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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for December

  • Professor Robert A. Scholtz Remarkable Trajectory Lecture

    Tue, Dec 03, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Robert A. Scholtz, Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Talk Title: How I Got Into Impulse Radio: The Education Of One Communication Theorist

    Abstract: This talk chronicles key events in the life and career of Dr. Scholtz, culminating in his research on ultrawideband (UWB) radio. Commentary includes a little bit of technology history, significant influences in his career, formation of the Communication Sciences Institute and the UltRa Lab, interactions with the FCC, and much more. By the way, what is this new U1 chip in the iPhone 11?

    Reception following immediately afterwards in EEB Courtyard.

    Host: Remarkable Trajectory Lecture Series

    Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/657728811

    More Information: remarkable-trajectory-RAS.jpg

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

    WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/657728811

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar

    Tue, Dec 03, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Pablo Durango-Cohen, Associate Professor, Northwestern University

    Talk Title: Leveraging Analytics to Monitor and Manage Transportation Infrastructure

    Host: Prof. Jim Moore

    More Information: December 3, 2019.pdf

    Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 102

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

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  • Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar

    Wed, Dec 04, 2019 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Neelesh B. Mehta, ECE Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

    Talk Title: Transmit Antenna Selection in Underlay Spectrum Sharing: Role of Interference Constraint, Channel State Information, and Power Adaptation

    Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things

    Abstract: Spectrum sharing mitigates the scarcity of radio spectrum by enabling different classes of users to utilize spectrum together without exclusively and inefficiently allocating the spectrum to just one class of users. In the underlay paradigm of spectrum sharing, a low priority secondary user can transmit concurrently in the same spectrum as a high priority primary user but must ensure that the interference it causes to the primary receiver is constrained. We investigate transmit antenna selection to improve the performance of such interference-constrained underlay spectrum sharing systems. It exploits the spatial diversity afforded by multiple antennas but with much less hardware.
    We characterize the optimal antenna selection and power adaptation rules for several stochastic interference constraints. The fact that the choice of the antenna at the secondary transmitter is driven not just by the channel gains from it to the secondary receiver's antennas, but also by the interference it causes to the primary receiver makes the class of problems that we study interesting and novel. The optimal antenna selection and power adaptation rules that we arrive at differ significantly from the ad hoc approaches pursued in the literature and lead to markedly lower symbol error rates. They bring out the significant and varied influence the triumvirate of interference constraint, channel state information, and power adaptation has on antenna selection.


    Biography: Neelesh B. Mehta is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Prior to joining IISc in 2007, he worked at AT&T Research Labs, Broadcom Corp., and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs in USA for 7 years. He received his PhD degree from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA in 2001 and his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 1996.

    His research focuses on wireless communications. He has worked on topics related to 3G, 4G, and 5G cellular communication standards, energy harvesting and green wireless sensor networks, cognitive radio, cooperative communications, multi-antenna technologies, and multiple access protocols.

    He is a Fellow of the IEEE, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and the National Academy of Sciences India (NASI). He is a recipient of several awards such as the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Khosla National Award, and Vikram Sarabhai Research Award. He served on the Executive Editorial Committee of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications during 2014-17 and served as its Chair during 2017-18. He also served on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society from 2012-15.


    Host: Paul Bogdan, pbogdan@usc.edu

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia Veal

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  • AME Seminar

    Wed, Dec 04, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Alison Marsden, Stanford

    Talk Title: Patient-Specific Modeling for Virtual Treatment Planning in Pediatric Cardiology

    Abstract: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, with nearly 1 in 4 deaths caused by heart disease alone. In children, congenital heart disease affects 1 in 100 infants, and is the leading cause of infant mortality in the US. Patient-specific modeling based on medical image data increasingly enables personalized medicine and individualized treatment planning in cardiovascular disease patients, providing key links between the mechanical environment and subsequent disease progression. We will discuss recent methodological advances in cardiovascular simulations, including (1) optimization and uncertainty quantification for surgical planning, and (2) a unified finite element formulation for fluid structure interaction towards fluid solid growth. Clinical application of these methods will be demonstrated in two applications: 1) a novel surgical method for stage one single ventricle palliation, and 2) virtual treatment planning in pediatric patients with peripheral pulmonary stenosis. We will also provide an overview of our open source SimVascular project, which makes our tools available to the scientific community (www.simvascular.org). Finally, we will provide an outlook on recent successes and challenges of translating modeling tools to the clinic.

