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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for December
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Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series
Fri, Dec 01, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jin Zheng, Ph.D., Professor and Chair - Department of Pharmacology- UC San Diego
Talk Title: Illuminating the Biochemical Activity Architecture of the Cell
Abstract: The complexity and specificity of cellular processes require spatial microcompartmentation and dynamic modulation of the underlying biochemical activities, such as dynamic phosphorylation and dephosphorylation catalyzed by specific protein kinases and phosphatases, respectively. We hypothesize that cellular biochemical activities are spatially organized into an activity architecture and reorganization and restructuring of this activity architecture lead to disease. In this talk, I will introduce a series of genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors that we have developed to monitor biochemical events in living cells, and then present a couple of studies where we combine quantitative fluorescence imaging with targeted perturbations as well as biochemical and functional assays to probe the subcellular regulation of cAMP/PKA and ERK signaling pathways.
Biography: Dr. Jin Zhang received her PhD in Chemistry from University of Chicago in 2000. After completing her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Roger Tsien at UC San Diego, she joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2003. She was promoted to Professor of Pharmacology in 2013. In 2015 she moved back to UC San Diego and is currently Professor and vice Chair in Department of Pharmacology. Research in her lab focuses on developing enabling technologies to probe the active molecules in their native environment and characterizing how these active molecules change in diseases including cancer. Dr Zhang is a recipient of the Biophysical Society Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award (2009), NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2009), John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology (2012), Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (2012), NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (2015 and 2022), Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology (2022), Protein Society Christian B. Anfinsen Award (2022) and Biophysical Society Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award from (2023). She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2019 and a Fellow of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2021. Dr. Zhang also received UC San Diego Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring in 2019 and UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Mentoring Award in 2022.
Host: Peter Yingxiao Wang- Chair of Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
More Info: zoom link available upon request
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
Event Link: zoom link available upon request
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ASTE Seminar
Fri, Dec 01, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Astronautical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Arun Viswanathan, NASA-JPL
Talk Title: From Rockets to Routers: Navigating the Cybersecurity Challenges of Space Exploration
Biography: Dr. Arun Viswanathan is a senior cybersecurity researcher and leads the Cyber DefenseEngineering and Research group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work at JPL is primarilyconcerned with making mission-critical capabilities cyber resilient, with an emphasis on buildingcybersecurity solutions that can be deployed in operational environments such as spacecraft,spacecraft ground data systems, and autonomous systems. He has led teams on severalcybersecurity projects within JPL, with the DoE, NSA, and various industry partners, and haspublished in premier cybersecurity venues on topics of cyber situational awareness, model-basedcyber risk assessment, AI techniques for cybersecurity, and security of autonomous andintelligent systems. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics andAstronautics (AIAA), and chair of the Aerospace Cybersecurity Working Group (ACWG). Healso participates in the development of an international IEEE standard on space systemscybersecurity as chair of the ground systems subgroup. Prior to JPL, Arun received his M.S. andPh.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, where he exploredmodel-driven approaches for cyber situational awareness and explored the impact of cyberattackson the Smart Grid.
Host: ASTE Department
Location: Thomas & Dorothy Leavey Library (LVL) - LVL 17 (Parsons Auditorium, Leavey Library Basement)
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Dell Cuason
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CS Colloquium: Yuto Nakanishi, Ph.D. (GITAI USA, Inc.) - Challenge to Develop Space Robots for Building a Moonbase
Fri, Dec 01, 2023 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuto Nakanishi, Ph.D., GITAI USA, Inc.
Talk Title: Challenge to Develop Space Robots for Building a Moonbase
Abstract: GITAI is a space robotics start-up developing tools to reduce the risk and cost of labor in space. Our robots are capable of autonomous operations including structure assembly and handling tools in a vacuum. We are working towards a robotics space labor force that could reduce space labor costs by 100-fold.GITAI is unique among space start-ups in developing all the mechatronics, electronics, and software of the robot in-house to achieve a tight integration of the best technologies.In this talk, I will talk about why GITAI focuses on developing space robots with my robotics experiences at the University of Tokyo, SCHAFT, and Google and will introduce GITAI’s latest challenge of space robot development, especially our new inchworm modular arms, and rovers for future lunar exploration.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Chief Robotics Officer of GITAI. Former Founder & CEO of SCHAFT. After retiring as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (JSK Lab), he founded the bipedal robot startup, SCHAFT, the champion of DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in 2013. He later sold the company to Google in 2013, and had led Tokyo biped platforms development team under Google X for 5 years. Now, he joined GITAI to develop space robots to build moon base.
Host: Stefanos Nikolaidis
Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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DEI: Fall 2023 Town Hall (AME Dept.)
Mon, Dec 04, 2023 @ 11:30 AM - 01:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Multiple panelists, Multiple
Talk Title: AME Town Hall
Abstract: Take a break from studying and join us for lunch! AME is hosting its second Town Hall, featuring Melissa Orme (Boeing Additive Manufacturing), Kenneth Bonner (Viterbi Associate Dean for Inclusion and Diversity Initiatives), Laura Crabtree (CEO of Epsilon3), Leslie King (Part-time Lecturer of AME) and Alejandra Uranga (WISE Gabilan Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of AME). Our panelists - representing industry, higher education administration, and academia - will discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of aerospace and mechanical engineering. This is a community approach to advocacy, which will facilitate open communication between students, staff, and faculty so that barriers to DEI can be identified and overcome.
