact the IC architecture and implementation.
Biography: Dr. Eric Fogleman is Senior Director of the RF and MIxed-Signal IC Design Group at MaxLinear in Carlsbad, CA. He has been with MaxLinear since 2006, working on four generations of cable front-end chips for DOCSIS set-top boxes, cable modems, and cable gateways. Prior to MaxLinear, he designed data converters and analog circuits for Analog Devices, Silicon Wave, and Broadcom. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, San Diego where he developed signal processing techniques to enable high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion.
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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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Fri, Oct 09, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Bruno Sinopoli, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Cyber-Physical Systems: Performance, Robustness and Security
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Recent advances in sensing, communication and computing allow cost effective deployment in the physical world of large-scale networks of sensors and actuators, enabling fine grain monitoring and control of a multitude of physical systems and infrastructures. Such systems, called cyber-physical, lie at the intersection of control, communication and computing. The close interplay among these fields renders independent design of the control, communication, and computing subsystems a risky approach, as separation of concerns does not constitute a realistic assumption in real world scenarios. It is therefore imperative to derive new models and methodologies to allow analysis and design of robust and secure cyber-physical systems (CPS). In this talk I will give an overview of my research on the CPS security, while briefly mentioning other research threads related to indoor positioning systems and adaptive streaming over HTTP.
Biography: Bruno Sinopoli received the Dr. Eng. degree from the University of Padova in 1998 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, in 2003 and 2005 respectively. After a postdoctoral position at Stanford University, Dr. Sinopoli joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University where he is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with courtesy appointments in Mechanical Engineering and in the Robotics Institute and co-director of the Smart Infrastructure Institute, a research center aimed at advancing innovation in the modeling analysis and design of smart infrastructure. Dr. Sinopoli was awarded the 2006 Eli Jury Award for outstanding research achievement in the areas of systems, communications, control and signal processing at U.C. Berkeley, the 2010 George Tallman Ladd Research Award from Carnegie Mellon University and the NSF Career award in 2010. His research interests include networked embedded control systems, distributed estimation and control with applications to wireless sensor-actuator networks and Cyber-physical systems security.
Host: Prof. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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NL Seminar-Using Highways for Bounded-Suboptimal Multi-Agent Path Finding
Fri, Oct 09, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Liron Cohen, USC
Talk Title: Using Highways for Bounded-Suboptimal Multi-Agent Path Finding
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Multi-agent path-finding (MAPF) is important for applications such as the kind of warehousing done by Kiva systems. Solving the problem optimally is NP-hard, yet finding low-cost solutions is important. Bounded-suboptimal MAPF algorithms, such as enhanced conflict-based search (ECBS), often do not perform well in warehousing domains with many agents. We therefore develop bounded-suboptimal MAPF algorithms, called CBS+HWY and ECBS+HWY, that exploit the problem structure of a given MAPF instance by finding paths for the agents that include edges from user-provided highways, which encourages a global behavior of the agents that avoids collisions. On the theoretical side, we develop a simple approach that uses highways for MAPF and provides suboptimality guarantees. On the experimental side, we demonstrate that ECBS+HWY can decrease the runtimes and solution costs of ECBS in Kiva-like domains with many agents if the highways capture the problem structures well.
Biography: Liron received a B.S. in Computer Engineering in 2007 and an M.S. in Computer Science in 2012, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Liron is interested in combinatorial problems related to constraint-based reasoning and symbolic planning. Specifically, he is looking at novel algorithmic techniques for exploiting structure in such combinatorial problems.
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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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Oct 09, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mohammad Ali Motie Share , Astani CEE Ph.D. Student
Talk Title: Horizontal Traffic Queues: From Microscopic to Macroscopic Models
Abstract: Motivated by emerging ITS technologies such as Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, we consider a Horizontal Traffic Queue (HTQ) on a circular road, where vehicles arrive according to a spatio-temporal Poisson process, and, upon arrival move clockwise until they reach a common destination point, from which they depart the queue. When inside the queue, vehicles communicate with each other and the speed of a vehicle is a function of the distance to the vehicle in front. We analyze the stability of this queuing system and provide a tight characterization of the maximum traffic flow. We also study the evolution of the system in between the jumps to characterize finer properties of the queueing system. In the proposed HTQ, we associate the road with a server that simultaneously serves all the vehicles present on the road. This analogy suggests the relation between HTQ and processor sharing (PS) queues. We use this connection to derive the fluid limit of the proposed system that gives a macroscopic representation of the underlying microscopic queueing system.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 12, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gully Burns, D. Phil., Supervising Computer Scientist, Project Leader (USC Viterbi's Information Sciences Institute)
Talk Title: TBA
Biography: http://www.isi.edu/people/burns/homepage
Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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CS Seminar: Ece Kamar (Microsoft Research) - Towards Hybrid Systems for Combining and Machine and Human Intelligence
Mon, Oct 12, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ece Kamar, Microsoft Research Redmond
Talk Title: Towards Hybrid Systems for Combining and Machine and Human Intelligence
Series: CS Seminar Series
Abstract: Despite advances in Artificial Intelligence, computer systems still have limitations in accomplishing tasks that come naturally to humans such as making sense of images or carrying out a successful dialog. Having easy and on demand access to human intelligence through crowdsourcing offers us a new type of resource to train, improve and complement intelligent systems. However, this resource comes with a new set of challenges. Making human computation a reliable component of intelligent systems requires moving away from manual designs and controls towards generalizable automation techniques, algorithms, models and designs. In this talk, I will present an overview of our recent research efforts towards this goal focusing both on using machine intelligence for reliable crowdsourcing and on developing AI systems that can benefit from having humans in the loop.
I will start by showing how machine learning and decision-theoretic reasoning can be used in harmony to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and computational agents to solve crowdsourcing tasks efficiently. Next, I will present an overview of different studies towards maintaining reliable access to human intelligence. I will conclude the talk by discussing opportunities and challenges in using crowdsourcing to power and improve AI systems.
Biography: Ece Kamar is a researcher at the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at Microsoft Research Redmond. Ece earned her Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University. While at Harvard, she received the Microsoft Research fellowship and Robert L. Wallace Prize Fellowship for her work on Artificial Intelligence. She currently serves in the program committee of conferences such as AAAI, AAMAS, IJCAI, WWW, UAI and HCOMP. Her research interests include human-computer collaboration, decision-making under uncertainty, probabilistic reasoning and mechanism design with a focus on real-world applications that bring people and adaptive agents together.
