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Events for December

  • NL Seminar -Prioritized training on points that are learnable, worth learning, and not yet learned

    Thu, Dec 01, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Information Sciences Institute

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Sören Mindermann & Jan Brauner, University of Oxford

    Talk Title: Prioritized training on points that are learnable, worth learning, and not yet learned

    Series: NL Seminar

    Abstract: REMINDER
    Meeting hosts only admit guests that they know to the Zoom meeting. Hence, you are highly encouraged to use your USC account to sign into Zoom.

    If you are an outside visitor, please inform us at nlg DASH seminar DASH host AT isi DOT edu beforehand so we will be aware of your attendance and let you in.

    In person attendance will be permitted for USC ISI faculty, staff, students only. Open to the public virtually via the zoom link and online.

    Training on web scale data can take months. But much computation and time is wasted on redundant and noisy points that are already learnt or not learnable. To accelerate training, we introduce Reducible Holdout Loss Selection RHO LOSS , a simple but principled technique which selects approximately those points for training that most reduce the models generalization loss.

    As a result, RHO LOSS mitigates the weaknesses of existing data selection methods techniques from the optimization literature typically select hard eg high loss points, but such points are often noisy not learnable or less task relevant. Conversely, curriculum learning prioritizes easy points, but such points need not be trained on once learned. In contrast, RHO LOSS selects points that are learnable, worth learning, and not yet learnt. RHO LOSS trains in far fewer steps than prior art, improves accuracy, and speeds up training on a wide range of datasets, hyperparameters, and architectures MLPs, CNNs, and BERT. On the large web scraped image dataset Clothing 1M, RHO LOSS trains in 18 times fewer steps and reaches 2 percent higher final accuracy than uniform data shuffling.


    Biography: Bio Soren Mindermann
    Soren is a final year PhD student in machine learning at the University of Oxford, supervised by Yarin Gal. My interests in machine learning include how it scales, causal inference and statistical modeling, as well as robustly aligning machine learning models to adopt human wishes and value.

    Bio Jan Brauner
    Jan is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Doctoral Training on Intelligent and Autonomous Machines and Systems AIMS CDT, supervised by Yarin Gal. His current research interests include AI safety and applications of AI in medicine biomedical research.


    Host: Jon May and Meryem M'hamdi

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

    Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRKrSBRAG0k

    Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual and ISI-Conf Rm#689

    WebCast Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRKrSBRAG0k

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Pete Zamar

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

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  • CEE Seminar Series

    Thu, Dec 01, 2022 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Karen Daniels PhD, North Carolina State University

    Talk Title: Looking Inside Granular Materials

    Abstract: See attached

    Host: Dr Thomas Petersen

    More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96591420807

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96591420807

    More Information: Daniels_Announcement.docx

    Location: ZOOM

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96591420807

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Salina Palacios

    Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96591420807

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  • Wind Down for Finals with KIUEL

    Thu, Dec 01, 2022 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    USC Viterbi School of Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Are nerves starting to kick in because of the upcoming finals season? If so, attend KIUEL's Wind Down for Finals and get some advice about how to tackle exams from Viterbi upperclassmen and professors, while enjoying sandwiches and hot chocolate.

    Location: Sign into EngageSC to View Location

    Audiences:

    Contact: Kevin Giang

    Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/viterbi/rsvp?id=387780

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  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Zunchen Huang

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Zunchen Huang

    Title: Constraint Based Analysis for Persistent Memory Programs
    Time: Friday, December 2, 9:00 AM-11:00 AM PST

    Committee: Chao Wang (chair), William GJ Halfond, Mukund Raghothaman, Srivatsan Ravi, and Pierluigi Nuzzo.