    Biography: Alison Marsden is an associate professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Bioengineering, and, by courtesy, Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She is a member of the Institute for Mathematical and Computational Engineering. From 2007-2015 she was a faculty member in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCSD. She graduated with a BSE degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University in 1998, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford in 2005. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in Bioengineering from 2005-07. She was the recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface in 2007, an NSF CAREER award in 2011, and was elected as a fellow of AIMBE and SIAM in 2018. She has published over 100 peer reviewed journal papers and serves on the editorial board of several journals. Her research focuses on the development of numerical methods for cardiovascular blood flow simulation and application of engineering tools to impact patient care in cardiovascular surgery and congenital heart disease.



    Host: AME Department

    More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/

    Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

    Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/

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  • Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar

    Thu, Dec 05, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Lara Dolecek, University of California, Los Angeles

    Talk Title: Context-Aware Coding for Computing Memories

    Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things

    Abstract: Error correction and detection are the core components of all modern memory systems. Current computing memory systems use simple coding schemes to simultaneously meet the resiliency and latency requirements. In this talk, we review our recent results on context-aware coding for computing memories, an approach that explicitly takes into account various intrinsic side information for improved robustness to faults. We discuss both error correction and detection, codes' theoretical properties, and provide examples of how these solutions can be implemented in practice. We explicitly describe the special case of the error localization codes. We also discuss promising future directions, connections with classical information theoretic concepts, and other applications. Joint work with C. Schoeny, M. Gottscho, I. Alam, and P. Gupta.

    Biography: Lara Dolecek is a professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA. She received her BS, MS, and PhD degrees in EECS as well as an MA degree in Statistics, all from UC Berkeley. She is a recipient of several research and teaching awards including NSF CAREER, IBM Faculty Award, Intel Early Career Faculty Award, Okawa Research Grant, and UCLA Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award. With her research group and collaborators, she received numerous best paper awards. Her research interests include coding methods with applications to memories and storage, computing, quantum systems, and machine learning.

    Host: Salman Avestmehr, avestime@usc.edu

    Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 101

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Thu, Dec 05, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Rishee Jain, Stanford University

    Talk Title: Urban Informatics: Harnessing data to understand dynamics between people, buildings and energy systems in cities

    Abstract: See attachment

    Host: Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber

    More Information: R. Jain Abstract 12-5-2019.pdf

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • CS Colloquium: Melisa Orta Martinez (Stanford University) - Design and Analysis of Open-Source Haptic Devices for Educational Applications

    Thu, Dec 05, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Melisa Orta Martinez, Stanford University

    Talk Title: Design and Analysis of Open-Source Haptic Devices for Educational Applications

    Series: Computer Science Colloquium

    Abstract: Open-source hardware significantly impacts the development of technology by allowing communities of users with varied expertise to share, customize and collectively improve on designs. Most haptic hardware available outside of the research community is proprietary and expensive. This prevents communities of users from easily obtaining, building, modifying, and learning from the devices. I propose that the ability to easily obtain, assemble and customize a haptic device is especially important for educational applications. In this talk I present three open-source haptic devices, for which I carefully considered trade-offs in cost, ease of making, and performance -- toward making haptic devices more accessible for educational applications.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Host: Heather Culbertson

    Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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  • Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar - Distinguished Lecture Series

    Fri, Dec 06, 2019 @ 02:00 AM - 03:00 PM

    Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Professor S. Majid Hassanizadeh, Earth Sciences Department, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    Talk Title: Advanced theories of two-phase flow in deformable porous media; experimental and computation studies

    Abstract:
    Two-phase flow in porous media is traditionally modeled using a modified form of Darcy's law, two volume balance equations, and a so-called capillary pressure-saturation relationship. Darcy's Law was proposed more than 150 years ago for the flow of a single fluid in soil. Since then, this equation, in almost original form, has been assumed to be applicable to more and more complicated porous media. But, there are many shortcomings of the so-called extended Darcy's Law. Also, the empirical relationship between capillary pressure and saturation is known to suffer from some important shortcoming (it is hysteretic and may depend on the rate of flow or rate of change of saturation).