Host: Teamcore Research Group
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CS Student Colloquium: Fei Fang (USC) - Towards Addressing Spatio-Temporal Aspects in Security Games
Tue, Oct 13, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:15 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Fei Fang, USC
Talk Title: Towards Addressing Spatio-Temporal Aspects in Security Games
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
My research aims to provide game-theoretic solutions for fundamental challenges of security resource optimization in the real-world, in domains ranging from infrastructure protection to sustainable development. Whereas first generation of "security games" research provided algorithms for optimizing security resources in mostly static settings, my thesis advances the state-of-the-art to a new generation of security games, handling massive games with complex spatio-temporal settings and leading to real-world applications that have fundamentally altered current practices of security resource allocation. My work provides the first algorithms and models for advancing three key aspects of spatio-temporal challenges in security games. First, focusing on games where actions are taken over continuous time (for example games with moving targets such as ferries and refugee supply lines), I provide an efficient linear-programming-based solution while accurately modeling the attacker's continuous strategy. This work has been deployed by the US Coast Guard for protecting the Staten Island Ferry in New York City in past few years and fundamentally altering previously used tactics. Second, for games where actions are taken over continuous space (for example games with forest land as target), I provide an algorithm computing the optimal distribution of patrol effort. Third, my work addresses challenges with one key dimension of complexity -- the temporal change of strategy. Motivated by the repeated interaction of players in domains such as preventing poaching and illegal fishing, I introduce a novel game model that accounts for temporal behavior change of opponents and provide algorithms to plan effective sequential defender strategies. Furthermore, I incorporate complex terrain information and design the PAWS application to combat illegal poaching, which generates patrol plans with detailed patrol routes for local patrollers. PAWS has been deployed in a protected area in Southeast Asia, with plans for worldwide deployment.
The lecture will be available to stream HERE.
Biography: Fei Fang is a PhD candidate in Department of Computer Science at University of Southern California. She is working with Professor Milind Tambe at Teamcore Research group. She received her bachelor degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua Unviersity in July, 2011.
Her research lies in the field of artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems, focusing on computational game theory with applications to security and sustainability domains. Her work has won the Outstanding Paper Award at the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Computational Sustainability Track (2015) and was a finalist for poster competition in the First Conference on Validating Models of Adversary Behaviors (2013). She is the recipient of WiSE Merit Fellowship (2014) and she has been awarded the Meritorious Team Commendation from Commandant of the US Coast Guard and Flag Letter of Appreciation from Vice Admiral. She is the chair of the AAAI Spring Symposium 2015 on Applied Computational Game Theory. Her work on "Protecting Moving Targets with Mobile Resources" has been deployed by the US Coast Guard for protecting the Staten Island Ferry in New York City since April 2013. Her work on designing patrol strategies to combat illegal poaching has leads to the deployment of PAWS application in a conservation area in Southeast Asia for protecting tigers.
Host: Computer Science Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/331768755Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/331768755
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Graduate Seminar
Wed, Oct 14, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David SHoll, Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Using High Throughput Computation to Accelerate Development of Materials for Scalable Energy Technologies
Series: MFD Graduate Series
Abstract: Computational modeling of materials can be a powerful complement to experimental methods when models with useful levels of predictive ability can be deployed more rapidly than experiments. Achieving this goal involves judicious choices about the level of modeling that is used and the key physical properties of the materials of interest that control performance in practical applications. I will discuss two examples of using high throughput computations to identify new materials for scalable energy applications: the use of metalorganic frameworks in membranes and gas storage and the selection of metal hydrides for high temperature nuclear applications. These examples highlight the challenges of generating sufficiently comprehensive material libraries and the potential advantages and difficulties of using computational methods to examine large libraries of materials.
Host: MFD
More Information: Abstract Sholl.pdf
Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jason Ordonez
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Oct 14, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sucha Supittayapornpong, USC
Talk Title: Stochastic Network Optimization: The Steps Toward Realization
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Optimizing communication networks such as throughput maximization and power minimization can be viewed as solving a stochastic network optimization problem, which leads to a control algorithm. Generally, the algorithm assumes infinite buffer space and converges to an optimal operating point within O(epsilon^-2) iterations, where epsilon is the proximity to the optimal operating point. In this talk, two aspects of the stochastic network optimization are focused on as the steps toward realization of the technique in practice. In the first part, the control algorithm that can be implemented by using only finite buffer space is considered. Specifically, when each queue in a network has buffer size B, the algorithm achieves within O(e^-B) of the optimality while a delay per queue is O(B) and an average drop rate is bounded by O(e^-B). In the second part, convergence times of a class of algorithms derived from a stochastic network optimization problem with non-convex decision sets are investigated. We show that the algorithm consists of two phases: transient phase and steady-state phase. The transient time, length of the transient phase, is O(epsilon^-1) and O(epsilon^-1.5) under locally-polyhedral and locally-smooth assumptions respectively. Performing a time average of decisions in the steady-state phase leads to faster convergence times that are O(epsilon^-1) and O(epsilon^-1.5) under the aforementioned assumptions.
Biography: Sucha Supittayapornpong is a Ph.D. candidate at University of Southern California, supervised by professor Michael J. Neely. His research interests include stochastic network optimization, distributed algorithms, and convergence analysis, with applications in communication networks, software-defined networking, and machine learning. He completed his M.Eng from Asian Institute of Technology and his B.Eng. from Kasetsart University, Thailand.
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, Oct 14, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alexei Poludnenko, Naval Research Laboratory
Talk Title: Turbulent Combustion: From a Jet Engine to an Exploding Star
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: Turbulent reacting flows are pervasive both in our daily lives on Earth and in the Universe. They power the modern society being at the heart of many energy generation and propulsion systems, such as gas turbines, internal combustion and jet engines. On astronomical scales, thermonuclear turbulent flames are the driver of some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe, knows as Type Ia supernovae. These are crucibles, in which most of the elements around us from oxygen to iron are synthesized, and in the last 20 years they have led to one of the most remarkable discoveries in modern science, namely of the existence of dark energy. Despite this ubiquity in Nature, turbulent reacting flows remain poorly understood still posing a number of fundamental questions. In this talk I will give an overview of the numerical and theoretical work at the Naval Research Laboratory over the recent years aimed at studying both chemical and thermonuclear turbulent flames. I will highlight several surprising phenomena that have emerged in the course of this work, in particular, in the context of the intrinsic instabilities of high-speed turbulent reacting flows, as well as some of the outstanding open challenges. Finally, I will briefly discuss the implications of this work for the development of the next generation of accurate, predictive turbulent flame models required for the design of practical combustion applications.
Biography: Alexei Poludnenko received his Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester in 2004. Upon graduation, he joined the Department of Energy ASC Flash Center at the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral researcher, where he worked on theoretical studies of astrophysical supernovae explosions and numerical modeling of thermonuclear deflagrations and detonations. Since joining the Naval Research Laboratory in 2007, first as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow and later as a permanent research staff member, Dr. Poludnenko has been working on a wide range of topics in combustion, numerical algorithm development for hydro- and magnetohydrodynamics, and high-performance computing. In recent years, he has been leading the research program at NRL focused on theoretical and computational studies of turbulent combustion in chemical and astrophysical systems.