    Abstract: Emerging persistent memory (PM) technologies are beginning to bridge the gap between volatile memory and non-volatile storage in computer systems, by allowing high-speed memory access, byte-addressability, and persistency at the same time. However, PM programming remains a challenging and error-prone task due to reliance on ordinary developers to write correct and efficient PM software code. In this presentation, I propose a framework to detect and repair PM bugs in software code automatically using a set of new symbolic analysis techniques. Unlike existing methods, which rely on patterns and heuristics to detect and repair a small subset of PM bugs, the proposed symbolic analysis framework is able to handle a wide range of PM bugs uniformly. This is achieved by first encoding the program semantics, correctness properties, and PM requirements as a set of logical constraints, and then solving these constraints using off-the-shelf solvers. By reasoning about these logical constraints symbolically, our method can detect, diagnose, and repair PM bugs both efficiently and automatically. It can also infer PM requirements automatically. Finally, I will discuss potential extensions of the framework to programs that rely on both PM and multi-threading to reason about persistency and concurrency simultaneously.

    Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/4326990557

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/4326990557

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: What Recruiters Look for in Your Resume

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary. Review strategies to showcase your experiences and highlight your skills on your resume to impress recruiters and land interviews.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Find Your Dream Job or Internship

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Focus your job search to find the right opportunities for you.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Ehsan Qasemi

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    Ph.D. Candidate: Ehsan Qasemi
    Title: Multi-Modal Preconditioned Commonsense Inference
    Committee:
    Muhao Chen, Aiichiro Nakano, Daniel O'Leary, Fred Morstatter, Luis Garcia

    Humans can seamlessly reason with circumstantial preconditions of commonsense knowledge. We understand that "a glass is used for drinking water", unless "the glass is broken" or "the water is toxic". Despite state-of-the-art (SOTA) models' impressive performance in inferring commonsense knowledge, it is unclear whether they understand the circumstantial preconditions.
    In this dissertation, I initially propose a novel challenge of reasoning with preconditions attributed to commonsense knowledge, design three tasks based on the challenge in text-only setup, and show there is a significant gap between SOTA language models' performance and human's on our tasks. I then use weak supervision in a combination of targeted fine-tuning strategies to improve the language model's performance on the preconditioned inference task. Finally, I go beyond the text-only setup and investigate the problem of preconditioned inference in a multi-modal setup when the model is challenged to infer the preconditions from an image.

    Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92119832136 Date: Friday Dec 2nd, 11AM-12 PM

    WebCast Link: Ph.D. Candidate: Ehsan Qasemi Title: Multi-Modal Preconditioned Commonsense Inference Committee: Muhao Chen, Aiichiro Nakano, Daniel O'Leary, Fred Morstatter, Luis Garcia Humans can seamlessly reason with circumstantial preconditions of commonsense knowle

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Career Connections Lunch & Learn (with Pizza!)

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Enjoy free pizza and drinks while sharing what you want to see from Viterbi Career Connections.

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211 (BC & LB)

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Get Connected - Tapping into the Hidden Job Market

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 02:00 PM - 02:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary. Learn how to build a professional network that increases your access to employment opportunities.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Interview Tips to Help you Secure a Job Offer

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary. Your resume will get you an interview, but your interview will land you the job.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Increase Your Salary: Negotiating Your Job Offer

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY

    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary. Learn the ins and outs of an offer, what is up for negotiation, and how to get the most out of your offer.

    To access the ZOOM link and for more information on this workshop, log into Viterbi Career Gateway>> Events>>Workshops: https://shibboleth-viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/sso/

    For In-Person: Attendance is limited to room capacity

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Viterbi Impact Program | End of Semester Celebration

    Fri, Dec 02, 2022 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    USC Viterbi School of Engineering

    Student Activity


    Join us to celebrate the end of the semester with fellow volunteers and Viterbi staff. Dinner and refreshments will be provided.

    Location: Private Location (register to display)

    Audiences:

    Contact: Noe Mora

    Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/viterbi/rsvp?id=387693

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  • Repeating EventSix Sigma Black Belt

    Mon, Dec 05, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Executive Education

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Six Sigma Black Belt for Process Improvement, offered in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, allows professionals to learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics, and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a USC Six Sigma Black Belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the USC Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer's Black belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).


