USC - Viterbi School of Engineering

Nov
15

Meet USC: Admission Presentation, Campus Tour, & Engineering Talk
Fri, Nov 15, 2013
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Receptions & Special Events

This half day program is designed for prospective freshmen and family members. Meet USC includes an information session on the University and the Admission process; a student led walking tour of campus and a meeting with us in the Viterbi School. Meet USC is designed to answer all of your questions about USC, the application process and financial aid. Reservations are required for Meet USC. This program occurs twice, once at 8:30 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m. Please visit https://esdweb.esd.usc.edu/unresrsvp/MeetUSC.aspx to check availability and make an appointment. Be sure to list an Engineering major as your "intended major" on the webform!
Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - USC Admission Office
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Viterbi Admission
Nov
15

USC Physical Sciences in Oncology Monthly Seminar Series
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 11:45 AM - 01:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: PETER KUHN, PH.D., Associate Professor, Cell Biology, TSRI, Scripps Research Institute

Talk Title: Time as the Fourth Dimension of Cancer Complexity

Abstract: Time as the Fourth Dimension of Cancer Complexity Tumor heterogeneity is the result of both genomic instabilities and mircoenvironmental adaptations under both natural evolution of the disease and treatment pressures. Heterogeneity is mostly evaluated at the cellular level considering the individual cell as the biological unit. We have established a framework of single cell analyses that can integrate high content data at the phenotypic and genotypic level. The number of biological units/single cells analyzed provides the measure of resolution of the quantified heterogeneity. The high-content analysis utilizes the high-definition circulating tumor cell (HD-CTC) assay, which provides for an enrichment-free approach to identify and characterize rare cells. We utilized the HD-CTC assay to study protein biomarker expression combined with single-nucleus sequencing for genome-wide analysis of copy number variation (CNV) in fluid and solid biopsies with sequential sampling over the course of disease evolution. Standardized sample preparation methods that enables quantitative comparisons of multiple specimen types both intra- and inter-patient as well as along the timeline of cancer evolution.

Biography: USC was selected to establish a $16 million cancer research center as part of a new strategy against the disease by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and its National Cancer Institute. The new center is one of 12 in the nation to receive the designation. During the five-year initiative, the Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers will take new, nontraditional approaches to cancer research by studying the physical laws and principles of cancer; evolution and the evolutionary theory of cancer; information coding, decoding, transfer and translation in cancer; and ways to de-convolute cancer's complexity. As part of the outreach component of this grant, the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine is hosting a monthly seminar series.

Host: USC PSOC

More Information: USC-PSOC_MonthlySeminar.pdf
Location: Clinical Science Center (CSC) - Harkness Auditorium #250
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Kristina Gerber
Nov
15

The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Jeff Bautista, Systems Engineer, Vehicle Analysis & Design Integration, Northrop Grumman Corporation

Talk Title: The James Webb Space Telescope

Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program

Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Christine Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs
Nov
15

DEN@Viterbi Open House
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Receptions & Special Events

DEN@Viterbi is hosting an Open House on Friday, November 15, from 3:00pm - 5:00pm. Meet with the DEN@Viterbi team, take a tour of our classrooms and enjoy a networking reception.

This event is for DEN@Viterbi corporate partners and current students. We encourage our current students to bring colleagues and managers from your organization who may be interested in learning more about our #1 ranked Online Graduate Engineering Program by US News & World Report.

Interested in attending? Email DEN@Viterbi.usc.edu.

More Information & RSVP
Audiences: RSVP Required

Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Nov
15

Information Session: Master of Cyber Security
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions

The Master of Cyber Security program at USC provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to administer environments which require high levels of information security, both from the standpoint of the principles of information protection and the role and application technology has in meeting the goal of information protection. Students will have hands-on experience in situations that simulate real world scenarios with all technical and theoretical situations through extensive laboratory work, which are designed by current and former information security practitioners.

Join us to learn more about this exciting new program and to ask questions of USC representatives.

Register Now
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 114
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Laura Hartman
Nov
15

NL Seminar- Vikram Ramanarayanan: "Data-Driven Techniques for Modeling Speech Motor Control"
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Vikram Ramanarayanan , USC

Talk Title: "Data-Driven Techniques for Modeling Speech Motor Control"

Series: Natural Language Seminar

Abstract: Modeling the ways in which humans produce and perceive various forms of behavioral communication, such as speech, pose many diverse challenges. For instance, from a controls perspective, it is important to understand and model how control and coordination of various biological actuators in human body is achieved order to produce motor actions. From a signal processing perspective, we would like to discover novel representations or system architectures that are used in order to effect this coordination.