Host: Prof. Fokion Egolfopoulos
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Lyman L. Handy Series: Ripudaman Malhotra
Thu, Oct 15, 2015 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ripudaman Malhotra, SRI International
Talk Title: Getting Real About Energy in Cubic Miles of Oil
Series: MFD Lyman L. Handy
Abstract: I co-wrote A Cubic Mile of Oil as a call for an informed public debate on energy, arguably the biggest challenge we face. In this talk I will discuss this book, which is a citizen's guide to energy, aiming to make all the technical discussion accessible and relatable. The book uses a simple visualizable measure, a cubic mile of oil (CMO), as the metric for comparing all global energy flows. As we look for alternate greener ways of producing energy, it is vital we get the scale of our solutions commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge. By the middle of this century, the global energy demand is expected to rise to somewhere between 6 and 9 CMO. Where are we going to get the energy? The debate about energy supply has often been portrayed as a tension between the moral imperative of protecting the environment or preserving the economic interests of the energy industry. This will explore the challenge that we face in balancing the tension between protecting the environment and the moral imperative of providing adequate affordable energy to people around the earth.
Host: Prof. Fred Aminzadeh
More Information: MalhotraAb.pdf
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jason Ordonez
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CiSoft Seminar
Thu, Oct 15, 2015 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mr. Jim Crompton, founder of Reflections Data Consulting
Talk Title: A crisis is a terrible thing to waste
Series: CiSoft Seminar
Abstract: a look at the digital oil field in today's current environment and a look at how the digital oil field might impact project (capital) management and M&A activities
Host: CiSoft
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 324
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Juli Legat
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CS Colloquium: Xifeng Yan (UC Santa Barbara) - Graph Analysis and Search in Networks
Thu, Oct 15, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Xifeng Yan, University of California at Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Graph Analysis and Search in Networks
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
In this talk, I will first give an overview about graph data mining and data management studies conducted in my lab and then introduce two projects related to analyzing and searching collaborative and information networks. Collaborative networks are composed of experts who cooperate with each other to complete specific tasks, such as resolving problems reported by customers. We attempt to deduce the cognitive process of task routing and model the decision making of experts. We formalize multiple routing patterns by taking into account both rational and random analysis of tasks, and present a generative model to combine them.
In the second part of my talk, I will show the challenge of querying complex graphs such as knowledge graphs and introduce a novel framework enabling schemaless graph querying (SLQ), where a user need not describe queries precisely as required by SQL. I will also brief our new progress in benchmarking graph queries.
This lecture will be available to stream HERE.
Biography: Xifeng Yan is an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds the Venkatesh Narayanamurti Chair of Computer Science. He has been working on modeling, managing, and mining graphs in information networks, computer systems, social media and bioinformatics. He received NSF CAREER Award, IBM Invention Achievement Award, ACM-SIGMOD Dissertation Runner-Up Award, and IEEE ICDM 10-year Highest Impact Paper Award. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006 and was a research staff member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center between 2006 and 2008.
Host: Yan Liu
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/543217029Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/543217029
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Advanced Parallel Imaging for Brain MRI Acquisitions
Fri, Oct 16, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kawin Setsompop, Ph.D., Center of Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Advanced Parallel Imaging for Brain MRI Acquisitions
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Host: Justin Haldar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Oct 16, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Gert Cauwenberghs, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Neuromorphic Silicon Learning Machines
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar
Abstract: Learning and adaptation are key to natural and artificial intelligence in complex and variable environments. Advances in machine learning and system-on-chip very-large-scale-integration have led to the development of massively parallel silicon learning machines with pervasive real-time adaptive intelligence that begin to approach the efficacy, efficiency and resilience of biological neural systems. Implemented in subthreshold CMOS analog and adiabatic charge-mode mixed-signal VLSI, these learning systems-on-chips offer throughput reaching the PetaMACS (10^15 multiply accumulates per second) per Watt range, or less than a femtojoule of energy per synaptic operation, exceeding the nominal energy efficiency of synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain. I will highlight examples of neuromorphic systems with applications in template-based pattern recognition, vision processing, and human-computer interfaces, and outline emerging scientific directions and engineering challenges in their large-scale deployment.
Biography: Dr. Gert Cauwenberghs is Professor of Bioengineering and Co-Director of the Institute for Neural Computation at UC San Diego. He received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech in 1994, and was previously Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and Visiting Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT. His research focuses on neuromorphic engineering, adaptive intelligent systems, neuron-silicon and brain-machine interfaces, and micropower biomedical instrumentation. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and was a Francqui Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He previously received NSF CAREER, ONR Young Investigator Program and White House PECASE awards. He served IEEE in a variety of roles including currently as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.
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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USC Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science PhD seminar
Fri, Oct 16, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Manish Kumar, Penn State University
Talk Title: Artificial Aquaporins
Abstract: See Attached
Biography: See Attached
Host: Amy Childress
More Information: Kumar announcement.pdf
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kaela Berry
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Understanding Brain Abnormalities In Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Mon, Oct 19, 2015 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ravi Bansal, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Talk Title: Understanding Brain Abnormalities In Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: We have developed sophisticated mathematical and statistical techniques of identifying and quantifying the abnormalities in the morphology of brain regions that are associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Applying these techniques to large dataset of patients with various neuropsychiatric disorders we showed that the spatial patterns of these abnormalities are unique across mental illnesses. We quantified the spatial patterns of these abnormalities and applied machine learning algorithms for diagnosing individual patients as having a neuropsychiatric disorder or not. Rigorous, split-half cross validation showed that individuals can be diagnosed with high sensitivity and specificity. However, understanding the biological bases of these abnormalities is important not only for the reproducibility and but also for assessing validity of the MRI derived brain measures: Only reproducible MRI measures would be valid representation brain abnormalities and can increase our understanding of the causal mechanics in disease and subsequent development of early and effective treatments for mental illnesses. I therefore present findings from several studies that show how these together enhance our understanding of the various neuroplastic brain mechanisms in individuals with ADHD, thereby providing strong support for the validity of the MRI-derived findings.