    More Info: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

    Audiences: Registered Attendees

    View All Dates

    Contact: Corporate and Professional Programs

    Event Link: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

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  • PhD Defense- Sebastien Arnold

    Mon, Dec 05, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    Committee: Maja Mataric, Fei Sha, Salman Avestimehr, Jesse Thomason, Stefanos Nikolaidis.

    Title: Quickly solving new tasks, with meta-learning and without
    - Date: Monday 12/5 at 10am PT on


    Zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96456583921?pwd=VHZTbTRZYnAzSkErY2RzenpSY1ZGZz09
    - Abstract (shortened):

    The success of modern machine learning (ML) stems from the unreasonable effectiveness of large data. But what about niche tasks with limited data? Some methods are able to quickly solve those tasks by first pretraining ML models on many generic tasks in a way that lets them quickly adapt to unseen new tasks. Those methods are known to ``learn how to learn'' and thus fall under the umbrella of meta-learning. While meta-learning can be successful, the inductive biases that enable fast adaptation remain poorly understood.

    This thesis takes a first step towards an understanding of meta-learning, and reveals a set of guidelines which help design novel and improved methods for fast adaptation. Our core contribution is a study of the solutions found by meta-learning. We uncover the working principles that let them adapt so quickly: their parameters partition into three groups, one to compute task-agnostic features, another for task-specific features, and a third that accelerates adaptation to new tasks.

    Building on those insights we introduce several methods to drastically speed up adaptation.
    We propose Kronecker-factored meta-optimizers which significantly improve post-adaptation performance of models that are otherwise too small to meta-learn. We also show how to apply our insights to a visual reinforcement learning setting where meta-learning is impractical. Freezing task-agnostic parameters and adapting task-specific ones with policy-induced self-supervision enables adaptation to unseen tasks with large feature extractors pretrained on generic vision datasets.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96456583921?pwd=VHZTbTRZYnAzSkErY2RzenpSY1ZGZz09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • PhD Defense - Yuchen Lin

    Mon, Dec 05, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Yuchen Lin

    Title: Evaluating and Improving the Commonsense Reasoning Ability of Language Models

    Committee: Xiang Ren (chair), Ram Nevatia, Yan Liu, Toby Mintz

    Date & Time: Dec 5th (Monday) from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

    Zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91622202680?pwd=cUFNbzY2OXYyTFpuaFVIZHlTWEtLUT09


    Abstract:
    Large pre-trained language models have become the foundation models for natural language processing. Some LMs (e.g., GPT-3) show the potential to acquire general language intelligence. However, we find that they can still make mistakes because they lack commonsense knowledge and reasoning ability, which are of vital significance in developing human-level general AI systems. In this talk, I will introduce how we can better evaluate and improve the commonsense reasoning (CSR) ability of LMs. Prior works mainly use mask-based probing and multiple-choice QA for evaluation. Their limitations prevent us from comprehensively measuring the CSR ability of LMs. To this end, I will present several benchmarks that aim to measure CSR ability in terms of open-endedness, generalization, and robustness, which are three key dimensions that are missing from the prior evaluation protocols. Then, I will introduce CSR methods that improve LMs by incorporating external knowledge. The external knowledge can be either structured graphs (e.g., ConceptNet) or unstructured text (e.g., GenericsKB), or even implicit as input-output pairs. Finally, I will briefly introduce a few interesting future directions for CSR.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91622202680?pwd=cUFNbzY2OXYyTFpuaFVIZHlTWEtLUT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Jingyao Ren

    Mon, Dec 05, 2022 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Jingyao Ren

    Committee: Sven Koenig, Gaurav Sukhatme, Stefanos Nikolaidis, Feifei Qian(ECE Department), Nora Ayanian(Brown University)

    Title: Algorithm Selection and Empirical Hardness of Multi Agent Pathfinding Problems

