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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for November
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Special NL Seminar-Jerry Hobbs :
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jerry Hobbs , USC/ISI
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: This talk is the talk I gave at the ACL meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, in August, on receiving the ACL Lifetime Achievement Award. In line with the developing tradition, it is a mixture of personal anecdotes, moments in the history of computational linguistics that I witnessed, and technical material. The last of these includes issues of representation, interpretation, and encoding commonsense knowledge.
Biography: Dr. Jerry R. Hobbs is a prominent researcher in the fields of computational linguistics, discourse analysis, and artificial intelligence. He earned his doctor's degree from New York University in 1974 in computer science. He has taught at Yale University and the City University of New York. From 1977 to 2002 he was with the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International, Menlo Park, California, where he was a Principal Scientist and Program Director of the Natural Language Program. He has written numerous papers in the areas of parsing, syntax, semantic interpretation, information extraction, knowledge representation, encoding commonsense knowledge, discourse analysis, the structure of conversation, and the Semantic Web. He has done groundbreaking work in the areas of granularity, representing qualitative concepts, encoding commonsense psychology, and interpreting natural language using abduction. He is the author of the book "Literature and Cognition", and was also editor of the book "Formal Theories of the Commonsense World". He led SRI's text-understanding research, and directed the development of the abduction-based TACITUS system for text understanding, and the FASTUS system for rapid extraction of information from text based on finite-state transducers. The latter system constituted the basis for an SRI spinoff, Discern Communications. In September 2002 he took a position as research professor and ISI Fellow at the Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, where he is now Director of the Natural Language Group. He has been a consulting professor with the Linguistics Department and the Symbolic Systems Program at Stanford University. He has served as general editor of the Ablex Series on Artificial Intelligence. He is a past president of the Association for Computational Linguistics, and is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. In January 2003 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. In August 2013 he received the Association for Computational Linguistics Lifetime Achievement Award.
Home Page:
http://www.isi.edu/~hobbs/
Host: Yigal Arens
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=03df553d72e24a42812609633886ee281dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rms # 1135 & #1137, Marina Del Rey
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=03df553d72e24a42812609633886ee281d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Two New Approaches to Massive MIMO
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ralf Mueller, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
Talk Title: Two New Approaches to Massive MIMO
Abstract: Massive MIMO systems are promising for solving the wireless bottleneck. Still some fundamental issues in massive MIMO are open. In this talk two of them are addressed: 1) The channel estimation problem which is often referred to as "pilot contamination". 2) The cost scaling problem which arises from the massive use of analog hardware. Concerning 1), a system design based on power-controlled handover and non-linear channel estimation is proposed. In particular, the signal subspaces occupied by intercell and intracell users are blindly separated by means of singular value decomposition. Concerning 2), a new hardware structure to generate RF signals is proposed. This structure avoids mixers and the need for linear power amplifiers. It consists of a single RF oscillator common to all antenna elements that is driving varying imaginary impedances and makes use of the law of large numbers for impedance matching.
Biography: Prof. Müller was born in Schwabach, Germany, 1970. He received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degree with distinction from the Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU) Erlangen-Nuremberg in 1996 and 1999, respectively. From 2000 to 2004, he directed a research group at Vienna Telecommunications Research Center in Vienna, Austria and taught as an adjunct professor at Vienna University of Technology. In 2005, he was appointment full professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. In 2013, he joined the Institute for Digital Communications at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg in Erlangen, Germany. He held visiting appointments at Princeton University, US, Institute Eurecom, France, University of Melbourne, Australia, University of Oulu, Finland, National University of Singapore, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Kyoto University, Japan, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and Munich University of Technology.
Prof. Müller received the Leonard G. Abraham Prize (jointly with Sergio Verdú) for the paper "Design and analysis of low-complexity interference mitigation on vector channels'' from the IEEE Communications Society. He was presented awards for his dissertation "Power and bandwidth efficiency of multiuser systems with random spreading'' by the Vodafone Foundation for Mobile Communications and the German Information Technology Society (ITG). Moreover, he received the ITG award for the paper "A random matrix model for communication via antenna arrays,'' as well as the Philipp-Reis Award (jointly with Robert Fischer). Prof. Müller served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2003 to 2006
Host: Giuseppe Caire, caire@usc.edu, EEB 540, x04683
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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CS Colloquium - Mahendra Shrestha: Wildlife Crime – Threat to Survival of Endangered Species
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Mahendra Shrestha, Government of Nepal
Talk Title: Wildlife Crime â Threat to Survival of Endangered Species
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Many rare and endangered species in the wild are at the brink of extinction due to escalated poaching pressure driven by persistent international market demand representing an international crisis. Conservation area management teams on the ground are fighting a war against the relentless threat from poaching with very limited resources putting their own lives at risk. Poaching is no more committed by poor farmers opportunistically to sustain their livelihood. It has expanded to a well-organized business undertaken by transnational criminal syndicates. This transnational wildlife crime generating billions of dollars in illicit revenues pose risk to national and international securities as well as risk of spread of emerging infectious diseases. Most of the reserves, the source of such crime, are quite often limited with low number of frontline staff, their capacity, equipment, and organizational structure. In contrary, the criminals are far ahead on every one of these - they are well equipped with full financial back up and well organized with a good network of trans-national criminal network. This low risk high gain business is attracting international criminals. Continuous decline in population of wildlife species such as tiger, elephants, rhino, apes, and many others clearly indicates that the existing efforts and strategy against wildlife crime is not working well. This generation will witness permanent disappearance of many species from the face of this earth if the management and enforcement strategy is not improved using latest tools and technology and strong commitment from the world leaders. Capacity building of front line conservation practitioners and enforcement agencies on strategic use of available limited resources in making the law enforcement interventions effective in deterring criminals is essential.
Teamcore is pleased to host this upcoming seminar featuring Dr. Mahendra Shrestha. Seminar details are below. Please RSVP by emailing Benjamin Ford at benjamif@usc.edu.
If you would like to meet with Dr. Shrestha, please email Benjamin Ford at benjamif@usc.edu by October 29.
Biography: Mahendra Shrestha has more than 15 years of experience in reserve management and conservation policy making for the Government of Nepal. His PhD research on the Terai Arc Landscape for Tiger Conservation revealed useful information to facilitate the policy decision by the Government of Nepal on the conservation of a landscape extending more than 50,000 sq km in India and Nepal encompassing 12 protected areas. His support and local leadership development has resulted into establishment of new protected areas and restoration of connectivity in this landscape. He works closely with governments and NGOs in 13 tiger range countries in Asia to enhance reserve management for population recovery of wildlife species and local leadership development. He has played an important role in engaging the World Bank to launch the Global Tiger Initiative leading to the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2010 that helped build the necessary commitment from the political leaders as well as from the conservation community for tiger conservation. He had led the Save The Tiger Fund program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington, DC to support tiger conservation projects in tiger range countries in the past. Currently, he heads the Tiger Conservation Partnership program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, DC. His program is focused on capacity building in reserve management, institutional capacity building and leadership development.
Host: Milind Tambe
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Kenneth Nealson, Wrigley Professor of Environmental Science, USC Department of Earth Sciences
Talk Title: Searching for Intra-Terrestrials: Life in the Subsurface
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
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NL Seminar- Greg Ver Steeg:
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Greg Ver Steeg, USC/ISI
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Because natural language is complex, researchers in many domains look for lower-dimensional representations of text to suit their purposes. Different methods attempt to single out intuitive aspects of language like content, sentiment, or style. I will discuss a new, unsupervised approach to learning abstract representations of text (or other high-dimensional signals). The motivating principle is to use information theory to construct higher-order features that explain correlations between lower-order features. I will present preliminary results using this framework.
Biography: Greg Ver Steeg is a research professor at ISI. His research explores practical methods for inferring meaningful structure in complex systems like social networks. He did his PhD in quantum physics at Caltech.
Home Page:
http://www.isi.edu/people/gregv/about
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/
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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Harish Krishnaswamy, Columbia University
Talk Title: Power Generation in CMOS from RF to THz: A Spectrum of Challenges and Opportunities
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Abstract: Technology scaling has enabled CMOS to serve as a platform for the implementation of a wide range of wireless systems operating from radio frequencies to terahertz. However, while we have seen steady (actually, somewhat slowing) increases in speed with technology scaling, this has been accompanied by the inevitable shrinking of supply and breakdown voltages. Consequently, power generation in CMOS is plagued by fundamental trade-offs between output power, efficiency, fidelity and operating frequency. The RF, millimeter-wave and terahertz frequency ranges represent different points in this multi-dimensional trade-off, but each is faced with fundamental challenges dictated by application requirements.
mmWave power amplifiers have traditionally been limited to output power levels that are lower than 100mW and efficiencies lower than 20% due to the need to use scaled technologies with low supply voltages of around 1V. In this presentation, I will describe techniques developed at Columbia University, including device stacking, switch-mode operation at mmWave and low-loss on-chip power combining, that have enabled the first watt-class mmWave PA in CMOS.
At RF frequencies, speed can be traded-off for output power and consequently, watt-level output power is relatively straightforward. However, precision and signal fidelity, manifested as out-of-band emissions, are fundamental challenges, particularly for reconfigurable radios with reduced front-end filtering. This presentation will cover techniques recently developed at Columbia for receiver-band noise filtering in watt-level "digital PAs" and active cancellation of transmitter leakage and noise in reconfigurable receivers. These techniques enable frequency-division-duplexing in reconfigurable radios with relaxed transmitter-receiver isolation.