Biography: My primary research interest is in the design and development of algorithms for the automated analysis of medical images. In particular, I am interested in the automated shape analysis of brain regions delineated on high-resolution anatomical MR images, and its application to studying the neurodevelopment of psychiatric disorders. I have developed and validated numerous important methods for the detailed analysis of anatomical surfaces in the brain, including strategies for controlling false positive (Type I) errors that can plague the multiple statistical tests involved in such analyses. Additionally, I am conducting research on mathematical and statistical models for the analyses of diffusion tensor images, white matter fiber tracking and registration, detection of signal in functional magnetic resonance images, nonrigid warping and coregistraiton of magnetic resonance images, and correction of intensity non-uniformities.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 19, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Qiming Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering (USC)
Talk Title: Bioinspired anti-biofouling via active deformation: from marine structures to biomedical devices
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Abstract: Biofouling, the accumulation of boiomolecules, cells, microorganisms and their deposits on submerged and implanted surfaces, is a ubiquitous problem across many human endeavors including maritime operations, medicine, food industries and biotechnology. Examples include: (i) the high cost of mitigation of biofouling on maritime vessels, (ii) the growing significance of infectious biofilms (matrix-enclosed microbial adlayers) as a failure mode of implanted materials and devices, and (iii) the adaptation of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains within biofilms in medical and industrial settings. Creating environmentally friendly and biocompatible surfaces that can effectively manage biofouling has been an extremely challenging task. Existing commercial antifouling technologies generally rely on either toxic biocides or static coatings that suffer drawbacks in ecological impacts or long-term effectiveness. In Nature, an enormous number of biological surfaces clean themselves through active deformation and motion; for example, cilia on the surfaces of respiratory tracts constantly sweep out inhaled foreign particles that are sequestered in hydrated, protective mucus layers. Inspired from this physical approach of antifouling, we demonstrate a method to actively and effectively detach micro- and macro-fouling organisms by harnessing dynamic change of surface area and topology of biocompatible elastomers in response to external stimuli. We hypothesize that the fouling detachment is an interfacial debonding process due to the large deformation of the elastomer substrate. The hypothesis has been tested and verified with various types of microbes and marine animals, including Cobetia marina, Ecoli, P. Mirabilis and barnacles. The results show that substrate deformation can detach over 90% of attached biofoulings. These dynamic surfaces can be fabricated from materials that are already commonly used in marine coatings and medical devices and can be actuated by practical electrical and pneumatic stimuli. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in the field studies in the Ocean and prototype models for urinary catheter. Assisted by the additive manufacture technology in our lab, we expect this dynamic fouling-releasing method may find broad applications in various settings of biomedical devices and water purification/desalinization.
Biography: Qiming Wang is Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Southern California. His recent research interests are focused on two folds: (1) additive manufacture of soft active materials for applications in adaptable lightweight structures, tissue engineering, drug delivery, robotics and energy storage, and (2) anti-biofouling for clean water and biomedical devices. Originally from China, he obtained B.S. degree from Fudan University in 2010. Thereafter, he owned Ph.D. degree from Duke University in 2014, and subsequently experienced one-year postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won MRS Graduate Student Award, ASME Best Student Paper Award, NSF-PACAM Fellowship, NIH-Duke Lew Pre-doctoral Fellowship and Kewaunee Student Achievement Award. His research was widely reported by Discovery, Washington Post, BBC Focus, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Physics Today, NSF News, Duke News, and MIT News. More information can be found at www-bcf.usc.edu/~qimingw.
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, Oct 20, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yanfeng Ouyang, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: Enhancing Service Facility Reliability against the Threat of Disruptions
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar
Host: Professor John Carlsson
More Information: October 20, 2015_Yanfeng Ouyang.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tina Rothstein
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CS Student Colloquium: Benjamin Ford (USC) - Beware the Soothsayer: From Attack Prediction Accuracy to Predictive Reliability in Security Games
Tue, Oct 20, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:15 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Benjamin Ford , USC
Talk Title: Beware the Soothsayer: From Attack Prediction Accuracy to Predictive Reliability in Security Games
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Interdicting the flow of illegal goods (such as drugs and ivory) is a major security concern for many countries. The massive scale of these networks, however, forces defenders to make judicious use of their limited resources. While existing solutions model this problem as a Network Security Game (NSG), they do not consider humans' bounded rationality. Previous human behavior modeling works in Security Games, however, make use of large training datasets that are unrealistic in real-world situations; the ability to effectively test many models is constrained by the time-consuming and complex nature of field deployments. In addition, there is an implicit assumption in these works that a model's prediction accuracy strongly correlates with the performance of its corresponding defender strategy (referred to as predictive reliability). If the assumption of predictive reliability does not hold, then this could lead to substantial losses for the defender. In the following paper, we (1) first demonstrate that predictive reliability is indeed strong for previous Stackelberg Security Game experiments. We also run our own set of human subject experiments in such a way that models are restricted to learning on dataset sizes representative of real world constraints. In the analysis on that data, we demonstrate that (2) predictive reliability is extremely weak for NSGs. Following that discovery, however, we identify (3) key factors that influence predictive reliability results: the training set's exposed attack surface and graph structure.
This lecture will be available to stream HERE.
Biography: Ben is a third year PhD student of Computer Science at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. He joined Teamcore in August 2013 and is advised by Professor Milind Tambe. Previously, he completed his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2008 and 2010, respectively. After graduation and prior to joining Teamcore, he worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI as a Software Engineer. His primary research interests are in the application of concepts from the social sciences of Psychology, Criminology, Sociology, and Anthropology to improve the algorithms and solutions of Computer Science. Specifically, he is interested in applying human behavioral models to multi-agent systems with a large focus on human decision making. Since joining Teamcore, he has developed an interest in applying Behavioral Game Theory to the Wildlife Conservation domain to prevent wildlife poaching and smuggling.
Host: Computer Science Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/846279055Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/846279055
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Oct 21, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Soheil Feizi, MIT
Talk Title: Learning (from) networks: fundamental limits, algorithms, and applications
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Network models provide a unifying framework for understanding dependencies among variables in medical, biological, and other sciences. Networks can be used to reveal underlying data structures, infer functional modules, and facilitate experiment design. In practice, however, size, uncertainty and complexity of the underlying associations render these applications challenging.
In this talk, we illustrate the use of spectral, combinatorial, and statistical inference techniques in several significant network science problems. First, we consider the problem of network alignment where the goal is to find a bijective mapping between nodes of two networks to maximize their overlapping edges while minimizing mismatches. To solve this combinatorial problem, we present a new scalable spectral algorithm, and establish its efficiency theoretically and experimentally over several synthetic and real networks. Next, we introduce network maximal correlation (NMC) as an essential measure to capture nonlinear associations in networks. We characterize NMC using geometric properties of Hilbert spaces and illustrate its application in learning network topology when variables have unknown nonlinear dependencies. Finally, we discuss the problem of learning low dimensional structures (such as clusters) in large networks, where we introduce logistic Random Dot Product Graphs, a new class of networks which includes most stochastic block models as well as other low dimensional structures. Using this model, we propose a spectral network clustering algorithm that possesses robust performance under different clustering setups. In all of these problems, we examine underlying fundamental limits and present efficient algorithms for solving them. We also highlight applications of the proposed algorithms to data-driven problems such as functional and regulatory genomics of human diseases, and cancer.
Biography: Soheil Feizi is a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), co-supervised by Prof. Muriel Médard and Prof. Manolis Kellis. His research interests include analysis of complex networks and the development of inference and learning methods based on Optimization, Information Theory, Machine Learning, Statistics, and Probability, with applications in Computational Biology, and beyond. He completed his B.Sc. at Sharif University of Technology, awarded as the best student of his class. He received the Jacobs Presidential Fellowship and EECS Great Educators Fellowship, both from MIT. He has been a finalist in the Qualcomm Innovation contest. He received an Ernst Guillemin Award for his Master of Science Thesis in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.