    Abstract:
    Solving the Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) problem optimally is known to be NP-Hard for both make-span and total arrival time minimization. While many algorithms have been developed to solve MAPF problems, there is no dominating optimal MAPF algorithm that works well in all types of problems and no standard guidelines for when to use which algorithm.
    In this work, we develop the deep convolutional network MAPFAST (Multi-Agent Path Finding Algorithm SelecTor), which takes a MAPF problem instance and attempts to select the fastest algorithm to use from a portfolio of algorithms. We improve the performance of our model by including single-agent shortest paths in the instance embedding given to our model and by utilizing supplemental loss functions in addition to a classification loss. We evaluate our model on a large and diverse dataset of MAPF instances, showing that it outperforms all individual algorithms in its portfolio as well as the state-of-the-art optimal MAPF algorithm selector. We also provide an analysis of algorithm behavior in our dataset to gain a deeper understanding of optimal MAPF algorithms' strengths and weaknesses to help other researchers leverage different heuristics in algorithm designs. Several ongoing projects are also proposed affiliated with detailed analysis such as using more advanced MAPF instance encoding techniques, Graph Neural Network based approach and utilizing the empirical hardness of MAPF to boost the performance of algorithm selectors.

    This proposal will be hosted virtually. Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6164522905

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6164522905

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • Repeating EventSix Sigma Black Belt

    Tue, Dec 06, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Executive Education

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Six Sigma Black Belt for Process Improvement, offered in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, allows professionals to learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics, and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a USC Six Sigma Black Belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the USC Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer's Black belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).


    More Info: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

    Audiences: Registered Attendees

    View All Dates

    Contact: Corporate and Professional Programs

    Event Link: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

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  • Repeating EventSix Sigma Black Belt

    Wed, Dec 07, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Executive Education

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Six Sigma Black Belt for Process Improvement, offered in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, allows professionals to learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics, and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a USC Six Sigma Black Belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the USC Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer's Black belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).


    More Info: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

    Audiences: Registered Attendees

    View All Dates

    Contact: Corporate and Professional Programs

    Event Link: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

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  • CS Colloquium: Alexis E. Block (UCLA) - Towards enhanced social-physical human-robot interaction

    Wed, Dec 07, 2022 @ 01:00 PM - 02:20 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Alexis E. Block, University of California, Los Angeles

    Talk Title: Towards enhanced social-physical human-robot interaction

    Series: Computer Science Colloquium

    Abstract: Hugs are one of the first forms of contact and affection humans experience. Receiving a hug is one of the best ways to feel socially supported, and the lack of social touch can have severe adverse effects on an individual's well-being. Due to the prevalence and health benefits of hugging, we were interested in creating robots that can hug humans as seamlessly as humans hug other humans. However, hugs are complex affective interactions that need to adapt to the height, body shape, and preferences of the hugging partner, and they often include intra-hug gestures like squeezes. In this talk, I'll present the eleven design guidelines of natural and enjoyable robotic hugging that informed the creation of a series of hugging robots that use visual and haptic perception to provide enjoyable interactive hugs. Then, I'll share how each of the four presented HuggieBot versions is evaluated by measuring how users emotionally and behaviorally respond to hugging it. Next, I'll briefly touch on how HuggieBot 4.0 is explicitly compared to a human hugging partner using physiological measures. Finally, I'll share some future directions of my research in the area of social-physical human-robot interaction.

    Alexis E. Block will give her talk in person at GFS 207 and we will also host the talk in real-time over Zoom.

    Register in advance for this webinar at:

    https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FreWz9MXRQ6XUCLTV096hA

    After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.


    Biography: Alexis E. Block is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is funded by a postdoctoral Computing Innovation Fellowship (CI Fellows) from the US National Science Foundation. She received her Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, and her Master's in Robotics in 2017, also from Penn. Block received her Dr. Sc. in Computer Science from ETH Zürich in August 2021, as part of the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems, supervised by Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Otmar Hilliges, and Roger Gassert. She was awarded an Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society for her doctoral work and the Best Hands-On Demonstration at EuroHaptics 2022. Block is currently the General Chair for the Robotics Gordon Research Seminar and organized the 2022 Southern California Robotics Symposium that took place in September. Alexis's research has been featured in the New York Times, The Times, IEEE Spectrum (twice), NPR, and Nature Outlook to name a few.