Finally, terahertz frequencies lie beyond the maximum operating frequencies of today's CMOS devices. I will briefly touch upon techniques that leverage device non-linearity to enable terahertz signal generation in CMOS in the milliwatt power envelope.
Biography: Harish Krishnaswamy received the B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, India, in 2001, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2003 and 2009, respectively. He joined the EE department of Columbia University as an Assistant Professor in 2009. His research group at Columbia, funded by various federal agencies, including NSF and DARPA, and industry, focuses on various topics related to devices, circuits and systems for wireless communication, radar, imaging and sensing in the RF, millimeter-wave and terahertz frequency ranges. He received the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Lewis Winner Award for Outstanding Paper in 2007. He also received the Best Thesis in Experimental Research Award from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2009, and the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2011
Host: Hossien Hashemi, Mike Chen, Mahta Moghaddam, Kunal Datta
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
More Information: Harish Krishnaswamy_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/
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CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Nov 01, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dongbin Wang and Thang Le, CEE Ph.D. Candidates
Talk Title: OUT-OF-PLANE (SH) SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION SEMI-CIRCULAR FLEXIBLE RIGID FOUNDATION
Abstract: Presentation by: Thang Le
The model studied presents a logical extension of the shear wall with circular rigid foundation fixed firmly in an isotropic homogeneous and elastic half-space considered only for vertical-incidence SH waves by J.E. Luco (1969) and then formulated to any angle of the incidence SH waves by M.D Trifunac (1972). A new approach and model is developed to solve for rigid foundation using big arc approximation which can be extended to solve for flexible or semi-rigid foundation. The analytical expression of the soil-structure interaction of a tapered shear wall (structure) and an isotropic homogeneous and elastic half-space is obtained. Results of the numerical analysis are then compared with Trifunac (1972).
4:00PM - 4:20PM (10 minutes for questions) - Dongbin Wang 4:30PM - 4:50PM (10 minutes for questions) - Thang Le
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Mon, Nov 04, 2013 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you've learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE's Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate. This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $7,245
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $7,245
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@gapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in Six Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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Multimodal Neuroimaging, Analysis, and Modeling in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Mon, Nov 04, 2013 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. John D. Van Horn, Department of Neurology/Keck School of Medicine of USC
Talk Title: Multimodal Neuroimaging, Analysis, and Modeling in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Abstract: The increasing interest in combining neuroimaging modalities to study brain structure, function and circuitry has brought about an appreciable challenge to image processing experts from the standpoint of inferring clinically valuable information based on enormous amounts of high-dimensionality imaging data. This challenge is particularly serious when attempting to quantify brain changes due to traumatic brain injury (TBI), a condition whose heterogeneity precludes the use of standard image processing algorithms for tissue segmentation, brain morphometry, population atlasing and neuroinformatics. Current efforts by translational researchers to formulate patient-tailored rehabilitation protocols for TBI must be complemented by critical input from neuroinformaticians, signal processing, and image analysis experts to develop next-generation image analysis methods for brain trauma. Because TBI-related deficits are predicated upon individual brain circuitry profiles, such methods must be robust enough to accommodate the heterogeneity and wide variety of structural deformation and degeneration patterns encountered in this condition. In this presentation, I will outline our recent computational and analytic efforts toward developing state-of-the-art neuroimaging analysis protocols and informatics approaches for characterizing brain injury longitudinally at the structural, functional, and connectomic levels. To improve on existing abilities to capture injury-related changes to the brain, we have combined multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and electroencephalography (EEG) with network theory, geometric modeling and inverse localization methods in the context of a sophisticated neuroimaging analysis approach. This has allowed us to longitudinally map TBI location, extent, and change over time. Further progress in this field depends critically upon input from the engineering and computer science communities to develop algorithms for segmentation, morphometry and atlasing which can handle the large structural brain deformations encountered in neurotrauma. Such contributions could result in substantial translational benefit to neurosurgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists who are interested in using neuroimaging to monitor brain injury evolution and for clinical intervention. Thus, despite substantial progress on quantifying TBI-related brain changes, considerable input is still needed from image processing, visualization and informatics experts to address the difficulties of this epidemiologically prominent field.
Biography: Dr. Van Horn is a recent addition to the USC faculty, having held prior positions at the National Institutes of Health, Dartmouth College, and UCLA. He received his Ph.D. from Department of Psychology at the University of London and hold a master's degree in engineering from the University of Maryland College Park. He explores the neurophysiology of the human brain using in vivo neuroimaging techniques, e.g. functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and its relations to other biological systems. Areas of interest in neuroimaging include multimodal MRI, connectomics, characterizing the effects of neurotrauma, visuo-spatial task performance and motor learning. He has also examined the use of pharmacological manipulations as probes of cognitive and physiological networks during fMRI. He is also known for his contributions to neuroinformatics: mathematical modeling, experimental design, statistical, quantitative methods, data visualization, and the sociological and technical issues of neuroscientific data sharing, as well as neuroimaging data base and data mining. Presently, Dr. Van Horn is tenured faculty in the Department of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a principle member of the Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics (INI).
Host: Dr. Sandeep Gupta, sandeep@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Nov 04, 2013 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: James Finley, PhD, Asst. Professor of Biokinesiology, USC
Talk Title: Identifying the Principles of Locomotor Learning to Advance Gait Rehabilitation
Host: Michael Khoo
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Tue, Nov 05, 2013 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you�ve learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE�s Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office� to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $7,245
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $7,245
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@gapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants � unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live � with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in SIx Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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Epstein Institute / ISE 651 Seminar Series
Tue, Nov 05, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Charles J. Corbett, Professor of Operations Management and Sustainability, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Talk Title: "Sustainable Supply Chains and Carbon Footprinting "
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar Series
Abstract: In this talk we will discuss several topics related to sustainable supply chains and supply chain carbon footprints. We will briefly examine the link between sustainable supply chains and financial performance, and discuss why this link is often so poorly understood in practice. We will then discuss an industry-level study aimed at improving sustainability of the motion picture industry supply chain, and some of the opportunities for improvement and practical barriers encountered. One barrier to truly sustainable supply chains that occurs in almost every supply chain is the lack of appropriate incentives. In the last part of this talk, we will discuss limitations of the usual approach to carbon footprinting, specifically how the usual focus on avoiding double-counting of greenhouse gas emissions leads to insufficient incentives for the supply chain parties.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013
GRACE FORD SALVATORI (GFS) ROOM 101
3:30 - 4:50 PM
Biography: Charles J. Corbett
Charles Corbett, Ph.D., is professor of Operations Management and Sustainability at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He served as Chairman and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs from 2009-2012, and previously as Associate Dean of the MBA program. He has received the Citibank Teaching Award, the Executive MBA Class of 2006 Outstanding Teaching Award and the Robbins Assistant Professor teaching award, in addition to the UCLA Staff Assemblyââ¬â¢s Faculty/Staff Partnership Award and the Anderson Schoolââ¬â¢s J. Clayburn LaForce Faculty Leadership Award. He was an AT&T Faculty Fellow in Industrial Ecology. He is the founder and co-director of the award-winning UCLA Leaders in Sustainability graduate certificate program and founding director of the Easton Technology Leadership Program.
His areas of teaching include operations of entrepreneurs and small business, sustainability, operations management, and supply chain management. He has given (semi-)plenary and keynote lectures at conferences in Bali, Istanbul, Lima, Mexico City, Paris, Sao Paulo, Salvador (Brazil), Shanghai, and Tainan (Taiwan). Dr. Corbett has been guest editor of three special issues of Production and Operations Management on Environmental Management & Operations and holds a number of editorial positions at leading journals. His 2006 study on sustainability in the motion picture industry was featured in media outlets worldwide, including CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Guardian, La Opinion, and various radio and TV stations. In 2013 he was elected a lifetime Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society.
His current research focuses on environmental issues in business and operations management in entrepreneurial firms. He has published in academic and business journals in several countries, including Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Operations Research, Management Science, European Journal of Operational Research, the Journal of the Operational Research Society, Production and Operations Management, Environmental and Resource Economics, and others.
Professor Corbett holds a Ph.D. in Production and Operations Management from INSEAD in Fountainbleau, France, and a Doctorate in Operations Research from Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands).
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Corbett.doc
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Wed, Nov 06, 2013 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you�ve learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE�s Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office� to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $7,245
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $7,245
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@gapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants � unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live � with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in SIx Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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New Neuroimaging Approaches for Understanding and Predicting Neurological Disease
Wed, Nov 06, 2013 @ 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Arthur W. Toga, University of Southern California
Talk Title: New Neuroimaging Approaches for Understanding and Predicting Neurological Disease
Abstract: The complexity of neurodegenerative diseases often requires the collection of numerous data types from multiple modalities. These can be genetic, imaging, clinical and biosample data. In combination, they can provide biomarkers critical to chart the progression of the disease and to measure the efficacy of therapeutic intervention. The difficulties lie in how can these diverse data from different subjects, collected across multiple laboratories on a wide range of instruments using non-identical protocols be aggregated and mined to discover meaningful patterns.