Host: Dr. Salman Avestimehr
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, Oct 21, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John Junkins, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University
Talk Title: Astrodynamics for Modern Space Operations: Recent Analytical, Computational and Experimental Research
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Abstract: We address recent advances in analytical, computational and experimental studies aimed at challenges posed by the growth of space debris in near earth orbit. Since two large satellite collisions in 2007 and 2009, space debris has emerged as a challenge to the future utilization of low earth orbit. The Kessler Syndrome describes the potentially unstable increase in the population of space debris due to the increase in future probability of collisions. The future collision probability is increased by the large debris population wake of each collision. Some studies indicate that removing largest space derelict objects such as spent boosters and dead satellites is the most effective means for arresting growth of space debris, along with end-of-life de-orbit plans for all future launches. While present day collision risks are tolerable for most purposes, one or two additional large object collisions could increase the probability of collision to a point that future utilization of some orbit regimes could be severely degraded. This paper overviews two sets of research relevant to these challenges: (1) Methods for de-orbiting large derelict objects not designed for rendezvous and docking, and (2) new methods in astrodynamics for rapid/precise orbit propagation and mission analysis relevant to the challenges posed by orbit debris.
For both sets of research, we overview key issues, basic developments, and current status of closure between theory, computation and experiments. We discuss critical obstacles for these developments to be realized as operational technology for debris mitigation missions. Finally, we observe related applications where the methodology presented is potentially transferrable.
Host: Prof. Firdaus Udwadia
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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EE DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIES
Wed, Oct 21, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Naomi Ehrich Leonard, Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering / Princeton University
Talk Title: On the Nonlinear Dynamics of Collective Decision-Making in Nature and Design
Series: Distinguished Lecturer Series
Abstract: The successful deployment of complex multi-agent systems requires well-designed, agent-level control strategies that guarantee system-level dynamics to be robust to disturbance and adaptive in the face of changes in the environment. In applications, such as mobile sensor networks, limitations on individual agents in sensing, communication, and computation create a further challenge. However, system-level dynamics that are both robust and adaptive are observed in animal groups, from bird flocks to fish schools, despite limitations on individual animals in sensing, communication, and computation. To better understand and leverage the parallels between networks in nature and design, a principled examination of collective dynamics is warranted. I will describe an analytical framework based on nonlinear dynamical systems theory for the realization of collective decision-making that allows for the rigorous study of the mechanisms of observed collective animal behavior together with the design of distributed strategies for collective dynamics with provable performance.
Biography: Naomi Ehrich Leonard is the Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and an associated faculty member of the Program in Applied and She received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004, the UCSB Mohammed Dahleh Award in 2005, the Glenn L. Martin Medal from the University of Maryland in 2014, and the Nyquist Lecture Award from the ASME in 2014. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, ASME, SIAM, and IFAC. She received the B.S.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University in 1985 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1991 and 1994. From 1985 to 1989, she worked as an engineer in the electric power industry.
Host: Sandeep Gupta, Justin Haldar, Urbashi Mitra
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/694216021Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/694216021
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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CS Colloquium: Lihong Li (Microsoft Research) - Taming the Monster: Provably Efficient Algorithms for Contextual Bandits with General Policy Classes
Thu, Oct 22, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Lihong Li, Microsoft Research
Talk Title: Provably Efficient Algorithms for Contextual Bandits with General Policy Classes
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
We consider contextual bandit problems, where in each round the learner takes one of K actions in response to the observed context, and observes the reward only for that chosen action. In the first part of the talk, we focus on the standard setting, where the challenge is to efficiently balance exploration/exploitation to maximize total rewards (equivalently, minimize total regret) in T rounds, a problem commonly encountered in many important interaction problems like advertising and recommendation. Our algorithm assumes access to an oracle for solving a form of classification problems and achieves the statistically optimal regret guarantee with a small number of oracle calls across T rounds. The resulting algorithm is the most practical one amongst contextual-bandit algorithms that work for general policy classes. In the second part of the talk, we show how the above general algorithmic idea can be adapted to contextual bandits with global convex constraints and concave objective functions, a setting that is substantially harder and is important in many applications. Joint work with Alekh Agarwal, Shipra Agrawal, Nikhil R. Devanur, Daniel Hsu, Satyen Kale, John Langford, and Robert E. Schapire.
This lecture will be available to stream HERE.
Biography: Lihong Li is a Researcher in the Machine Learning Department at Microsoft Research-Redmond. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a Research Scientist in the Machine Learning Group at Yahoo! Research in Silicon Valley. He obtained a PhD degree from Rutgers University in Computer Science. His main research interests are machine learning with interaction, including reinforcement learning, multi-armed bandits, online learning, and their applications especially those on the Internet like recommender systems, search, and advertising. He has served as area chair or senior program committee member at ICML, NIPS, and IJCAI.
Host: Yan Liu
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/350859861Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/350859861
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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AI SEMINAR
Fri, Oct 23, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mohsen Taheriyan, Ph.D at USC
Talk Title: Learning the Semantics of Structured Data Sources
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: Information sources such as relational databases, spreadsheets, XML, JSON, and Web APIs contain a tremendous amount of structured data, however, they rarely provide a semantic model to describe their contents. Semantic models of data sources capture the intended meaning of data sources by mapping them to the concepts and relationships defined by a domain ontology. Such models are the key ingredients to automate many tasks such as source discovery, data integration, and publishing semantic content on the Web. Manually modeling the semantics of data sources requires significant effort and expertise, and although desirable, building these models automatically is a challenging problem. Most of the effort to automatically build semantic models is focused on labeling the data fields (source attributes) with ontology classes and/or properties, e.g., annotating the first column of a table with the class Person and the second one with the class Movie. However, a precise semantic model needs to explicitly represent the relationships between the attributes in addition to their semantic types, e.g., stating that the person is the director of the movie. Automatically constructing such precise models is a difficult task. In this talk, I present a novel approach that exploits the knowledge from a domain ontology, the semantic models of previously modeled sources, and the vast amount of data available in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud to automatically learn a rich semantic model for a new source. This model represents the semantics of the new source in terms of the concepts and relationships defined by the domain ontology. The approach takes into account user corrections to learn more accurate semantic models on future data sources. Our evaluation shows that our method generates expressive semantic models for data sources and services with minimal user input.