    Host: Heather Culbertson

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FreWz9MXRQ6XUCLTV096hA

    Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 207

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FreWz9MXRQ6XUCLTV096hA

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Department of Computer Science

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  • DEN@Viterbi: How to Apply Virtual Info Session

    Wed, Dec 07, 2022 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi representatives for a step-by-step guide and tips for how to apply for formal admission into a Master's degree or Graduate Certificate program. The session is intended for individuals who wish to pursue a graduate degree program completely online via USC Viterbi's flexible online DEN@Viterbi delivery method.

    Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives and ask questions about the admission process throughout the session.

    Register Now!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=e856b742c836eab783dbde5f68131b113

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

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  • Repeating EventSix Sigma Black Belt

    Thu, Dec 08, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Executive Education

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Six Sigma Black Belt for Process Improvement, offered in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, allows professionals to learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics, and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a USC Six Sigma Black Belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the USC Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer's Black belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).


    More Info: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

    Audiences: Registered Attendees

    View All Dates

    Contact: Corporate and Professional Programs

    Event Link: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

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  • DEN@Viterbi - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session

    Thu, Dec 08, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi School of Engineering for a virtual information session via WebEx, providing an introduction to DEN@Viterbi, our top ranked online delivery system. Discover the 40+ graduate engineering and computer science programs available entirely online.

    Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives during the session to discuss the admission process, program details and the benefits of online delivery.

    Register Today!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=ec01022d2eb34fa59cae47dd3e0f40a8e

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

    OutlookiCal
  • Repeating EventSix Sigma Black Belt

    Fri, Dec 09, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

    Executive Education

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Abstract: USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Six Sigma Black Belt for Process Improvement, offered in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, allows professionals to learn how to integrate principles of business, statistics, and engineering to achieve tangible results. Master the use of Six Sigma to quantify the critical quality issues in your company. Once the issues have been quantified, statistics can be applied to provide probabilities of success and failure. Six Sigma methods increase productivity and enhance quality. As a USC Six Sigma Black Belt, you will be equipped to support and champion a Six Sigma implementation in your organization. To earn the USC Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, you will be required to pass the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer's Black belt exam (administered on the final day of the course).


    More Info: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

    Audiences: Registered Attendees

    View All Dates

    Contact: Corporate and Professional Programs

    Event Link: https://viterbiexeced.usc.edu/engineering-program-areas/six-sigma-lean-certification/six-sigma-black-belt/

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  • DEN@Viterbi - 'Limited Status: How to Get Started' Virtual Info Session

    Fri, Dec 09, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi for our upcoming Limited Status: How to Get Started Virtual Information Session via WebEx to learn about the Limited Status enrollment option. The Limited Status enrollment option allows individuals with an undergraduate degree in engineering or related field, with a 3.0 GPA or above to take courses before applying for formal admission into a Viterbi graduate degree program.

    USC Viterbi representatives will provide a step-by-step guide for how to get started as a Limited Status student and enroll in courses online via DEN@Viterbi as early as the Spring 2023 semester.

    Register Now!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0476d891aa3109c5a123788cbaa08cbf

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

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  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Wenzuan Zhou

    Tue, Dec 13, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 11:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Wenxuan Zhou

    Title: Relation Extraction: Models, Robustness, and Generalization

    Chair: Muhao Chen
    Committee members: Laurent Itti, Jonathan May, Tianshu Sun, Robin Jia


    Abstract: With large amounts of digital text generated every day, it is important to extract structured knowledge automatically from the text. Relation extraction (RE), as one essential step of the solution, aims at identifying relationships among entities in a given piece of text. In this thesis proposal, I will present my work during my Ph.D. on RE from three perspectives: (1) designing effective RE models based on pretrained language models; (2) Improving the robustness of RE models, especially against entity bias; and (3) building data-efficient RE models in low-resource scenarios, which is important for real-world applications. After these, I will introduce my ongoing work and future directions for RE.