Mapping the human brain, and the brains of other species, has long been hampered by the fact that there is substantial variance in both the structure and function of this organ among individuals within a species. Previous brain atlases have relied on information from, at best, a few samples to draw conclusions. These limitations and the lack of quantification for the variance in brain structure and function have limited the pace and accuracy of research in the field of neuroscience. There are numerous probabilistic atlases that describe specific subpopulations, measure their variability and characterize the structural differences between them. Utilizing data from structural, functional, diffusion MRI, along with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and clinical measures, we have built atlases with defined coordinate systems creating a framework for mapping and relating diverse data across studies. This talk describes the development and application of theoretical framework and computational tools for the construction of probabilistic atlases of large numbers of individuals in a population. These approaches are useful in understanding multidimensional data and their relationships over time.
A specific and important example of mapping multimodal data is the study of Alzheimerââ¬â¢s. The dynamic changes that occur in brain structure and function throughout life make the study of degenerative disorders of the aged difficult. The Alzheimerââ¬â¢s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is a large national consortia established to collect, longitudinally, distributed and well described cohorts of age matched normals, mci's and Alzheimerââ¬â¢s patients. It results from the abnormal accumulation of misfolded amyloid and tau proteins in neurons and the extracellular space, ultimately leading to cell death and progressive cognitive decline. The consequences of this insult can be seen using a variety of imaging and other data analyzed from the ADNI database.
Essential elements in performing this type of population based research are the informatics infrastructure to assemble, describe, disseminate and mine data collections along with computational resources necessary for large scale processing of big data such as whole genome sequence data and imaging data. This talk also describes the methods we have employed to address these challenges.
Biography: Arthur W. Toga is a recent recruit to USC. Previously a Distinguished Professor of Neurology and University Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), he has been appointed as Provost Professor, Departments of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Engineering. He is Director, USC Institute of Neuroimaging and Informatics and Director, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at USC. His research is focused on neuroimaging, informatics, mapping brain structure and function, and brain atlasing. He has developed multimodal imaging and data aggregation strategies and applied them in a variety of neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. His work in informatics includes the development and implementation of some of the largest and most widely used databases and data mining tools linking disparate data from genetics, imaging, clinical and behavior, supporting global efforts in Alzheimerââ¬â¢s disease, Huntingtonââ¬â¢s and Parkinsonââ¬â¢s disease. He was trained in neuroscience and computer science and has written more than 700 papers, chapters and abstracts, including eight books. The 100 plus members of Laboratory of Neuro Imaging include graduate students from computer science, biostatistics and neuroscience. It is funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health grants as well as industry partners. He has received numerous awards and honors in computer science, graphics and neuroscience. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal NeuroImage and holds the chairmanship of numerous committees at NIH and a variety of international task forces.
Host: Hosted by Prof. Alexander Sawchuk
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Thu, Nov 07, 2013 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you�ve learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE�s Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office� to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $7,245
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $7,245
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@gapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants � unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live � with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in SIx Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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Oil and Gas Industry Primer
Thu, Nov 07, 2013 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jim Crompton, Former Manager of Upstream Architecture in the Chevron Global Upstream IT organization
Talk Title: Oil and Gas Industry Primer
Abstract: There are a lot of misperceptions about the oil & gas industry and the industry itself has not always done a good job in explaining its role. Many people believe that Big Oil is the root of many of our societyââ¬â¢s problems while others have spent their entire careers working for great companies making a difference in the energy supply that our economy demands. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Come decide for yourself. Questions and discussion are welcome. This is not a recruiting talk but an industry overview.
Biography: Jim Crompton, now a contractor for USC, held the position of Manager of Upstream Architecture in the Chevron Global Upstream IT organization until Spring 2013. He earned a BS in Geophysical Eng., MS in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from Our Lady of the Lake University. In 1993, as IT Manager for the Gulf of Mexico Business Unit, Crompton led one of the first desktop PC standardization projects in Chevron. In 1997, Jim was names the Principal Technical Advisor for IT, where he was responsible assessment of emerging technology and strategic planning for the IT function. He served as chair of the API general committee for electronic commerce ( PIDX) and was able to influence the direction of the standards setting activities towards emerging technologies, such as XML, and new electronic business models in the industry. Jim participated in the IT merger integration study team in 2001 as part of the Chevron & Texaco merger which developed the IT organization structure and IT strategic direction for the corporation, where he received a President's Award for this activity. In 2002, Jim was selected to be a Chevron Fellow. Jim also worked on Chevronââ¬â¢s i-field program in the area of emerging solutions.
Host: CiSoft
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 324
Audiences: Please RSVP: legat@usc.edu
Contact: Juli Legat
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Lyman L. Handy Colloqium: Biobased Materials and Bioenergy Co-Products
Thu, Nov 07, 2013 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Susan Sun,
Talk Title: Biobased Materials and Bioenergy Co-Products
Series: Lyman L. Handy Colloquia
Abstract: The environment impact of persistent petroleum footprints is of growing global
concerns. Global climate change is obvious because of carbon dioxide release from burning fossil fuels. There is an urgent task to research and engineer alternatives out of renewable biobased materials, including bioenergy co-products. This seminar will focus on new technologies of biobased chemicals and polymers from plant and grain molecules (i.e., protein, oil, sugar). Examples will be given to show how these biobased molecules can be converted into polymers with desirable functional properties that can be used for industry applications, particularly for adhesives and resins.
Biography: The environment impact of persistent petroleum footprints is of growing global
concerns. Global climate change is obvious because of carbon dioxide release from burning fossil fuels. There is an urgent task to research and engineer alternatives out of renewable biobased materials, including bioenergy co-products. This seminar will focus on new technologies of biobased chemicals and polymers from plant and grain molecules (i.e., protein, oil, sugar). Examples will be given to show how these biobased molecules can be converted into polymers with desirable functional properties that can be used for industry applications, particularly for adhesives and resins.
Host: Prof. Shing
More Information: Sun abstract.pdf
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Choi
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Learning and Coordination In Social Networks
Thu, Nov 07, 2013 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ali Jadbabaie, University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Learning and Coordination In Social Networks
Abstract: In the first part of this talk we examine how the structure of a social network and the quality of information available to different agents affects social learning and information aggregation. To this end, we study a variant of the seminal model of DeGroot, according to which agents linearly combine their personal experiences with the views of their neighbors. We show that the rate of learning has a simple analytical characterization in terms of the relative entropy of agents' signal structures and their eigenvector centralities. Our characterization establishes that the way information is dispersed throughout the social network has non-trivial implications for the rate of learning. In particular, we show that when the informativeness of different agents' signal structures are comparable, positive assortative matching of signal qualities and agent centralities maximizes the rate of learning. On the other hand, if information structures are such that each individual possesses some information crucial for learning, and the information endowments are not comparable, then the rate of learning is higher when agents with the best signals are located at the periphery of the network. Finally, we show that the extent of asymmetry in the structure of the social network plays a key role in the long-run dynamics of the beliefs.
In the second part, we introduce and analyze a novel model of opinion formation according to which agents not only seek to discover the truth but also have the tendency to act in conformity with the rest of the population. Such preferences for conformity are relevant in scenarios ranging from participation in popular movements to trading in stock market. We argue that agents who value conformity do not necessarily fully aggregate the dispersed information; nonetheless, we prove that examples of the failure of information aggregation are rare in a precise sense.
Biography: Ali Jadbabaie received his BS degree with High honors in Electrical Engineering (with a focus on Control Systems) from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1995. After a year of working as a control engineer, he moved to the US where he received a Masters degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque in 1997 and his Ph.D. degree in Control and Dynamical Systems from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2001. From July 2001-July 2002 he was a postdoctoral scholar at the department of Electrical Engineering at Yale University. Since July 2002 he has been at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, where he is currently The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Network Science in the department of Electrical and Systems Engineering with secondary appointments in departments of Computer & Information Sciences and Operations and Information Management (in the Wharton School of Management). He is a member of GRASP Laboratory and the director of the Raj and Neera Singh Program in Networked and Social Systems at Penn Engineering, a new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree program at Penn that blends Network Science, Operations Research, Economics, and Computer Science with Information and Decision Systems. He is a recipient of an NSF Career award, a Young Investigator award from the Office of Naval Research, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper award of the American Automatic Control Council, and the George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE Control Systems Society. His students have won best paper awards at the American Control Conference (ACC) and been award finalists at 3 IEEE CDC and ACC conferences. His research is broadly at the interface of systems and control theory with optimization and network science with focus on analysis, design and optimization of networked dynamical systems in a variety of applications including sensor networks, multi-robot formation control, opinion aggregation, and strategic interaction in social networks.
Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu, EEB 536, x04667
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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EE Distinguished Lecturer Series
Thu, Nov 07, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Luiz Barroso, Google Inc.
Abstract: As the field of warehouse-scale computing matures we continue to find new and interesting problems to solve. Some of the most interesting problems are the ones that are trivial to explain once identified, and yet remain very hard to solve. I’ll present three examples of such problems drawn from our experience building and operating large computing systems at Google.
Biography: Luiz Barroso is a Google Fellow, with technical interests that range from distributed systems software to the design of Google’s computing platform. While at Google he has co-authored some well-cited articles on warehouse-scale computing, energy proportionality and storage system reliability. He also co-wrote
The Datacenter as a Computer, the first textbook to describe the architecture of warehouse-scale computing systems, now in its 2nd edition.
