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Events for October 21, 2020

  • CAIS Seminar: Rediet Abebe (University of California, Berkeley) – Modeling the Impact of Shocks on Poverty

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 01:00 AM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Rediet Abebe, University of California, Berkeley

    Talk Title: Modeling the Impact of Shocks on Poverty

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

    Abstract: Poverty is a multifaceted and dynamic phenomena impacting billions of people worldwide. Despite its prevalence, there remains much to be understood about what makes families susceptible to experiencing economic distress. In recent years, income shocks -- which constitute unexpected expenses or interruptions to one's income flow -- have garnered increased public attention as being intricately intertwined with poverty. Despite a vast body of empirical work showing the impact of shocks on welfare, they do not play a correspondingly central role in the design of assistance programs.

    In this talk, we present a mathematical and computational analysis of shocks. We pose a set of algorithmic questions about allocation of subsidies in the presence of shocks and present optimal and near-optimal solutions for various general settings. We computationally analyze the impact of shocks on poverty using a longitudinal, survey-based dataset, revealing insights about the interactions of different types of shocks. We discuss how these insights can inform the design and deployment of assistance programs and highlight new directions at this emerging interface between algorithms, public finance, and social work.


    Register in advance for this webinar at:
    https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EfIQ64OORgOCAzzjAnvFlQ

    After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.


    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Rediet Abebe is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and an incoming Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Abebe holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University and graduate degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. Her research is in artificial intelligence and algorithms, with a focus on equity and justice concerns. Abebe is a co-founder and co-organizer of the multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research initiative Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG). Her dissertation received the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award for offering the foundations of this emerging research area. Abebe's work has informed policy and practice at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. She has been honored in the MIT Technology Reviews' 35 Innovators Under 35 and the Bloomberg 50 list as a one to watch. Abebe also co-founded Black in AI, a non-profit organization tackling representation issues in AI. Her research is influenced by her upbringing in her hometown of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


    Host: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS)

    Location: Online – Zoom Webinar

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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  • Prospective Students: Chat with a USC Rep

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 06:00 AM - 07:00 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Interested in Master's or PhD programs in engineering or computer science?

    You are cordially invited to meet representatives from the Viterbi School of Engineering on an online webinar.

    Students who have earned or are in the process of earning a Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, mathematics, or a hard science (such as physics, biology, or chemistry) are welcome to attend to learn more about applying to our graduate programs.

    The session will include information on the following topics:

    - Master's & PhD programs in engineering and computer science
    - How to Apply
    - Scholarships and funding
    - Student life at USC and in Los Angeles

    There will also be sufficient time for questions.

    We look forward to seeing you there.
    Event Password: Fighton1

    Location: Webex

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=ece6bc80e83c72068b5adba2d8b90eb91

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: camila tabar

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  • Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Augustine Zvinavashe, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

    Talk Title: A Bioinspired Approach to Engineer the Seed Microenvironment to Alleviate Salinity Stress

    Abstract: See attached.

    Host: Dr. Adam Smith

    More Information: A. Zvinavashe_Abstract_Bio.pdf

    Location: Zoom Meeting

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Jorge Ortiz, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Rutgers University

    Talk Title: Human-Centered Intelligent Sensing Systems

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

    Abstract: This talk is about the design of systems and algorithms for sensing systems that interact directly with humans. I will discuss our work in the Cyber Physical Intelligence lab (CyPhy-Lab) at Rutgers University where we study sensing systems that learn about human behavior, from human feedback, and with humans to improve system objectives and enhance people's lives. I will describe three on-going projects that explore these themes more precisely. First I will describe PillSense, a smart pillbox system for medication adherence. This system helps us learn about how humans take their medication and how physical design is tightly coupled to the system's ability to identify users effectively. We describe two pill box designs and associated algorithms to address the challenges posed. Then, I will discuss our on-going project Maestro, a system that learns from humans to fill the semantic gap between sensor measurements and their interpretation, in order to facilitate the construction of smart ambient-sensing applications in buildings. Finally, I will discuss project Paz, a system that attempts to learn when to interact with humans as we work to facilitate agent-human collaboration to both attain system objectives (i.e. efficiency) and enhance human productivity, comfort, and entertainment.