Biography: Mohsen Taheriyan is a newly graduated PhD from the University of Southern California. He worked at Information Integration Group at ISI on learning the semantics of structured data sources. His research focus is applying Semantic Web technologies and AI techniques to understand the meaning of data. He received his B.S. in Computer Engineering from University of Tehran and his M.S. in Software Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=500df65b10044d08837b95ecc188eecf1dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 1135 - 11th fl Large CR
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=500df65b10044d08837b95ecc188eecf1d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute
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Department of Biomedical Engineering Systems Cellular-Molecular Bioengineering Distinguished Speaker Series
Fri, Oct 23, 2015 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Trey Ideker, PhD, Professor, Departments of Medicine and Bioengineering University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: The Cancer Cell Map Initiative
Series: Department of Biomedical Engineering Systems Cellular-Molecular Bioengineering Distinguished Speaker Series
Abstract: **Lunch and refreshments will be available at 12:30 pm**
Host: Professor Stacey Finley, PhD
More Information: Ideker_flyer + bio_October 23 Seminar.pdf
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Munushian Seminar, "Harnessing Disorder for Photonics" - Hui Cao
Fri, Oct 23, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hui Cao, Department of Applied Physics, Yale University
Talk Title: Harnessing Disorder for Photonics
Abstract: For device applications disorder and scattering have long been considered annoying and detrimental features that were best avoided or minimized. In this talk, I will show that disorder and complexity can be harnessed for photonics application, in particular, to provide unique functionalities of photonic devices. We recently developed an on-chip random spectrometer that combines high resolution with small footprint. In addition, we incorporated disorder to a laser to reduce the spatial coherence for free-speckle full-field imaging.
Biography: Hui Cao is a Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. She received her B.S. degree (1990) in Physics from Peking University, and her Ph.D. degree (1997) in Applied Physics from Stanford University. Her doctoral research was in the area of semiconductor microcavity quantum electrodynamics. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 2008, Professor Cao was on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University. Her technical interests and activities are in the areas of complex photonic materials and devices, nanophotonics, and biophotonics. She has co-authors one book and ten book-chapters, and has published more than 200 research papers in the area of random lasers, optical microcavities, photonic crystals, and structural coloration. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, Packard Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship, Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award and Guggenheim Fellowship. She is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Optical Society of America, and a member of Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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NL Seminar: Fine Grained Temporal Patterns of Online Content Consumption
Fri, Oct 23, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Farshad Kooti, USC/ISI
Talk Title: Fine Grained Temporal Patterns of Online Content Consumption
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Online activity is characterized by diurnal and weekly patterns, reflecting human circadian rhythms, sleep cycles, and social patterns of work and leisure. Using data from online social networking site Facebook, we uncover temporal patterns that take place at far shorter time scales. Specifically, we demonstrate fine-grained, within-session behavioral changes, where a session is defined as a period of time a user engages with Facebook before choosing to take a break. We show that over the course of a session, users spend less time consuming some types of content, such as textual posts, and preferentially consume more photos and videos. Moreover, users who spend more time engaging with Facebook have different patterns of session activity than the less-engaged users, a distinction that is already visible at the start of the session. We study activity patterns with respect to users demographic characteristics, such as age and gender, and show that age has a strong impact on within-session behavioral changes. Finally, we show that the temporal patterns we uncover help us more accurately predict the length of sessions on Facebook.
Biography: I am a third-year Computer Science PhD student at the University of Southern California USC, Information Sciences Institute ISI working under the supervision of Kristina Lerman. My main research interest is the study of large and complex datasets, especially data from online social networks, which includes the measurement and analysis of users' behavior in OSNs. I'm currently a Data Science intern at Facebook in Menlo Park. Before joining USC, I got my master's from Max Planck Institute for Software Systems MPI SWS, Germany. I worked with Krishna Gummadi as my advisor and also with Meeyoung Cha KAIST and Winter Mason Facebook during my master's. Before MPI, I got my bachelor's in Computer Engineering Software from University of Tehran, Iran.
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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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Oct 23, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Thang Le and Qin Ba, Astani CEE Ph.D. Students
Talk Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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CS Seminar: Dr. Hoa Khanh Dam (University of Wollongong) - Predicting delays in software projects using networked classification
Mon, Oct 26, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Hoa Khanh Dam, University of Wollongong, Australia
Talk Title: Predicting delays in software projects using networked classification
Series: CS Seminar Series
Abstract: One of the challenges in (software) project management is to make reliable prediction of delays in the context of constant and rapid changes inherent in (software) projects. In this talk, I will present our recent work in data-driven software engineering to provide automated support for project managers and other decision makers in predicting whether a subset of software tasks (among the hundreds to thousands of ongoing tasks) in a software project have a risk of being delayed. Our approach makes use of not only features specific to individual software tasks (i.e. local data) - as done in previous work - but also their relationships (i.e. networked data). In addition, using collective classification, our approach can simultaneously predict the degree of delay for a group of related tasks. Our evaluation results show a significant improvement over traditional approaches which perform classification on each task independently.
Biography: Dr Hoa Khanh Dam is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wollongong, Australia. He holds PhD and Master degrees in Computer Science from RMIT University, and Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of Melbourne in Australia. His work has won multiple Best Paper Awards (at WICSA, APCCM, and ASWEC) and ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (at MSR). His research has been published in the top venues in software engineering (ICSE, ASE, ER), AI/intelligent agents (AAMAS, JAAMAS), and service-oriented computing (ICSOC and BPM). He served as Program Co-Chair for the 17th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA) in 2014. Other major international conferences that he has been involved with include AAMAS (PC), ICSOC 2015 (Publication Chair and PC), ASWEC and EDOC 2015 (Publicity Chair). Prior to his academic career, he spent a number of years in the industry at various positions, including technical architect, project manager and software engineer. He is Associate Director for the Decision Systems Lab at the University of Wollongong. His research interests span across a number of areas in data-driven Software Engineering (e.g. applications of data mining and machine learning into software engineering), model-driven development and evolution, agent-oriented software engineering, service-oriented engineering and business process management.
Host: Teamcore Group
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 144
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 26, 2015 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Damien Rodger, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at the USC Eye Institute
Talk Title: Biomedical Microdevices for Use in Ophthalmology and Spinal Cord Injury
Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)
Abstract: The problems of outer retinal degeneration (ORD) and spinal cord injury (SCI) affect millions of people worldwide, often resulting in devastating blindess and para- or quadriplegia that strongly impair a person's activities of daily living and impact their level of happiness. to help thwart the effects of these diseases, novel flexible microtechnologies have been developed for functional electrical stimulation and recording in retinal and spinal cord prosthetics. Topics to be discussed include a revolutionary dual-metal-layer micro-electrode array fabrication scheme as well as high-density scalable packaging efficacy of these arrays in stimulating the neural targets and demonstrate their biostability. In addition, new devices are being investigated for intraocular pressure sensing as well as for ophthalmic patch grafts, which will briefly be discussed.
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, Oct 27, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Xiaoping Qian, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,University of Wisconsin-Madison
Talk Title: Topology Optimization of Multi-physics Systems
Host: Yong Chen
More Information: October 27, 2015_Xiaoping Qian.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shelly Lewis
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CS Colloquium: Yisong Yue (Caltech) - A Decision Tree Framework for Data-Driven Speech Animation
Tue, Oct 27, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yisong Yue, Caltech
Talk Title: A Decision Tree Framework for Data-Driven Speech Animation
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
In many animation projects, the animation artist typically spends significant time animating the face. This process involves many labor-intensive tasks that offer relatively little potential for creative expression. One particularly tedious task is speech animation: animating the face to match spoken audio. Indeed, the often prohibitive cost of speech animation has limited the types of animations that are feasible, including localization to different languages.