Previously he was a member of the research staff at Digital Equipment Corporation and Compaq, where the group did some of the pioneering research on modern multi-core architectures. Some of those multi-core processors also use variants of the ring-based cache-coherency interconnects that were the subject of his doctoral research. As a graduate student he was one of the designers of the USC RPM, an early FPGA-based emulator for multiprocessor memory systems.
Barroso is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the program chair of ACM ISCA’09, a keynote speaker at FCRC’11, SIGMOD’10, ASPLOS’09, and a National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lectureship awardee in 2012. He is currently serving at the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford and PUC-Rio, Brazil.
He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the PontifÃcia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro, and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Host: Dr. Michel Dubois
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
Webcast: http://geromedia.usc.edu/Gerontology/Play/ef2f45debf48420d8ba985d18adfbf0f1dMore Information: 20131107 Barroso Print.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - Auditorium (GER 124)
WebCast Link: http://geromedia.usc.edu/Gerontology/Play/ef2f45debf48420d8ba985d18adfbf0f1d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
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Six Sigma Black Belt
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA,
Talk Title: Six Sigma Black Belt
Abstract: Course Overview
This course teaches you the advanced problem-solving skills you'll need in order to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. Project assignments between sessions require you to apply what you�ve learned. This course is presented in the classroom in three five-day sessions over a three-month period.
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn IIE�s Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
NOTE: Participants must bring a laptop computer running Microsoft Office� to the seminar.
Course Topics
* Business process management
* Computer applications
* Design of experiments (DOE)
* Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
* DMAIIC
* Enterprisewide deployment
* Lean enterprise
* Project management
* Regression and correlation modeling
* Statistical methods and sampling
* Statistical process control
* Team processes
Benefits
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
* Analyze process data using comprehensive statistical methods
* Control the process to assure that improvements are used and the benefits verified
* Define an opportunity for improving customer satisfaction
* Implement the recommended improvements
* Improve existing processes by reducing variation
* Measure process characteristics that are critical to quality
Who Should Attend
* VPs, COOs, CEOs
* Employees new to a managerial position
* Employees preparing to make the transition to managerial roles
* Current managers wanting to hone leadership skills
* Anyone interested in implementing Lean or Six Sigma in their organization
Program Fees
On-Campus Participants: $7,245
Includes continental breakfasts, lunch and all course materials. The fee does not include hotel accommodations or transportation.
Online Participant with Live Session Interactivity: $7,245
Includes attendee access codes for live call-in or chat capabilities during class sessions. Also includes all course and lecture materials available for live stream or download.
Reduced Pricing:
Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE): Reduced pricing is available for members of IIE. Please contact professional@gapp.usc.edu for further information.
Trojan Family: USC alumni, current students, faculty, and staff receive 10% reduced pricing on registration.
Boeing: Boeing employees receive 20% off registration fees (please use Boeing email address when registering).
Location
Two course delivery options are available for participants, on-campus and online with interactivity:
On-Campus Course is held in state-of-the-art facilities on the University of Southern California campus, located in downtown Los Angeles. Participants attending on-campus will have the option to commute to the course or stay at one of the many hotels located in the area. For travel information, please visit our Travel section.
Overview of on-campus option:
* The ability to interact with faculty and peers in-person.
* Access to hard copy course materials.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information - up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
* If there is a conflict during any on-campus course dates, on-campus participants can elect to be an online/interactive student.
* Parking, refreshments and lunch are provided for on-campus participants � unless otherwise specified.
Online (Interactivity) Course delivery is completely online and real-time, enabling interaction with the instructor and fellow participants. Participants have the flexibility of completing the course from a distance utilizing USC's Distance Education Network technology. Students are required to be online for the entirety of each day's session.
Overview of online (interactive):
* Virtually participate in the course live � with the ability to either ask questions or chat questions to the entire class.
* WebEx technologies provide the option to call into the class and view the entire lecture/materials on a personal computer, or to participate on a computer without having to utilize a phone line.
* Ability to logon and view archived course information up to 7 days after the course has been offered. This includes course documents and streaming video of the lectures.
Continuing Education Units
CEUs: 10.5 (CEUs provided by request only)
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Certificate of Participation is awarded to all participants upon successful completion of course.
Upon completion, participants will also receive their Institute of Industrial Engineers certification in SIx Sigma Black Belt.
Host: Corporate and Professional Programs
More Info: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: http://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial%26systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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Big Data, Large Volumes and Advanced Analytics in the Oil and Gas Industry
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jim Crompton, Former Manager of Upstream Architecture in the Chevron Global Upstream IT organization
Talk Title: Big Data, Large Volumes and Advanced Analytics in the Oil and Gas Industry
Abstract: The exploration and production of oil and natural gas are probably not seen by people outside of the industry as a very high tech business. However, a closer look at modern approaches to finding and producing hydrocarbons will reveal an industry with massive data volumes, a variety of data types and a very significant opportunity to create greater value through deeper business insight into operations. From seismic surveys which can create an image of the subsurface geology, to measurement while drilling complex deep water wells, to near real time analysis and optimization of producing and injecting wells in an oil field, the challenges of measurement, instrumentation, data management, visualization, integration and analysis are growing in magnitude and importance.
Similar to other industries, the amount of data throughout the value chain is increasing. The opportunities to create value from more predictive and proactive interventions are growing. The challenges of managing asset operations to higher standards of reliability, safety and environment performance are becoming more critical. It will take more than just one technology breakthrough to unlock the value from collecting large amounts of data. A full systems view and an information lifecycle mindset are required to turn data, to clearer insights, to better decision, and ultimately to greater value.
Biography: Jim Crompton, now a contractor for USC, held the position of Manager of Upstream Architecture in the Chevron Global Upstream IT organization until Spring 2013. He earned a BS in Geophysical Eng., MS in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from Our Lady of the Lake University. In 1993, as IT Manager for the Gulf of Mexico Business Unit, Crompton led one of the first desktop PC standardization projects in Chevron. In 1997, Jim was names the Principal Technical Advisor for IT, where he was responsible assessment of emerging technology and strategic planning for the IT function. He served as chair of the API general committee for electronic commerce ( PIDX) and was able to influence the direction of the standards setting activities towards emerging technologies, such as XML, and new electronic business models in the industry. Jim participated in the IT merger integration study team in 2001 as part of the Chevron & Texaco merger which developed the IT organization structure and IT strategic direction for the corporation, where he received a President's Award for this activity. In 2002, Jim was selected to be a Chevron Fellow. Jim also worked on Chevron’s i-field program in the area of emerging solutions.
Host: CiSoft
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 324
Audiences: Please RSVP: legat@usc.edu
Contact: Juli Legat
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Julia R. Greer, Materials Science and Mechanics, California Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Designing New Materials; from Nano to Micro to Macro
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
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Analysis of Future Network Architectures
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hamid Sadjadpour, UC Santa Cruz
Talk Title: Analysis of Future Network Architectures
Abstract: Future network architectures are being developed based on two main pillars. Software defined network (SDN) is the first effort to separate the network into two control and forwarding planes. The second main attempt is related to shifting from a host-centric paradigm to a content-centric approach. This new architecture is called information-centric network (ICN) where contents are accessed based on their names, and independently of the location of the hosts.
In this talk, we focus on information-theoretic analysis of these architectures. We show the throughput capacity of an information-centric network when the data cached in each node has a limited lifetime. The results show that with some fixed request and cache expiration rates, the network can have the maximum throughput order in cases of grid and random networks. Comparing these values with the corresponding throughput with no cache capability, we can actually quantify the asymptotic advantage of caching.
For SDN networks, we study some fundamental properties of the interface between control and forwarding planes, specifically in case of content routing. We evaluate the traffic between the two planes based on allowing a minimum level of acceptable distortion in the network state representation in the control plane. We apply our framework to content distribution, and show how we can compute the overhead of maintaining the location of content in the control plane. We identify scenarios where the cost of updating the control plane for content routing overwhelms the benefit of fetching the nearest copy. We also show how to minimize the cost of this overhead when associating costs to peering traffic and to internal traffic for operator-driven CDNs.
Biography: Hamid Sadjadpour received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran in 1986 and 1988 respectively. He received his Ph.D. from USC in 1996. After graduation, he worked at AT&T Shannon Lab. until 2001. In 2001, he joined University of California, Santa Cruz where he is currently a Professor in the Electrical Engineering department.
Host: Michael Neely, mjneely@usc.edu, EEB 520, x03505
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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NL Seminar-Giuseppe Carenin:"Modeling Topics, Opinions and Discourse Structure in Asynchronous Conversations"
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Giuseppe Carenini, (University of British Columbia, Canada)
Talk Title: NL Seminar- "Modeling Topics, Opinions and Discourse Structure in Asynchronous Conversations"
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Due to the Internet revolution, human conversational data--in written forms--are accumulating at a phenomenal rate, as more and more people engage in email exchanges, blogging, texting and other social media activities. In this talk, we will present automatic methods for analyzing conversational text generated in asynchronous conversations, i.e., where participants communicate with each other at different times (e.g., email, blog, forum). Our focus will be on novel techniques to detect the topics covered in the conversation, to identify whether an utterance in the conversation is expressing an opinion, as well as to determine the discourse structure of each message. In our work, we apply both graph-based methods and probabilistic graphical models.