ACCESSIBILITY: We encourage everyone to participate in the programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation, have questions about the physical access, and/or require materials in an alternate format, please contact Victoria Sevilla (vasevill@usc.edu).
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://forms.gle/HSVHHxa88VvzfTVb6
More Information: Fall 2023 Town Hall flier JPEG.jpg
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://forms.gle/HSVHHxa88VvzfTVb6
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CS Colloquium: Yitao Liang - Towards Generalist Agents in a Open-World Environment
Tue, Dec 05, 2023 @ 04:00 PM - 05:50 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yitao Liang, Peking University
Talk Title: Towards Generalist Agents in a Open-World Environment
Abstract: With the advent of large language models, the debate about whether generalist agents are coming resurges. It maybe an over ambitious goal. Yet, to make any progress, we need an appropriate testing bed accompanied with principled evaluation protocols. In our past findings, we noticed that the prior testing beds for agents are mostly designed to have one specific task and goal (sometimes specified by one reward function). This greatly limits our ability to benchmark whether we are making significant progress in building a generalist agent. In this tutorial, we will introduce the comprehensive efforts from my group and a few other related prominent research labs of using open-world environments (e.g., Minecraft) to target generalist agents. We will dig into why now it is a good time to do the switch; what are the characteristics of those environments; what are the unique challenges to them and how addressing those challenges are indispensable from generalist agents; and lastly, how the latest research in this area is reshaping our community
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Yitao Liang is an assistant professor at Peking University. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from UCLA, advised by Prof. Guy Van den Broeck. His research interests span knowledge reasoning and machine learning.His work has received recognition from top AI conferences; for example, the best-paper honorable mention from AAMAS 2016, the best paper from RL for Real Life workshop in ICML 2019, a best paper runner-up from the LLD workshop in NeurIPS 2017, a best paper from the TEACH workshop in ICML2023. He regularly serves as area chairs in top venues. Recently, his group Team CraftJarvis (craftjarvis.org) is taking a neural-symbolic approach to building a generalist agents in open-world environments
Host: Jieyu Zhao
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Melissa Ochoa
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CS Colloquium: Oren Salzman (Technion - Israel Institute) - Towards Contact-Aided Motion Planning for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots: A step-by-step tutorial of applying heuristic search in the wild.
Wed, Dec 06, 2023 @ 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Oren Salzman, Technion - Israel Institute
Talk Title: Towards Contact-Aided Motion Planning for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots: A step-by-step tutorial of applying heuristic search in the wild.
Abstract: Tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs), with their flexible backbones, offer the advantage of being used for navigating complex, cluttered environments. However, to do so, they typically require multiple segments, often leading to complex actuation and control challenges. To this end, we propose a novel approach to navigate cluttered spaces effectively for a single-segment long TDCR which is the simplest topology from a mechanical point of view. Our key insight is that by leveraging contact with the environment we can achieve multiple curvatures without mechanical alterations to the robot. Specifically, we propose a search-based motion planner for a single-segment TDCR. This planner, guided by a specially designed heuristic, discretizes the configuration space and employs a best-first search. In the talk I will cover the steps required to apply heuristic search to a complex robotic system; from kinematic modeling to heuristic computation. The talk assumes some background in heuristic search but requires no robotic background.The talk is based on joint work with Priyanka Rao and Jessica Burgner-Kars from UoT.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Oren Salzman is an assistant Professor at the Computer Science department at the Technion - Israel Instituteof Technology. His research focuses on revisiting classical computer science algorithms, tools and paradigms to address the computational challenges that arise when planning motions for robots. Combining techniques from diverse domains such as computational geometry, graph theory and machine learning, he strives to provide efficient algorithms with rigorous analysis for robot systems with many degrees of freedom moving in tight quarters. He completed a PhD in the School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Dan Halperin. He then continued his studies as a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University working with Siddhartha Srinivasa and Maxim Likhachev and as a research scientist at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). Oren has published over sixty peer-reviewed conference and journal papers. He received the best paper and best student paper in ICAPS 18 and ICAPS 19, respectively as well as a nomination for the best-paper award at RSS 21.
Host: Sven Koenig
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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CSCI 591 Colloquium: Masashi Sugiyama (RIKEN/The University of Tokyo) - Machine Learning from Weak, Noisy, and Biased Supervision
Fri, Dec 08, 2023 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Masashi Sugiyama , RIKEN/The University of Tokyo
Talk Title: Machine Learning from Weak, Noisy, and Biased Supervision
Abstract: In statistical inference and machine learning, we face a variety of uncertainties such as training data with insufficient information, label noise, and bias. In this talk, I will give an overview of our research on reliable machine learning, including weakly supervised classification (positive unlabeled classification, positive confidence classification, complementary label classification, etc.), noisy label classification (noise transition estimation, instance-dependent noise, clean sample selection, etc.), and transfer learning (joint importance-predictor estimation for covariate shift adaptation, dynamic importance estimation for full distribution shift, continuous distribution shift, etc.).
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Masashi Sugiyama received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2001. He has been a professor at the University of Tokyo since 2014, and also the director of the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) since 2016. He is (co-)author of Machine Learning in Non-Stationary Environments (MIT Press, 2012), Density Ratio Estimation in Machine Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2012), and Machine Learning from Weak Supervision (MIT Press, 2022). In 2022, he received the Award for Science and Technology from the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He was program co-chair of the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference in 2015, the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS) in 2019, and the Asian Conference on Machine Learning (ACML) in 2010 and 2020.
Host: Yan Liu
Location: Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Memorial Hall (of Philosophy) (MHP) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
