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Events for November 10, 2009
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Threat And Error Management Development - Nov.10-12, 2009
Tue, Nov 10, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
TEM 10-1
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.Audiences: Registered Audiences Only
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Control Science, Artificial Intelligence and the Use of Statistical Methods
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 @ 03:45 PM - 04:45 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Distinguished Lecturer Series
Dr. Roger Brockett, Harvard UniversityAbstract:
When first discussed by Wiener, cybernetics captured the imagination of the scientific public and served as the rallying cry for groups of scientists and engineers seeking a broadly encompassing view of what engineering and life scientists might hope to achieve by working together. Aided by the work of luminaries such as John von Neumann and Claude Shannon, a rosy picture emerged, warmed by the aura of mathematical truth. Looking back, it seems fair to say that the results achieved by this movement in the 50's and 60's are more apparent in terms of the organizations and journals that flourished, rather than the new modes of thought that emerged. When the proponents of artificial intelligence came along a bit later, cybernetics was not able to hold its ground. The same fate awaited artificial intelligence as its first summer soon fell prey to the famous A. I. winter during which it lost considerable credibility. However, today we have, for example, robots that do our work and search engines that supplement our memory, fulfilling at least part of the vision that fueled the early hopes for cybernetics. In this talk we will trace this history and peer into the future, interpreting the various stages of these developments in terms of the mathematical paradigms each stage relied on. In a nutshell, Wiener set the world down a path dominated by continuous mathematics, Fourier transforms, and stationary stochastic processes. A. I. took different path based on the expectation that loosely structured computer programs could replicate in machine form, most of what was needed. Neither was entirely successful. At the present time, data collection and data processing are important parts of many of the more impressive real time applications. It will be argued that to attain the "broadly encompassing view of information processing in engineering and life science" sought by earlier researchers we must find a suitable place for these topics as well. Some examples will be given.Biography:
Roger Brockett is the An Wang professor of electrical engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University. He has been exploring questions in engineering and applied sciences since starting graduate school in 1960, and has been teaching since his appointment as an Assistant Professor at MIT in 1963. He is one of the most influential pioneers and leaders in the field of systems and control theory with seminal contributions to differential geometric methods in nonlinear control, the geometric approach to the sufficient statistics problem in nonlinear estimation, formal languages for motion control, hybrid systems, flows for computation related to integrable systems, stabilization theory, quantum control, and, most recently, optimal control of Markov processes. He has received major awards from IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics), and AACC (American Automatic Control Council), is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and is this year recipient of the IEEE Leon Kirchmayer Award for Graduate Education. He has directed more than 60 Ph.D. theses and authored about 200 research papers.Reception to follow
SAL Lobby
4:45PM - 5:30PM
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - -101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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CS Colloq: Matt Zucker
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 @ 04:00 PM - 05:50 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Combining Planning and Optimization for Rough Terrain LocomotionAbstract:Motion planning for rough-terrain legged robots is a difficult task, not only due to the high dimensionality of robot configuration spaces, but also due to the variety of kinematic, dynamic, and collision constraints which need to be met at all times. While producing optimal walking behavior is desirable, searching the space of all posible robot motions remains intractible for non-trival robotic systems. In this talk, I describe a hierarchy of planning and optimization algorithms that decomposes the planning problem into a sequence of decisions which can be efficiently solved in order to produce real-time locomotion over rough terrain. My software architecture has been successfully used over the past year to guide the LittleDog quadruped robot over a variety of terrain types. Beyond this specific software architecture, I will also discuss the ways in which machine learning and optimization techniques can increase the speed and quality of motion planning algorithms, and highlight lessons learned on how to decompose a high-level planning task into a tractable set of sub-problems.Bio:Matt Zucker is a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where he works on motion planning for high degree-of-freedom robotic platforms. His research focuses on leveraging numerical optimization and machine learning techniques in order to improve planning speed and quality. Before graduate school, Matt worked from 2000-2005 writing software for autonomous underwater vehicles at Bluefin Robotics Corporation in Cambridge, MA. He expects to graduate from the Robotics Institute in the summer of 2010.Host: Prof. Stefan Schaal
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Front Desk
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Alcon Information Session
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 @ 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori (GFS) 106
Audiences: All Viterbi Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Stem Cells - Whats all the hype about
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 @ 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
In March 2009, President Obama lifted the 8 year ban on embryonic stem cell research. Now, almost every university in the United States has some professors conducting stem cell research. Multiple biotechnology companies also want to get involved in stem cells. Everyone is hailing stem cells as the next big thing in biotechnology. Is this just hype about stem cells? Are they really worth all the money that is being put into them? To answer such questions and more, ASBME has organized a discussion session to better inform people about stem cells, their uses and their challenges. The discussion will be led by Eric Schulze, PhD candidate in the USC Programs in Biomedical and Biological Science (PIBBS) program. Emphasis of the discussion will be on stem cells and their potential as well as traps to watch out for. As the biomedical engineering student organization, we hope to help students better understand this emerging field in biotechnology.
Please RSVP @ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168321568469Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 252
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering
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Discover USC: Beijing
Tue, Nov 10, 2009 @ 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Receptions & Special Events
Members of the admission staff will present about the majors and programs available at the Viterbi School of Engineering and USC.
Location: Shangri-La Kerry Centre Hotel
Audiences: Prospective Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Contact: Viterbi Admission