In this talk, I will show how to view speech animation through the lens of data-driven sequence prediction. In contrast to previous sequence prediction settings, visual speech animation is an instance of contextual spatiotemporal sequence prediction, where the output is continuous and high-dimensional (e.g., a configuration of the lower face), and also depends on an input context (e.g., audio or phonetic input).
I will present a decision tree framework for learning to generate context-dependent spatiotemporal sequences given training data. This approach enjoys several attractive properties, including ease of training, fast performance at test time, and the ability to robustly tolerate corrupted training data using a novel latent variable approach. I will showcase this approach in a case study on speech animation, where our approach outperforms several competitive baselines in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations, and also demonstrates strong robustness to corrupted training data.
This is joint work with Taehwan Kim, Sarah Taylor, Barry-John Theobald and Iain Matthews.
The lecture will be available to stream HERE.
Host: Yan Liu
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/535615811Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/535615811
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Le Val Lund Lecture on Lifeline Infrastructure and Community Resilience
Tue, Oct 27, 2015 @ 05:30 PM - 09:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Robert Kennedy, ASCE Le Val Lund Award Winner
Talk Title: Performance-Goal Based (Risk Informed) Seismic Design Criteria
Host: ASCE
More Info: http://www.ascemlab.org or http://ascemlab.org/index.php/event/24-second-annual-leval-lund-lecture-on-lifeline-infrastructure-and-community-resilience
More Information: ASCE Le Val Lund Lecture_Invitation Announcement_100215.pdf
Location: Town and Gown
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kaela Berry
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Academic Career Mentoring Panel Series
Wed, Oct 28, 2015 @ 11:30 AM - 01:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Doctoral Programs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. James Moore and Panel, Viterbi School of Engineering
Talk Title: New Options in Academe: Choosing Between Tenure-Track and Non Tenure-Track Faculty Appointments
Abstract: Viterbi PhD students and postdocs are invited to our Fall 2015 mentoring panel. Academe is changing, and doctoral graduates in engineering are presented with a wider array of career opportunities than ever before. Growth in non tenure-track faculty positions has been expansive nation-wide, and competition for tenure-track positions, while always intense, has become even more competitive. Graduates face choices between pursuing research faculty, teaching faculty, and tenure-track faculty positions at public and private institutions that may focus on teaching or research or both.
Moderated by:
James Moore
Vice Dean for Academic Programs
Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering;
Public Policy and Management; and Civil Engineering
Panel Members:
Michael Crowley
Associate Professor of Engineering Practice of
Information Technology and Director of the Information
Technology Program
Ewa Deelman
Research Associate Professor at the USC
Computer Science Department and a Project
Leader at the USC Information Science Institute
Jonathan Gratch
Director for Virtual Humans Research
Institute for Creative Technologies
Research Professor
Computer Science Department
Brent Liu
Associate Professor of Engineering Practice
PACS Research and Medical Image Informatics
Jeffrey Miller
Associate Professor of Engineering Practice,
Department of Computer Science
Amy Rechenmacher
Associate Professor of Engineering Practice
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/events/fall-2015-academic-career-mentoring-panel
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Ph.D. and Postdoctoral
Contact: Tracy Charles
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/events/fall-2015-academic-career-mentoring-panel
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Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Oct 28, 2015 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ayfer Ozgur, Stanford University
Talk Title: Energy Harvesting and Rechargeable Wireless Networks
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: Energy-harvesting and wireless power transfer are quickly becoming game-changing technologies for wireless systems. The promise of self-sustained perpetual operation opens exciting possibilities for a wide range of applications from smart homes and automated highways to in-body health monitoring.
However, energy harvesting also brings a fundamental shift in communication system design principles. In conventional systems, energy is a deterministic quantity continuously available to the transmitter and transmission is constrained only in terms of average power. In harvesting systems, energy generation can be slow, unpredictable and fluctuate significantly over time, and communication is constrained by the energy instantaneously available to the transmitter. This necessitates new principles for power control, communication and coding. In this talk, we investigate the information and communication-theoretic foundations for this new form of communication.
Biography: Ayfer Ozgur is an Assistant Professor in the Information Systems Laboratory at Stanford University since 2012. Before joining Stanford, she was a postdoctoral researcher and a Ph.D. student at EPFL, Switzerland. She received her Ph.D. degree from EPFL in 2009 and B.Sc. and M.Sc.degrees in electrical engineering and physics from Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 2001 and 2004 respectively. From 2001 to 2004, she worked as a hardware design engineer for the Defense Industries Research and Development Institute in Turkey. She received the EPFL Best Ph.D. Thesis Award (accross all areas) in 2010 and the NSFCAREER Award in 2013. Her research interests are in wireless and network communication, information and coding theory.
Host: Dr. Salman Avestimehr
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, Oct 28, 2015 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Felipe de Barros, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California
Talk Title: TBA
Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Host: Prof. Geoffrey Spedding
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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MFD - Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Distinguished Lecture: Ali Javey
Thu, Oct 29, 2015 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ali Javey, Univ. of California, Berkley
Talk Title: 2D Semiconductor Electronics: Advances, Challenges and Opportunities
Series: MFD Distinguished Lecture
Abstract: Two-dimensional (2-D) semiconductors exhibit excellent device characteristics, as well as novel optical, electrical, and optoelectronic characteristics. In this talk, I will present our recent advancements in defect passivation, contact engineering, surface charge transfer doping, and heterostructure devices of layered chalcogenides. We have developed a defect repair/passivation technique that allows for observation of near-unity quantum yield in monolayer MoS2. The work presents the first demonstration of an optoelectronically perfect monolayer. Forming Ohmic contacts for both electrons and holes is necessary in order to exploit the performance limits of enabled devices while shedding light on the intrinsic properties of a material system. In this regard, we have developed different strategies, including the use of surface charge transfer doping at the contacts to thin down the Schottky barriers, thereby, enabling efficient injection of electrons or holes. We have been able to show high performance n- and p-FETs with various 2D materials. Additionally, I will discuss the use of layered chalcogenides for various heterostructure device applications, exploiting charge transfer at the van der Waals heterointerfaces. I will also present progress towards achieving tunnel transistors using layered semiconductors.
Host: Prof. Jongseung Yoon
More Information: DLS JaveyAb.pdf
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jason Ordonez
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CS Colloquium: Nina Balcan (CMU) - Learning Submodular Functions
Thu, Oct 29, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nina Balcan , Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Learning Submodular Functions
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Submodular functions are discrete functions that model laws of diminishing returns and enjoy numerous applications in many areas, including algorithmic game theory, machine learning, and social networks. For example, submodular functions are commonly used to model valuation functions for bidders in auctions, and the influence of various subsets of agents in social networks. Traditionally it is assumed that these functions are known to the decision maker; however, for large scale systems, it is often the case they must be learned from observations.
