Select a calendar:
Filter November Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for November 14, 2008
-
USC Transfer Day
Fri, Nov 14, 2008 @ 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
The program includes a campus tour and special presentations for transfer students about admission, financial aid, transfer credit, and engineering programs. Reservations are required. To make the most of the visit, students are encouraged to bring copies of their college transcripts. Please call (213) 740-6616 for more information and to make a reservation.
Location: USC University Park Campus
Audiences: Prospective transfer students and families
Contact: Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs Division
-
W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium: The Foundations of the Digital Wireless World
Fri, Nov 14, 2008 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lecture offered by Dr. Andrew Viterbi, Co-Founder of Qualcomm, Inventor of the Viterbi Algorithm, Electrical Engineering Professor at UCSD, and President of Viterbi Group
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Honors Program Students and All USC Faculty and Staff are Invited to Attend
Contact: Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
-
Nonlinear Light Matter Interactions in Slow Light Photonic Structures: Performance Metrics
Fri, Nov 14, 2008 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jacob B. Khurgin,
Johns Hopkins UniversityAbstract: Strong confinement of the electromagnetic field and reduction of the group velocity can be achieved in various Slow Light Structures can greatly enhance the strength of light matter interactions. These interactions include various nonlinear effects as well as spontaneous emission. Based on these well understood observations a number of devices based on slow light had been proposed, including all-optical and electro-optical modulators and switches, various sensors, and the devices for quantum communication and information processing.All these slow light devices inevitably rely upon existence of strong optical resonances, and the resonances are always accompanied by strong dispersion and significant loss. As a result, the bandwidth of SL devices becomes limited.In this presentation I will address the issue of trade off between the bandwidth and other important characteristics of SL devices – switching power, size, average power dissipation, noise floor, and others. I will show that different photonic schemes (for example single rather than coupled resonators) may be more applicable for different nonlinear effects. I will identify the most promising application niches for the nonlinear devices based on slow light.Biography: Jacob B. Khurgin had graduated with MS in Optics from the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics in St Petersburg, Russia in 1979, where he was also born before that. In 1980 he had emigrated to US, and, to his own great surprise, immediately landed what then seemed to be a meaningful job with Philips Laboratories of NV Philips in Briarcliff Manor, NY. There for 8 years he worked with various degrees of success on miniature solid-state lasers, II-VI semiconductor lasers, various display and lighting fixtures, X-ray imaging, and small appliances such as electric shavers and coffeemakers (for which he has 3 patents). Simultaneously he was pursuing his graduate studies at Polytechnic Institute of NY, where he had received PhD in Electro-physics in Jan. 1987. In Jan. 1988, prompted by a promotion to a Department Manager, Khurgin's industrial career came to an abrupt end, and he had joined the Electrical Engineering department of Johns Hopkins University, where he had settled down and is currently a Professor. His research topics over the years included an eclectic mixture of optics of semiconductor nanostructures, nonlinear optical devices, optical communications, microwave photonics, and condensed matter physics. Currently he is working in the areas of laser cooling, phonon engineering for high frequency transistors, coherent optical communications, and slow light propagation. His publications include 2 book chapters, one book edited, 170+ papers in refereed journals and 8 patents. Prof. Khurgin is an OSA Fellow.Host: Alan Willner, willner@usc.edu, EEB 538, x04664Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 539
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
Optimizing Locomotion: Learning Control at Intermediate Reynolds Number
Fri, Nov 14, 2008 @ 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Russ Tedrake, MIT
Host: Prof. Gaurav SukhatmeAbstract:
In this talk I'll describe our efforts in using computational tools from optimal control theory (including machine learning and motion planning algorithms) to design efficient and agile control systems for locomotion. In particular, I'll emphasize new results applying these ideas to bird-scale aerial vehicles in complicated fluid regimes. Fluid dynamics, particularly at intermediate Reynolds numbers, represents one of the hard sciences where experiments still have a clear advantage over theory. It also happens that this dynamic regime offers some incredibly exciting controls problems; problems where classical control approaches have not made significant progress. I will argue that optimal control methods based on approximate models and model-free reinforcement learning methods are very well-suited to these regimes and may be the most natural route to finding efficient, high-performance control solutions. I'll describe our learning experiments with robotic birds (which fly with flapping wings) and with an airplane that can land on a perch. I will also briefly describe how these tools can be applied naturally to the control of minimally-actuated walking machines on rough terrain.Biography:
Russ Tedrake is the X Consortium Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. He received his B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1999, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2004, working with Sebastian Seung. After graduation, he joined the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department as a Postdoctoral Associate. In 2008, he received an NSF CAREER award, the MIT Jerome Saltzer award for undergraduate teaching, and was named a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellow.Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 406
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Colloquia