    Biography: Jorge Ortiz is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University where he directs the Cyber-Physical Intelligence Lab (CyPhy-Lab) and is where he is also a member of the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB). His work focuses on building and studying sensing systems that learn about human behavior, from human feedback, and with humans to improve system objectives and enhance people's lives. These include a broad range of sensing systems including smart objects, smart built environments, and smart cities, more broadly. Prior to joining Rutgers in 2018, he was a Research Staff Member at IBM Research working on machine learning and the internet of things. In the five years he was at IBM, he attained 12 patents and published in multiple top academic conferences, journals, and books and was awarded 'Best Poster' at IEEE/ACM IPSN '08, two 'Best Paper Runner-ups' at Buildsys '15, 'Best Paper' at ICISSP '18, and 'Best Paper Runner-up' at IoTDI '19. At IBM he led teams to commercialize two major research projects and bring them to market. Dr. Ortiz also has extensive industry experience, which includes several years at Oracle Corporation and has worked at and led multiple startups. He is currently serving as co-TPC chair for Buildsys 2020. Dr. Ortiz attained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2013, M.S. in Computer Science from Berkeley in 2010, and a BS in Computer Science from MIT in 2003.

    Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo, nuzzo@usc.edu

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YSl0DRVOQJetWGNAACPOYQ

    Location: Online

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YSl0DRVOQJetWGNAACPOYQ

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. – Machine Learning/Deep Learning Info Session

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. would like to invite you to their Virtual Open House Info Session Series!

    Topic: Machine Learning/Deep Learning
    Dates: Wednesday, October 21
    Time: 2:00 PM PST / 5:00 PM EST
    Duration: 1 hour

    Please go to Viterbi Career Gateway for more registration information.

    At these events, students will learn about Samsung Semiconductors (SSI) Intern Program and the opportunities Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. have available for summer 2021. The events focus around five different functional areas and each day, they will feature a speaker from one of their R&D labs. At SSI, students have the opportunity to work with the teams that create new computing system architectures needed to support emerging machine learning applications, internet of things (IoT) and edge computing that benefit millions of users. The program will give students the opportunity to work on unique solutions that address some of the world's most complex technological challenges.

    Come join SSI and find out what exciting opportunities they have planned for the summer interns in 2021 and have a chance to win some Samsung prizes!

    More Information: SAMSUNG FLYER.jpg

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • AME Seminar

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Mitul Luhar, USC

    Talk Title: Tunable Porous and Patterned Surfaces for Turbulence Control

    Abstract: Control of wall-bounded turbulent flows has been an important area of research for several decades. However, the development of effective control techniques has been hindered by the limited availability of computationally tractable models that can guide design and optimization. This talk describes extensions of the resolvent analysis formalism that seek to address this limitation. Under the resolvent formulation, the turbulent velocity field is expressed as a superposition of propagating modes (resolvent modes) identified via a gain-based decomposition of the Navier-Stokes equations. Control is introduced into this framework via changes to the boundary conditions or through additional forcing terms in the governing equations. These changes alter the structure and gain of resolvent modes, whereby a reduction in gain is shown to be indicative of mode suppression and drag reduction. This modeling framework reproduces previous observations for passive control techniques such as sharkskin-inspired riblets, compliant walls, and anisotropic porous materials with minimal computation. Ongoing work builds on these observations to develop optimization routines for riblet shape and to design, fabricate, and test porous materials that can passively control turbulent flows

    Biography: Mitul Luhar joined the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC as Assistant Professor in January 2015 and was appointed as the Henry Salvatori Early Career Chair in 2020. He has received the AFOSR Young Investigator Program award as well as the NSF Career award. Prior to joining USC, Mitul was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT in 2012, and his B.A. and M.Eng. degrees in Engineering from Cambridge University in 2007.

    Host: AME Department

    More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96299159490

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96299159490

    Location: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96299159490

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96299159490

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

    Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96299159490

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  • MS vs PhD Choosing your Adventure!

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Doctoral Programs, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission, Viterbi School of Engineering Masters Programs, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Learn about USC Viterbi's Master and Doctoral program offerings as well as tips on how to decide which degree path is right for you!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=ee8d52b2644eb6153aa692187753f8873

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Kevin Henry

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  • Student Organizations: How to Keep Members Engaged Virtually

    Wed, Oct 21, 2020 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations, Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    Student Activity


    As we are weeks into the semester of virtual learning, we understand that zoom fatigue is real. After taking all our classes online, it can be tiring to think of doing other activities online as well. However, what are ways that we can keep our organizations' members engaged and active while navigating this virtual space? Join us as we explore ways to create an interactive and meaningful experience for members within our organizations.

    For questions or more information contact: Viterbi.UnderGradProg@vsoe.usc.edu

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99365289649

    Audiences: Undergrad

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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