Biography: Giuseppe is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (BC, Canada). Giuseppe has broad interdisciplinary interests. His work on natural language processing and information visualization to support decision making has been published in over 90 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Carenini was the area chair for “Sentiment Analysis, Opinion Mining, and Text Classification” of ACL 2009 and the area chair for “Summarization and Generation” of NAACL 2012. He has recently co-edited an ACM-TIST Special Issue on “Intelligent Visual Interfaces for Text Analysis”. In July 2011, he has published a co-authored book on “Methods for Mining and Summarizing Text Conversations”. In his work, Dr. Carenini has also extensively collaborated with industrial partners, including Microsoft and IBM. Giuseppe was awarded a Google Research Award and an IBM CASCON Best Exhibit Award in 2007 and 2010 respectively.
Host: Yang Gao
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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Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Ghavam Shahidi, IBM Semiconductor
Talk Title: CMOS Technology Scaling for the Next 10 Years: Device-Technology Interaction and Scaling Value Proposition
Series: Integrated Systems Seminar Series
Abstract: Within the last few years, there has been speculation about the slow-down and even the end of Moore's Law. In this talk we review the benefit of the Moore's Law (with regard to low power and/or performance) over the last 20-30 years, and how the benefit has evolved over the last few years. It will be shown that there is a tight coupling between the choice of transistor and the node-to-node product benefit (using products from Intel and IBM as benchmark). As we move to the 14 nm and beyond, we will discuss device challenges and trade-offs. We will argue that the CMOS technology scaling will continue through 10 nm, 7 nm, and beyond nodes for the next 10 years.
Biography: Ghavam Shahidi received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Degrees, all in electrical engineering, from MIT. In 1989 he joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he initiated the SOI development program in IBM Research. The work ultimately resulted the first mainstream use of SOI. Ghavam Shahidi was the Director of High-Performance Logic Development in IBM Microelectronics until 2003. He is currently the Director of Silicon Technology in IBM Research Division and an IBM Fellow. His work is focused on 10 nm and beyond.
Host: Hossien Hashemi, Mike Chen, Mahta Moghaddam, Kunal Datta
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/activities/integrated-systems/
More Information: Ghavam Shahidi_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/
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Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Nov 08, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sina Hasheminassab and Zheng Yang, CEE Ph.D Students
Talk Title: Astani CEE Ph.D. Presentations
Abstract: TBA
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Multimodal Brain Image Analysis for the Computational Mapping of Neuroanatomy
Mon, Nov 11, 2013 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yonggang Shi, Department of Neurology/Keck School of Medicine of USC
Talk Title: Multimodal Brain Image Analysis for the Computational Mapping of Neuroanatomy
Abstract: In this talk, I will present our recent work on the automated analysis of multimodal MR images for large scale brain mapping. I will first present a suite of novel algorithms for mapping brain structures using intrinsic geometry. The key idea in our method is the use of Laplace-Beltrami (LB) eigenfunctions for modeling brain shapes, such as hippocampus and cortex. These tools have the advantage of being invariant to pose and scale variances, and robust to deformations from development and pathology. Using the LB eigenfunctions and topology-preserving evolution, we have developed a robust approach for surface reconstruction from segmented masks. This method can remove outliers while accurately retaining volume information. For the challenging problem of cortical surface reconstruction, we have developed a unified approach for the joint correction of geometric and topological outliers with the Reeb graph of LB eigenfunctions. By using the LB embeddings of surfaces, we have developed a novel and general approach for surface mapping via the optimization of their conformal metrics. Based on these cutting-edge algorithms for image and shape analysis, completely automated workflows have been created for the large scale analysis of brain morphometry. In our current research, these intrinsic modeling techniques are being extended to multimodal image analysis for the more accurate and robust mapping of brain structure and function. Using the reconstructed cortical surfaces, we have developed more accurate ways of normalizing cerebral blood perfusion (CBF) images with cortical thickness and area, and successfully applied them to map sex differences in brain development. For the analysis of brain connectivity, we developed a novel algorithm for fiber orientation distribution (FOD) reconstruction that can be applied to diffusion imaging data collected from a wide range of acquisition schemes. With the help of FODs and intrinsic analysis, we are able to automatically extract fiber bundles with significantly improved details and robustness using the state-of-the-art data from the Human Connectome Project.
Biography: Dr. Yonggang Shi received his Bachelor and Master degree in Electrical Engineering from the Southeast University of China in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in 2005. From 2005 to 2009, he was a PostDoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at UCLA. He was promoted to Assistant Professor at LONI in 2009. In July 2013, Dr. Shi was recruited to USC as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Neurology. He joins USC along with other faculty members that previously had formed the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at UCLA to found the newly established Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics (INI). Dr. Shi was a winner of student paper competition at the 2005 ICASSP for his work on a fast level set algorithm. He also won the Best Paper Award at the 2008 MMBIA for his work on using Reeb graphs of LB eigenfunctions to construct shape skeletons.
Host: Dr. Sandeep Gupta, sandeep@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Nov 11, 2013 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Travis J. Williams, Associate Professor of Chemistry, USC
Talk Title: “Computational Systems Biology Models of Tumor Angiogenesis Signalling Pathways”
Host: Michael Khoo
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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In Search for the "Perfect" Preclinical PET System
Tue, Nov 12, 2013 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Arion Chatziioannou, PhD , University of California, Los Angeles.
Talk Title: In Search for the "Perfect" Preclinical PET System
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Biography: Dr. Hadjioannou has a background in Biomedical Imaging Physics, with specific training in molecular imaging. As a post-doctoral fellow, he worked with Dr. Cherry towards the development of the original microPET preclinical imaging tomograph into a practical tool. That was followed by his appointment as the Director of the Preclinical Imaging Center at the UCLA Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging. In that position he helped mature the Imaging Center, and expand its capabilities to include microCT and optical bioluminescence imaging. In 2001, he joined the faculty ranks of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In 2008 he was appointed as the Associate Director of the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging and Vice Chair of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. His research focuses on the development of instrumentation, methodologies and mathematical algorithms, for high resolution, quantitati ve in-v ivo preclinical imaging. He has been the PI and Co-PI in a number of NIH funded projects, that involve the development and use of these technologies, while a number of the technologies his lab has developed have been commercialized.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
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Signal Processing Methods for Diagnosing and Treating Neurological Disorders: A Focus on DBS
Wed, Nov 13, 2013 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Otis Smart, Emory University
Talk Title: Signal Processing Methods for Diagnosing and Treating Neurological Disorders: A Focus on DBS
Abstract: Worldwide, millions of patients with neurological disorders have an impaired quality of life, although in some cases successful therapeutic interventions can improve their life quality. Whether a patient has epilepsy, depression, malmovement, or another debilitating brain disease, neurologists and neurosurgeons rely on accurate diagnostic techniques and novel treatment modalities to effectively provide therapy. This talk presents bioengineering approaches, in particular signal processing of brain electrophysiology and electrical brain stimulation, which can contribute to these clinical needs in patient diagnosis and treatment.
Biography: Otis Smart received the B.S. degree in general science from Morehouse College in 2001 and the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2001, 2002 and 2007, respectively. Dr. Smart conducts interdisciplinary human-subjects research for projects that study epilepsy, depression, and movement disorders by applying bioengineering methods. His primary scientific interests focus on providing semi-automatic signal-processing algorithms that serve as reliable decision-support tools for physicians to better understand, diagnose, predict, and modulate pathological activity in patients with neurological disorders. He also applies signal processing analyses for basic science in vivo animal models and in vitro models of brain disorders. His interests also include developing biomedical devices for disease therapy and diagnosis. He currently is an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, supported by an NINDS postdoctoral career development award. He previously conducted research at the Emory Yerkes Primate Research Center, the Intelligent Control Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech, the Psychophysiology Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, and Clemson University. He has also worked as a Radio-Frequency Engineer at Bellsouth Mobility.
Host: Panayiotis Georgiou
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mary Francis
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Adaptive, Parallel, and Asynchronous Stochastic Optimization Algorithms
Wed, Nov 13, 2013 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John Duchi, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Adaptive, Parallel, and Asynchronous Stochastic Optimization Algorithms
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss some recent insights in stochastic optimization algorithms, focusing on new adaptive schemes that dynamically incorporate knowledge of the geometry of the data observed in earlier iterations to perform more informative gradient-based optimization. These ideas allow us to develop learning algorithms that are (in a sense) optimal for the data they actually receive. As a particular example of these schemes, we look at problems where the *data* is sparse, which is in a sense dual to the current understanding of high-dimensional statistical learning and optimization. We also show how these ideas can be leveraged in the design of parallel and asynchronous algorithms, providing experimental evidence to complement our theoretical results on several different learning and optimization tasks.
Biography: I am currently a PhD candidate in computer science at Berkeley, where I started in the fall of 2008. I work in the Statistical Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) under the joint supervision of Mike Jordan and Martin Wainwright. I obtained my master's degree (MA) in statistics in Fall 2012. I was initially supported by an NDSEG fellowship, and until recently was supported by Facebook, who generously awarded me a Facebook Fellowship. Before this, I was an undergrad and a masters student at Stanford University working with Daphne Koller in her research group, DAGS. I also spend some time at Google Research (once upon a time I was also a software engineer there), where I had (and continue to have) the great fortune to work with Yoram Singer.
Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu, EEB 536, x04667
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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"Low Power CMOS Design Past and Future", Bob Brodersen, HNB 100
Thu, Nov 14, 2013 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Bob Brodersen, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Low Power CMOS Design Past and Future
Abstract: Technology scaling provided a 100 times improvement in energy efficiency over the last 15-20 years. Unfortunately, while feature size scaling is continuing, scaling affecting energy efficiency will not continue these improvements. However, the demands for computation in mobile devices is accelerating, so even greater improvements will be required over the next 15-20 years. Techniques to obtain these improvements and their technology implications will be presented.
Biography: Robert W. Brodersen received a B.S. in both Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1966, and his M. S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1968 and 1972, respectively. After spending three years with Texas Instruments in Dallas, he joined the faculty of the EECS Department at UC Berkeley in 1976; where he has pursued research in the areas of RF and digital wireless communications design, signal processing applications, and design methodologies. In 1994, he was the first holder of the John R. Whinnery Chair in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. In 1998, he was instrumental in founding the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), a consortium involving university researchers, industrial partners, and governmental agencies that is involved in all aspects of the design of highly integrated CMOS wireless systems. He retired in 2006 as Professor Emeritus but remains active at BWRC, where he is Co-Scientific Director, and at the Donald O. Pederson Center for Electronics Systems Design. His career includes significant contributions to the areas of low power design and wireless communications, including system-level, real-time prototyping, ultra-wideband radio systems, multiple-carrier multiple-antenna algorithms, microwave CMOS radio design, and the CAD tools necessary to support these activities.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian lecture series
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/munushian lecture series
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CS Colloquium - Ashwin Rao (Founder, ZLemma.com)
Thu, Nov 14, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ashwin Rao, Founder, ZLemma.com; Entrepreneur
Talk Title: CS Colloquium - Ashwin Rao
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This talk is for all levels (Undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D.) of students in Computer Science, with the purpose of helping them make sound decisions within the wide array of available job choices, and eventually pick the job/career that is most suited for them. We will particularly focus on jobs for Computer Scientists in the Tech industry (large companies as well as startups) and in the Finance industry (Wall Street as well as hedge funds). We will discuss the different requirements of various jobs, and understand how this work relates to one's academic interests. We will discuss some recent trends in the industry covering Big Data, Functional Programming, Quantitative Modeling, Machine Learning, and Domain-Specific Languages. We will also discuss non-technical aspects of different jobs contrasting between Tech and Finance, between large and small companies, and between 'depth' versus 'breadth' roles. Finally, we will discuss how to prepare a suitable resume and how to prepare for interviews.
Biography: Dr. Ashwin Rao is an entrepreneur based in Palo Alto, California and is the founder of a technology startup - ZLemma.com - that helps students and young professionals identify careers most suited to their talents. Prior to entrepreneurship, Ashwin was a quantitative modeler and trading strategist at Goldman Sachs for ten years in New York, and was subsequently a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. Ashwin's focus had been on interest rates and mortgage derivatives products. Ashwin holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from IIT-Bombay and a Ph.D. in Algorithmic Algebra from University of Southern California. In his personal life, Ashwin is deeply involved in mentoring students at various universities.
Host: CS PhD Committee
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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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
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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
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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/
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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/
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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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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Nov 18, 2013 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Victor Rodgers, Ph.D, Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside
Talk Title: “Demystifying Concentrated Protein Osmotic Pressure. Resulting Novel Applications for Diagnostics and Therapy”
Series: Invited Chair Series
Abstract: High concentrated multicomponent protein solutions or “crowded” solutions are prevalent throughout nature and, subsequently, they make a substantial contribution to natural functions. In cells, multicomponent protein concentration can be as high as 50 â 400 mg/ml. This high protein concentration has been found to contribute to a number of natural phenomena. As well, concentrated multicomponent protein solutions are inevitable in a number of bioseparations processes. As examples, concentrated proteins are prevalent in the final preparations of many pharmaceuticals products and, in membrane separations, concentrated proteins are the dominant factor in permeate flux resistance. In fact the very high concentration of proteins at membrane surfaces has been considered one of the most important areas in separations research.
The most dramatic contribution that concentrated proteins exert on their surroundings, whether in living cells or on membrane surfaces, is the highly non-ideal osmotic pressure. Understanding these phenomena can provide a tremendous appreciation of natural functions and provide direct design improvements in new separations methods. The current virial expansion paradigm, based on McMillan-Mayer theory, assumes that the non-idealities observed in the osmotic pressure data from crowded protein solutions are almost exclusively the result of protein-protein interaction.
However, we have developed a novel approach to understanding the osmotic pressure of highly concentrated protein solutions based on a free-solvent model. Uniquely, the associated parameters of the model are both physically realistic and independently measureable. Consequently, the results of this free-solvent model has a wide range of applications from providing insight to observed phenomena to providing the impetus for medical diagnostic tools for detecting protein mutations. This presentation will discuss the free-solvent model as well as the practical applications of osmotic pressure in bioengineering.
Biography: www.engr.ucr.edu/~vrodgers
Host: Michael Khoo
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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CS Colloquium: Vincent Conitzer (Duke University) - Tearing Down the Wall Between Mechanism Design With and Without Money
Mon, Nov 18, 2013 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Vincent Conitzer, Duke University
Talk Title: Tearing Down the Wall Between Mechanism Design With and Without Money
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Many mechanism designers (algorithmic or other) draw a sharp line between mechanism design with money (auctions, exchanges, ...) and without money (social choice, matching, ...). I will discuss two papers that indicate that this line is blurrier than it seems. In the first, we study generalizations of the Vickrey auction to settings where a single agent wins, but with an arbitrary contract instead of a simple payment. In the second, we study repeated allocation of a good without payments. Here, we can create a type of artificial currency that affects future assignment of the good and that allows us to use modified versions of existing mechanisms with payments to reach provably approximately optimal solutions.
Based on:
B. Paul Harrenstein, Mathijs M. de Weerdt, and Vincent Conitzer.
Strategy-Proof Contract Auctions and the Role of Ties. To appear in Games and Economic Behavior.
Mingyu Guo, Vincent Conitzer, and Daniel Reeves. Competitive Repeated Allocation Without Payments. Short version in the Workshop on Internet and Network Economics.
Biography: Vincent Conitzer is the Sally Dalton Robinson Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Economics at Duke University. He received Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. (2003) degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and an A.B. (2001) degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. His research focuses on computational aspects of microeconomics, in particular game theory, mechanism design, voting/social choice, and auctions. This work uses techniques from, and includes applications to, artificial intelligence and multiagent systems. Conitzer has received the Social Choice and Welfare Prize (2014), a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, an NSF CAREER award, the inaugural Victor Lesser dissertation award, an honorable mention for the ACM dissertation award, and several awards for papers and service at the AAAI and AAMAS conferences. He has also been named a Kavli Fellow, a Bass Fellow, a Sloan Fellow, and one of AI's Ten to Watch. Conitzer and Preston McAfee are the founding Editors-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation (TEAC).
Host: Milind Tambe
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 217
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Engineering Neuroscience & Health Seminar
Mon, Nov 18, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Tim Carroll, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Talk Title: Multiple spatial coordinate systems for new maps between sensory information and motor commands
Abstract: Humans can learn to make accurate movements when the required map between sensory inputs and motor commands changes, such as when using tools that alter limb dynamics or when sensory information is distorted. Moreover, motor learning can also involve a ââ¬Åuse-dependentââ¬Â component that biases subsequent movements towards those repeated during practice, but that does not require the correction of movement errors. A key question regarding the sensorimotor adaptations that underlie this flexibility is the spatial frame of reference in which remapping is encoded. Are new sensorimotor maps defined according to the particular joint angles or torques required for movement, the native coordinate systems of the relevant sensory information (e.g. retinotopic motion direction), or composite extrinsic coordinate systems such as Cartesian space relative to the body? We have addressed this question in a series of visuomotor adaptation studies in which subjects had to move a cursor to visual targets by exerting isometric forces with the finger or wrist. We assessed how adaptation of the initial movement direction generalized to new target directions, postures and between left and right limbs, to systematically manipulate the alignment of the learned perturbation in various spatial coordinate systems. For transfer of visuomotor adaptation between left and right limbs, and generalization of visuomotor gain adaptation, transfer of adaptation only occurred when visuomotor distortion had identical effects in eye- and joint-based coordinates bilaterally. However, generalization of visoumotor adaptation to different postures within a single limb, and bias in force direction generated in response to repetition of a single movement direction were expressed according to a purely extrinsic or visual (rather than limb-based) reference frame. The results imply that new visuomotor maps are encoded in neural circuits associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic movement representations, but that the behavioral outcomes of remapping (i.e. generalization patterns) depend on the sensory context.
Biography: Dr Carroll completed his doctorate in Neuroscience at the University of Queensland in 2001. He was awarded an Isaac Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship to pursue postdoctoral studies at the University of Alberta in 2002, before accepting a position as a Lecturer in Human Motor Control at the University of New South Wales in 2003. He joined the School of Human Movement Studies as a Senior Lecturer in July 2007.