In this talk, I will discuss a recent line of work on studying the learnability of submodular functions. I will describe general upper and lower bounds on the learnability of such functions that yield novel structural results about them of interest to many areas. I will also discuss even better guarantees that can be achieved for important classes that exhibit additional structure. These classes include probabilistic coverage functions that can be used to model the influence function in classic models of information diffusion in networks and functions with bounded complexity used in modeling bidder valuation functions in auctions.
I will also discuss an application of our algorithms for learning the influence functions in social networks, that outperforms existing approaches empirically in both synthetic and real world data.
This event will be available to stream HERE.
Biography: Maria-Florina Balcan is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Her main research interests are machine learning, computational aspects in economics and game theory, and algorithms. Her honors include the CMU SCS Distinguished Dissertation Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Microsoft Faculty Research Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and several paper awards. She was a Program Committee Co-chair for COLT 2014, and is currently a board member of the International Machine Learning Society and a Program Committee Co-chair for ICML 2016.
Host: Yan Liu
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Computer Engineering Seminar
Fri, Oct 30, 2015 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jae-sun Seo, Arizona State University
Talk Title: Efficient Digital Hardware Design for Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Algorithms
Abstract: In recent years, machine learning algorithms (e.g. convolutional neural networks, deformable parts model) have been widespread across a broad range of image, video, speech, and biomedical applications. For similar applications, there also has been a surge of interest in neuromorphic computing and spiking neural networks (e.g. TrueNorth), which more closely follow biological nervous systems. In this talk, we present our exemplary research work on efficient digital hardware design for both machine learning and neuromorphic algorithms.
On the machine learning side, algorithms trained by offline back propagation works well on pre-defined datasets, but state-of-the-art algorithms are compute-/memory-intensive, making it difficult to perform low-power real-time classification. Our prototype designs in FPGA and ASIC frameworks are presented that improve the energy-efficiency (GOPS/W) by optimizing computation, memory, and communication for representative large-scale networks.
On the neuromorphic side, the classification accuracies on MNIST or ImageNet datasets has not yet reached those of machine learning counterparts, but we find it suitable for unsupervised continuous online learning applications (e.g. defense, robotics, biomedical) aiming low power consumption. Building up on earlier work on on-chip STDP (spike-timing dependent plasticity) learning for pattern recognition (45nm) and spiking clustering for deep-brain sensing (65nm), we propose a versatile neuromorphic processor that can support various STDP learning and inhibition rules with large fan-in/out per neuron. Preliminary implementation results and future research directions will be discussed.
Biography: Jae-sun Seo received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 2010 in electrical engineering. From 2010 to 2013, he was with IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he worked on energy-efficient circuits for high-performance processors and neuromorphic chip design for the DARPA SyNAPSE project. In January 2014, he joined Arizona State University as an assistant professor in the School of ECEE. During the summer of 2015, he was a visiting faculty at Intel Circuit Research Labs. His research interests include efficient hardware design of learning algorithms and integrated power management. He received the IBM outstanding technical achievement award in 2012, and serves on the technical program committee for ISLPED.
Host: Prof. Massoud Pedram
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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AI Seminar
Fri, Oct 30, 2015 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Majid Janzamin, UC Irvine
Talk Title: Beating the Perils of Non-convexity: Guaranteed Training of Neural Networks Using Tensor Methods
Abstract: Training neural networks is a highly non-convex problem and in general is NP-hard. Local search methods such as gradient descent get stuck in spurious local optima, especially in high dimensions. We present a novel method based on tensor decomposition that trains a two-layer neural network with guaranteed risk bounds with polynomial sample and computational complexity. We also demonstrate how unsupervised learning can help in supervised tasks. In our context, we estimate probabilistic score functions via unsupervised learning which are then employed for training neural networks using tensor methods.
Biography: Majid Janzamin is a sixth year PhD student at the EECS Dept. at UC Irvine. He received his BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering, from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He has also visited and has done internship at Microsoft research labs at New England and Silicon Valley. His research interests are in the area of large-scale machine learning and high-dimensional statistics, and probabilistic modeling. In particular, he has worked on optimization methods for learning graphical models, and tensor methods for latent variable models.
Host: Ashish Vaswani
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=07a00eec98a44b81ab87fdfd8a6368151dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th floor large conference room
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=07a00eec98a44b81ab87fdfd8a6368151d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kary LAU
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Oct 30, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sina-Hasheminassab and Dongbin Wang, Astani CEE Ph.D. Students
Talk Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Munushian Keynote Seminar - Dr. Shuji Nakamura, "Development of Blue InGaN LEDs and Future lighting"
Fri, Oct 30, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Shuji Nakamura, UC Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Development of Blue InGaN LEDs and Future lighting
Abstract: The development of high brightness blue LEDs and blue laser diodes required many breakthroughs of GaN growth, p-type conductivity control, InGaN growth and device structures using InGaN/GaN double heterostructures. First, I will discuss the history and background story of the key scientific issues solved in order to realize high efficiency solid state lighting. The fundamental discovery of high quality p-type doping by removing hydrogen passivation, and the role of the InGaN layer in achieving high brightness blue LEDs and Laser Diodes will be described.
Next the speaker will talk about the GaN on GaN LEDs developed by Soraa. The peak wall-plug efficiency of the violet is 84%. There is an intrinsic problem of the LEDs that cannot be easily overcome. When we increase the current densities so high, a reduction in efficiency with increasing the current density is observed. This phenomena, referred to as efficiency droop, forces LED manufactures to operate LEDs at lower current densities (and hence reduced light output) than would be possible to prevent excess heating of the device. An alternative method to produce white light is by using a blue laser, as opposed to an LED, in combination with a phosphor. Above the lasing threshold, the carrier density is clamped at threshold, fixing its density. Increases in carrier density beyond the threshold density immediately contribute to stimulated emission, or lasing. Thus, the carrier density is maintained at the lower, threshold density, prohibiting it from reaching densities where the Auger recombination process becomes the dominant recombination process. Auger recombination, with the resulting efficiency droop, does not appreciably occur in blue laser diodes.
Biography: Shuji Nakamura was born on May 22, 1954 in Ehime, Japan. He obtained B.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokushima, Japan in 1977, 1979, and 1994, respectively. He joined Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd in 1979. In 1989, he started the research of blue LEDs using group-III nitride materials. In 1993 and 1995, he developed the first group-III nitride-based blue/green LEDs. He also developed the first group-III nitride-based violet laser diodes (LDs) in 1995. He is the 2014 Nobel Laureate in Physics for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.
Since 2000, he has been a professor of Materials and Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds more than 200 US patents and over 300 Japanese patents. He has published over 550 papers in his field. Prof. Nakamura is the Research Director of the Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center and The Cree Chair in Solid State Lighting & Displays. He co-founded Soraa, Inc. in 2008, which operates vertically integrated fabrication facilities in California's Silicon Valley and Santa Barbara.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/events/keynote/munushian/
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/events/keynote/munushian/