We present a computational, data-driven approach to derive interpretable movement primitives from speech articulation data in a bottom-up manner. It puts forth a convolutive Nonnegative Matrix Factorization algorithm with sparseness constraints (cNMFsc) to decompose a given data matrix into a set of spatio-temporal basis sequences and an activation matrix. The algorithm optimizes a cost function that trades off the mismatch between the proposed model and the input data against the number of primitives that are active at any given instant. We further argue that such primitives can be modeled using nonlinear dynamical systems in a control-theoretic framework for speech motor control. Specifically, we extend our approach to extract a spatio-temporal dictionary of control primitives (sequences of control parameters), which can then be used to control a dynamical systems model of the vocal tract to produce any desired sequence of movements. Although the method is particularly applied to measured and synthesized articulatory data in our case, the framework is general and can be applied to any multivariate timeseries. The results suggest that the proposed algorithm extracts movement primitives from human speech production data that are linguistically interpretable.

Biography: Home Page:

http://sail.usc.edu/~vramanar/

Host: Yang Gao

More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/

Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Peter Zamar

Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Nov
15

Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Prof. Naveen Verma, Princeton University

Talk Title: Blending Electronics with the Physical World: sensing lots of signals from complex processes

Series: Integrated Systems Seminar Series

Abstract: Think about some of the physical systems with which we would like electronics to interact: physiological systems, high-value industrial equipment, critical infrastructureâ¦. These systems are complex, both in terms of the number of signals they present, and in terms of how those signals represent information. In this talk I will describe some of the hardware platforms we are pursuing to handle these complexities. By sensing âcomplex processes’, I am referring to an ability to make sense of embedded signals for which no tractable analytical models exist. Instead, we look at how sensor data can itself be used as a knowledge base, exploiting the data-acquisition capabilities of sensor networks towards the construction of high-quality data-driven models. Machine learning gives us powerful frameworks for data-driven analysis; the question is how to create very-low-power hardware to enable such frameworks within energy-constrained sensor devices. I will describe our work on low-power medical sensors for disease monitoring and harm detection. Sensing âlots of signals’ implies the ability to acquire embedded signals on a much larger scale than current technologies are equipped to handle. Large-area electronics is a technology that can enable the creation of large, flexible arrays of diverse transducers for sensing and energy harvesting. To build complete systems, however, substantial embedded computation, instrumentation, and power management capabilities are also required. We investigate scalable methods and architectures for combining large-area electronics with CMOS ICs to exploit the complementary strengths of both technologies towards translatable systems. I will describe our work towards smart infrastructure, using flexible sensing sheets to build complete, self-powered systems for high-resolution structural-health monitoring of bridges.

Biography: Naveen Verma received the B.A.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in 2003 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2009 respectively. Since July 2009 he has been an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. His research focuses on advanced sensing systems, including low-voltage digital logic and SRAMs, low-noise analog instrumentation and data-conversion, large-area sensing arrays based on flexible electronics, and low-energy algorithms for embedded inference, especially for medical applications. Prof. Verma is recipient or co-recipient of the 2006 DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest Award, 2008 ISSCC Jack Kilby Paper Award, 2012 Princeton Innovation Forum 1st Prize, 2012 Alfred Rheinstein Princeton Junior Faculty Award, 2013 NSF CAREER Award, and 2013 Intel Early Career Honor Award.

Host: Hossien Hashemi, Mike Chen, Mahta Moghaddam, Kunal Datta

More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/

More Information: Naveen Verma_Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - EEB 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Danielle Hamra

Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
Nov
15

Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Nov 15, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Dr. Nizar Lajnef, Department of Civil Engineering, Michigan State University

Talk Title: Piezoelectric Driven Floating-Gate Sensors for Long-term Structural Usage Monitoring

Abstract:
A major step toward achieving an effective structural health and usage monitoring system is to enable autonomous sensing, reliable events identification and classification, and self-adaptive capabilities in structural components. This introduces novel design methodologies and forces a rethinking of the definition of multifunctional structures beyond the classical concept based only on load bearing elements. The main obstacle hindering such developments remains the availability of a reliable and continuous source of power. Energy harvesting from ambient signals is presented as a potential solution. In addition, many events of interest in structural engineering occur at frequencies significantly lower than one Hertz. This poses a significant challenge for developing self-powered sensors that are required not only to monitor rare infrasonic events but also to harvest the energy for sensing, computation and storage from the signals being monitored.
The objective of this talk is to present an overview of on-going work aimed at the development of novel self-powered sensing systems that can be applied toward the long-term monitoring of structural components. The novel modules are based on the integration of piezoelectric transducers and mechanically equivalent frequency modulators and energy concentrators, with an array of ultra-low power floating gate computational circuits. The miniaturized battery-less wireless sensors will be capable of detecting and recording a compressed version of the strain, acceleration, and spectral response history of the monitored structure. Associated data interpretation and damage prediction techniques, based on the strain data, are also discussed.

Host: Prof. Sami Masri

Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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