Dr Carrollââ¬â¢s research interests lie in the broad field of integrative human physiology. His work spans the fields of exercise science and integrative neuroscience, with a focus on determining how the central nervous system is reorganised as a consequence of motor learning and exercise. He has a specific interest in the area of strength training. Dr Carrollââ¬â¢s research involves the application of electro-physiological techniques such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), peripheral nerve stimulation, and electromyography (EMG) in experiments involving human subjects. The ultimate purpose of his work is to generate basic knowledge that will lead to the development of exercise protocols that yield maximal benefits for rehabilitation and injury prevention. His work has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) since 2004
Host: Dr. Francisco Valero-Cuevas/Dr.Gerald Loeb/Dr. Terry Sanger
More Info: http://bbdl.usc.edu
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/college/Catalog/?cid=af180d48-ceff-42b9-a35c-eb199daed320More Information: Tim Carroll Flyer.pdf
Location: Center For Health Professions (CHP) - 147
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/college/Catalog/?cid=af180d48-ceff-42b9-a35c-eb199daed320
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: BME-ENH Seminar
Event Link: http://bbdl.usc.edu
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Simultaneous microPET/microMRI: Why's, What's and Applications
Tue, Nov 19, 2013 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Russell E. Jacobs, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH)
Talk Title: Simultaneous microPET/microMRI: Why's, What's and Applications
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are used extensively in both the research and clinical settings. In this project we combine them in a single instrument that will simultaneously record data in both imaging modalities. his system is dedicated to the study of small animal model systems at the highest spatial and temporal resolutions attainable. We have built a high resolution, relatively high sensitivity multi-slice mPET scanner integrated within a customized 7T/30cm small animal MR system that simultaneously records MR and PET images. In this talk I will briefly introduce the PET and MR imaging methodologies, discuss the rational for combining them in a single instrument, and present some results in oncology, multiple sclerosis, & vascular disease. Briefly, simultaneous mPET/mMRI recordings provide important correlations not available from temporally and spatially separate scans. The melded system provides high resolution anatomical reference systems for mPET studies. The 'in register' mMR images can be used to compute scatter and attenuation in the mPET images and to estimate partial volume errors in the PET scans, thus aiding quantification of the PET signal. This system will open up a number of opportunities not possible with current independent technologies. Among them are:
- Time correlated mPET and MR spectroscopy studies of drug distributions; cardiac, brain and tumor cell metabolism.
- Simultaneous fMRI and mPET neuroreceptor brain mapping studies in small animals.
- Validation of new MRI probes using their PET counterparts.
- Dual PET/MRI labels will allow for "zooming-in" the MRI data collection scheme to those regions of the specimen
containing the label, as well as providing for precise registration of the PET & MR images.
Biography: Russell E. Jacobs has more than 30 years experience in the theory, hardware/software development and application of high resolution preclinical MRI. Extensive history of supervising successful Post Doctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates, and technicians. Animal models understudy have included: embryonic development, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's Disease, cancer, and substance abuse. He is also heavily involved in several multimodal imaging efforts including contrast agent developments and implementation of a simultaneous dual PET/MRI scanner, and quantitative analysis of MR images using an array of computational warping and statistical parametric analyses.
Host: Professor Justin Haldar
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
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PhD Student Colloquium
Tue, Nov 19, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Presenters / Abstracts In Announcement Body, USC
Talk Title: PhD Student Colloquium
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Soravit Changpinyo and Kuan Liu
Title: Similarity Component Analysis
Abstract: Measuring similarity is crucial to many learning tasks. To this end, metric learning has been the dominant paradigm. However, similarity is a richer and broader notion than what metrics entail. For example, similarity can arise from the process of aggregating the decisions of multiple latent components, where each latent component compares data in its own way by focusing on a different subset of features. We propose Similarity Component Analysis (SCA), a probabilistic graphical model that discovers those latent components from data. In SCA, a latent component generates a local similarity value, computed with its own metric, independently of other components. The final similarity measure is then obtained by combining the local similarity values with a (noisy-) OR gate. We derive an EM-based algorithm for fitting the model parameters with similarity-annotated data from pairwise comparisons. We validate the SCA model on synthetic datasets where SCA discovers the ground-truth about the latent components. We also apply SCA to a multiway classification task and a link prediction task. For both tasks, SCA attains significantly better prediction accuracies than competing methods. Moreover, we show how SCA can be instrumental in exploratory analysis of data, where we gain insights about the data by examining patterns hidden in its latent components’ local similarity values.
Boqing Gong
Title: Reshaping Visual Datasets for Domain Adaptation
Abstract: In visual recognition problems, the common data distribution mismatches between training and testing make domain adaptation essential. However, image data is difficult to manually divide into the discrete domains required by adaptation algorithms, and the standard practice of equating datasets with domains is a weak proxy for all the real conditions that alter the statistics in complex ways (lighting, pose, background, resolution, etc.) We propose an approach to automatically discover latent domains in image or video datasets. Our formulation imposes two key properties on domains: maximum distinctiveness and maximum learnability. By maximum distinctiveness, we require the underlying distributions of the identified domains to be different from each other to the maximum extent; by maximum learnability, we ensure that a strong discriminative model can be learned from the domain. We devise a nonparametric formulation and efficient optimization procedure that can successfully discover domains among both training and test data. We extensively evaluate our approach on object recognition and human activity recognition tasks.
Mrinal Kalakrishnan
Title: Learning Objective Functions for Autonomous Locomotion and Manipulation
Abstract: Efforts on learning from demonstration in robotics have largely been focused on reproducing behavior similar in appearance to the provided demonstrations, loosely classified as Direct Policy Learning. An alternative approach, known as Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL), is to learn the objective function that the demonstrations are assumed to be optimal under. With the help of a planner or trajectory optimizer, such an approach allows the system to synthesize novel behavior in situations that were not experienced in the demonstrations. We present new algorithms for IRL that have successfully been applied in two real-world, competitive robotics settings: (1) In the domain of rough terrain quadruped locomotion, we present an algorithm that learns an objective function for foothold selection based on "terrain templates". The learner automatically generates and selects the appropriate features which form the objective function, which reduces the need for feature engineering while attaining a high level of generalization. (2) For the domain of autonomous manipulation, we present a local sampling-based path integral IRL approach to deal with the high dimensional space of trajectories. We apply this method to two problems in robotic manipulation: redundancy resolution in inverse kinematics, and trajectory optimization for grasping and manipulation. Both methods have proven themselves as part of larger integrated systems in competitive settings against other teams, where testing was conducted by an independent test team in situations that were not seen during training.
Host: PhD Committee
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Epstein Institute / ISE 651 Seminar Series
Tue, Nov 19, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jay Lee, Ohio Eminent Scholar and L.W. Scott Alter Chair Professor,University of Cincinnati & Director NSF Multi-Campus Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, Miss
Talk Title: "Recent Advances and Trends of Predictive Manufacturing Systems in Big Data Environment"
Series: Epstein Institute Seminar Series
Abstract: In today's competitive business environment, companies are facing challenges in dealing with big data issues for rapid decision making for improved productivity. Many manufacturing systems are not ready to manage big data due to the lack of smart analytics tools. As more software and embedded intelligence are integrated in industrial products and systems, predictive technologies can further intertwine intelligent algorithms with electronics and tetherfree intelligence to predict product performance degradation and autonomously manage and optimize product service needs,
The presentation will address the trends of manufacturing transformation in big data environment as well as the readiness of smart predictive informatics tools to manage big data to achieve transparency of machine health, process quality, factory productivity. Advanced prognostics technologies with case studies will be presented. In addition, research advances in designing self-maintenance machinery, cloud-based cyber-physical modeling for next- generation products and machines, prognostics-ready sensors, etc. will be discussed.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2013
GRACE FORD SALVATORI (GFS) ROOM 101
3:30 - 4:50 PM
Biography: Dr. Jay Lee is Ohio Eminent Scholar and L.W. Scott Alter Chair Professor at the Univ. of Cincinnati and is founding director of National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS www.imscenter.net ) which is a multi-campus NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center which consists of the Univ. of Cincinnati (lead institution), the Univ. of Michigan, Missouri Univ. of S&T, and Univ. of Texas-Austin. The Center has developed partnerships with over 80 companies from 15 countries since its inception in 2001. The Center has developed a spin-off company Predictronics with support from NSF ICorps Award in 2012. His current research focuses on smart predictive analytics for product design, manufacturing, and
maintenance systems.
Currently, he also serves as advisor to a number of global organizations, including a member of the Manufacturing Executive Leadership Council, member of International S&T Committee of Alstom Transport, France, Scientific Advisory Board of Flanders' MECHATRONICS Technology Centre (FMTC) in Leuven, Belgium, Scientific Advisor Board of SIMTech, Singapore, etc. In addition, he serves as editors and associate editor for a number of journals including IEEE Transaction on Industrial Informatics, Int. Journal on Prognostics & Health Management (IJPHM), etc.,
Previously, he served as Director for Product Development and Manufacturing at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), E. Hartford, CT as well as Program Directors for a number of programs at NSF during 1991-1998, including the Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) Program, the Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRCs) Program, and the Materials Processing and Manufacturing Program. He also served as advisor to a number of universities including Cambridge Univ., Johns Hopkins Univ. etc.