    In this lecture, we present a new theory of two-phase flow, which comprises a truly extended Darcy's law and a new capillarity theory, which has five main features: i) pressure gradient is not the only driving force for flow, ii) saturation and pressure are not the only state variables; fluid-fluid specific interfacial area is another macroscale state variable, iii) capillary pressure is an intrinsic property of the porous medium and is not only a function of saturation but also fluid-fluid specific interfacial areas, iv) effective stress parameter is a function of fluid-fluid specific interfacial area as well as saturation, and v) there is a dynamic (or non-equilibrium) capillarity effect. We provide experimental evidences for the validity of the new theory. Also, results of pore-scale and continuum-scale simulations are provided to illustrate the significance of new theory at various scales.


    Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family

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  • Seminar at CAM Lab

    Fri, Dec 06, 2019 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Li Zhang, Associate Professor

    Talk Title: Magnetic Microrobots for Biomedicine

    Host: Prof. Yong Chen

    More Information: Abstract_L. Zhang.pdf

    Location: Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) Lab

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

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  • NL Seminar-Tightly Connecting Vision and Language

    Thu, Dec 12, 2019 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Information Sciences Institute

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Soravit Beer Changpinyo , Google AI

    Talk Title: Tightly Connecting Vision and Language

    Series: Natural Language Seminar

    Abstract: Remarkable progress has been made at the intersection of vision and language. While showing great promise, current vision and language models do not function well in the wild. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts aiming to bridge this gap for the tasks of image captioning and visual question answering. I will first describe several practical limitations of current benchmarks as a yardstick for grounded language understanding and visual reasoning. Then, I will describe our simple approach to transfer learning, where we leverage large-scale ultrafine grained data as a means to address the long tail of language. Finally, given these results, I will outline future directions and survey a variety of on-going work along the line of making vision and language research useful.


    Biography: Soravit Changpinyo is a Software Engineer at Google AI. His research interests are in machine learning with applications to computer vision and natural language processing. Prior to joining Google, he was a PhD candidate and an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California, advised by Fei Sha.

    Host: Emily Sheng

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

    Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/s/unxRW/

    Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Conf Room 689

    WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/s/unxRW/

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Peter Zamar

    Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar

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  • Sonny Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Thu, Dec 12, 2019 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Katherine (Trina) McMahon, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin - Madison

    Talk Title: Ecogenomics of freshwater microbial communities

    Abstract: Freshwater bacterial communities underpin all biogeochemical cycles in lakes and are outstanding model systems with which to study ecological and evolutionary processes in microbes. We are partnered with the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research site and have access to a rich time series of microbial community data extending nearly two decades. In this talk I will compare patterns of microbial community assembly and dynamics in two sharply contrasting lakes using 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing, explore population structure using single cell genomics and metagenomics, and propose a new genomics-based framework for thinking about traits within complex microbial communities.


    Biography: My students and I study the microbial ecology of both natural and engineered systems. We use molecular tools to investigate microbial community structure and function in lakes and activated sludge. More recently, we have been using high-frequency environmental sensor networks to measure important variables that we know influence bacterial communities. Sensor data provided through the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (http://www.gleon.org) guides our adaptive sampling efforts and provides rich contextual data for our studies of lake bacterial community ecology. We are particularly interested in phosphorus as a nutrient driving eutrophication, and the role that bacteria play in phosphorus cycling. We are also engaged in metagenomic and post-genomic approaches to dissecting the metabolism of bacteria specialized in the sequestration of phosphorus in activated sludge. This information will ultimately lead to the construction of more predictive mechanistic and ecosystem-scale models to describe such processes as wastewater treatment and freshwater nutrient cycling

    Host: Dr. Adam Smith

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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