He is a Fellow of ASME, SME, as well as a founding fellow of International Society of Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM). He is a frequently invited speaker and has delivered over 180 invited keynote speeches at major international conferences and has over 15 patents and 2 trademarks (Watchdog Agentâ⢠and Dominant Innovationââ¢). He received a number of awards including the most recent Prognostics Innovation Award from National Instruments in 2012.
Host: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
More Information: Seminar-Lee_Jay.doc
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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EE Distinguished Lecturer Series
Wed, Nov 20, 2013 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Erik Winfree, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Abstract: Inspired by the information processing core of biological organisms and its ability to fabricate intricate machinery from the molecular scale up to the macroscopic scale, research in synthetic biology, molecular programming, and nucleic acid nanotechnology aims to create information-based chemical systems that carry out human-defined molecular programs that input, output, and manipulate molecules and molecular structures. For chemistry to become the next information technology substrate, we will need improved tools for designing, simulating, and analyzing complex molecular circuits and systems. Using DNA nanotechnology as a model system, I will discuss how programming languages can be devised for specifying molecular systems at a high level, how compilers can translate such specifications into concrete molecular implementations, how both high-level and low-level specifications can be simulated and verified according to behavioral logic and the underlying biophysics of molecular interactions, and how design and analysis methods can cope with the inherent stochasticity and uncertainties of molecular systems.
Biography: Erik Winfree is Professor of Computer Science, Computation and Neural Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech. He is the recipient of the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology (2006), the NSF PECASE/CAREER Award (2001), the ONR Young Investigator Award (2001), a MacArthur Fellowship (2000), the Tulip prize in DNA Computing (2000), and MIT Technology Review’s first TR100 list of “top young innovators” (1999). Prior to joining the faculty at Caltech in 1999, Winfree was a Lewis Thomas Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular Biology at Princeton, and a Visiting Scientist at the MIT AI Lab. Winfree received a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Chicago in 1991, and a Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from Caltech in 1998.
Host: Dr. Alice Parker
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
Webcast: http://geromedia.usc.edu/Gerontology/Play/04ad0f98461441e8acc0297fd2ddc5371dLocation: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - Auditorium (GER 124)
WebCast Link: http://geromedia.usc.edu/Gerontology/Play/04ad0f98461441e8acc0297fd2ddc5371d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/dls/
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Distinguished Lectures: Nonlinear Programming Frameworks for Real-time Dynamic Optimization
Thu, Nov 21, 2013 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Larry Biegler,
Talk Title: Nonlinear Programming Frameworks for Real-time Dynamic Optimization
Series: Distinguished Lectures
Host: Prof. Qin
Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ryan Choi
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Closing-the-loop with Cyber Physical Systems
Thu, Nov 21, 2013 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Rahul Mangharam, University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Closing-the-loop with Cyber Physical Systems
Abstract: Cyber-Physical Systems are the next generation of embedded systems with the tight integration of computing, communication and control of “messy” plants. I will describe our recent efforts in modeling for scheduling and control of closed-loop Cyber-Physical Systems across the domains of medical devices, energy-efficient buildings, wireless control networks and programmable automotive systems.
In medical devices: the design of bug-free and safe software is challenging, especially in complex implantable devices that control and actuate organs whose response is not fully understood. Safety recalls of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators between 1990 and 2000 affected over 600,000 devices. Of these, 200,000 or 41%, were due to software issues that continue to increase in frequency. There is currently no formal methodology or open experimental platform to test and verify the correct operation of medical device software within the closed-loop context of the patient. I will describe our efforts to develop the foundations of formal modeling, synthesis and development of verified medical device software and systems from verified closed-loop models of the pacemaker and the heart (more details here.)
In buildings: heating, cooling and air quality control systems operate independently of each other and frequently result in temporally correlated energy demand surges. As peak power prices are 200-400 times that of the nominal rate, this uncoordinated activity is both expensive and operationally inefficient. While several approaches for load shifting and model predictive control have been proposed, we present an alternative approach to fine-grained coordination of energy demand by scheduling energy consuming control systems within a constrained peak power while ensuring custom climate environments are facilitated. This project includes scheduling of energy control systems, sensing-based reduced order modeling of buildings and tools for integrated modeling and controls for energy-efficient buildings.
Biography: Rahul Mangharam is the Stephen J Angello Chair and Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Electrical & Systems Engineering and Dept. of Computer & Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He directs the Real-Time and Embedded Systems Lab at Penn. His interests are in real-time scheduling algorithms for networked embedded systems with applications in automotive systems, medical devices and industrial control networks.
He received his Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University where he also received his MS and BS in 2007, 2002 and 2000 respectively. In 2002, he was a member of technical staff in the Ultra-Wide Band Wireless Group at Intel Labs. He was an international scholar in the Wireless Systems Group at IMEC, Belgium in 2003. He has worked on ASIC chip design at Marconi Communications (1999) and Gigabit Ethernet at Apple Computer Inc. (2000). Rahul received the 2013 NSF CAREER Award, 2012 Intel Early Faculty Career Award and was selected by the National Academy of Engineering for the 2012 US Frontiers of Engineering.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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The W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
Fri, Nov 22, 2013 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Thomas Valdez, Fuel Cell Group Lead, JPL
Talk Title: Regenerative Fuel Cells: Energy Storage Systems for Space Applications
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
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Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Nov 22, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Berok Khoshnevis, Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Talk Title: Automated Construction by Contour Crafting
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Nov 25, 2013 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Cynthia Bir, PhD, Professor of Research, USC Keck School of Medicine
Talk Title: Injury Biomechanics - Research with Impact
Host: Michael Khoo
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Engineering Neuroscience & Health Seminar
Mon, Nov 25, 2013 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ranulfo Romo Trujillo, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexica (UNAM)
Talk Title: Conversion of sensory signals into perceptual decisions
Abstract: Most perceptual tasks require sequential steps to be carried out. This must be the case, for example, when subjects discriminate the difference in frequency between two mechanical vibrations applied sequentially to their fingertips. This perceptual task can be understood as a chain of neural operations: encoding the two consecutive stimulus frequencies, maintaining the first stimulus in working memory, comparing the second stimulus to the memory trace left by the first stimulus, and communicating the result of the comparison to the motor apparatus. The divisions between these steps may be artificial, but breaking the problem into pieces is helpful. Here I discuss several such pieces, although, in the long run, I aim for an integrated understanding of the perceptual processes, at least to the extent possible within the minimalist environment of a laboratory task.
Biography: About:
Professor of Neuroscience at the Institute of Cellular Physiology of the National Autonomous Uinversity of Mexico (UNAM). He received his M.D. degree from the UNAM and a D.Sc. in the field of Neuroscience from the University of Paris. His postdoctoral work was done with Wolfram Schultz at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and with Vernon Mountcastle at the Johns Hopkins University.
Awards and Honors:
He received the 1990 Demuth Prize in Neuroscience from the Swiss Medical Research Foundation, the 2000 National Prize in Sciences and Arts from the Mexican government, the 2002 Prize in Basic Medical Sciences, and the 2009 Ranwell Caputto prize from the Argentinean Society of Neurosciences. He has delivered the 2005 Presidential Lecture at the Society of Neuroscience Congress; the 2005 Brooks Lecture at Harvard Medical School; the 2006 Teuber Lecture at MIT; the 2007 Harman Lecture at Cajal Club; and in 2009 the Ragnar Lecture at the Karolinska Institute. Dr. Romo is editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience and a member of the editorial board of Progress in Neurobiology.
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/college/Catalog/?cid=af180d48-ceff-42b9-a35c-eb199daed320More Information: Romo Trujillo Flyer.pdf
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/college/Catalog/?cid=af180d48-ceff-42b9-a35c-eb199daed320
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: BME-ENH Seminar
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Rapid MRI for Sleep Apnea and Speech Production Research
Tue, Nov 26, 2013 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yoon Kim, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Rapid MRI for Sleep Apnea and Speech Production Research
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: The human upper airway serves important functions such as speech, deglutition, and respiration. Understanding the nature or disorder of the upper airway functions has been of great interest in speech scientists, linguists, otolaryngologists, sleep medicine physicians, etc. MRI is noninvasive and has provided spatio-temporal information on the shaping of the tongue, soft palate, lips, and posterior/lateral pharyngeal walls with high frame rate (~20 fps).
In this talk, I will introduce our technical developments for the two NIH R01 projects: 1) dynamics of vocal tract shaping and 2) phenotyping of sleep-disordered breathing in pediatric obesity using dynamic MRI. On rapid MRI of speech, the talk will be an overview of 1) speech MRI acquisition environment, 2) novel acquisition techniques in real-time 2D, high-resolution 3D, and dynamic 3D imaging, and 3) various applications of real-time speech MRI. On rapid MRI of sleep, the talk will focus on 1) our sleep MR imaging protocols, 2) upper airway compliance measurement during inspiratory loading and 3) demonstrations of airway narrowing/collapse patterns during natural sleep in overweight and obese adolescents with sleep-disordered breathing.
Biography: Yoon Kim received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from USC in 2010. He is a postdoctoral research associate at USC from 2011 to 2013, working in the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Lab directed by Prof. Krishna Nayak. His research focuses on MRI pulse sequence design and image reconstruction for upper airway imaging and cardiac imaging. He is a recipient of American Heart Association postdoctoral fellowship award.
Host: Professor Krishna Nayak
More Info: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
Event Link: http://mhi.usc.edu/medical-imaging-seminar-series/