    WebCast Link: : https://usc.zoom.us/j/6915039300

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • ECE Seminar: Improved Cardiac MRI leveraging Spiral bSSFP at 0.55T

    Tue, Dec 13, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Ye Tian, Postdoctoral Scholar, Ming Hsieh Dept of ECE, USC

    Talk Title: Improved Cardiac MRI leveraging Spiral bSSFP at 0.55T

    Abstract: Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a non-invasive, radiation-free medical imaging modality that can provide functional and structural assessments of the cardiovascular system. MRI has trended towards higher field strength and stronger gradient performance which has benefitted high-resolution static imaging of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems. It has not had the same revolutionary impact on imaging of the cardiovascular system, which is constantly in motion, and where image quality is dominated by artifact. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in low-field (< 1.5T) MRI configurations, which are expected to benefit dynamic MRI applications. Low-field systems provide lower susceptibility, lower acoustic noise, lower specific absorption rate, and favorably scaled relaxivities (lower T1 and longer T2/T2*), which open new opportunities.

    In this talk, I will present several recent projects focused on improved cardiac MRI at 0.55T. I utilize a prototype whole-body 0.55T MRI (MAGNETOM Aera, Siemens Healthineers) at the Dynamic Imaging Science Center, and variations of spiral balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) pulse sequences to achieve imaging that is impossible or extremely difficult at traditional MRI field strengths. These applications include 1) contrast-optimal simultaneous multi-slice imaging of cardiac function, 2) fetal cardiac function and great vessel anatomy evaluation, and 3) dynamic T1-weighted imaging for myocardial perfusion assessment.

    Biography: Ye Tian is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Southern California and a 0.55T MRI physicist in the Dynamic Imaging Science Center (DISC), working with Professor Krishna Nayak. He completed his Ph.D. training at the University of Utah in September 2019. His research interests include real-time imaging, first-pass myocardial perfusion, simultaneous multi-slice imaging, and novel pulse sequences for cardiovascular assessment at 0.55T.

    Host: Dr. Richard Leahy, leahy@sipi.usc.edu

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95106798688?pwd=YThYL1c2RTFJemNsV0cwS0pLZ0taUT09

    Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95106798688?pwd=YThYL1c2RTFJemNsV0cwS0pLZ0taUT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • ServiceNow Open House (Virtual, External)

    Wed, Dec 14, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    At ServiceNow, our technology makes the world work for everyone, and our people make it possible. Our diverse team is changing the world with products that make a meaningful impact on people and communities. The more of 'you' you bring to work, the better. When you join ServiceNow, the world works.
    Who is ServiceNow?
    ServiceNow creates digital experiences that help organizations work smarter, faster, and better. Our purpose is to make the world work better for everyone.

    ServiceNow Open Houses:
    We are excited to announce our new Open Houses this Fall! These Open Houses are
    available to anyone that would like to learn more about ServiceNow, our culture, and opportunities. Each open house will consist of an info session about ServiceNow and breakout rooms with recruiters and ServiceNow professionals. Join us and do not miss out on all the fun!

    ServiceNow Workshops:
    We are excited to announce that we are bringing back our career development
    workshop series. These are free, virtual, career development workshops aimed to help those looking to jumpstart their careers in the tech industry. We'll be covering valuable topics that you won't want to miss!

    ServiceNow Virtual Events

    - Open House September 7th | 10 to 11 am

    - Stand Out at Career Fairs and Conferences
    Workshop September 14th| 10 to 11 am

    - Open House September 22nd | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House October 5th | 10 to 11 am

    - Build Your Personal Brand and Give Your LinkedIn a Makeover Workshop October 12th |10 to 11 am

    - Open House October 20th | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House November 2nd |10 to 11 am

    - How to Ace your In-Person and Virtual Interview Workshop November 9th 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT

    - Open House November 17th |10 to 11 am

    - Open House November 30th | 10 to 11 am

    - Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Workshop December 14th | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House December 15th | 10:00 to 11:00 am

    Check out all of our events and RSVP HERE
    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Viterbi Career Connections Office. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participants responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu



    Location: online

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Computer Science General Faculty Meeting

    Wed, Dec 14, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Receptions & Special Events


    Bi-Weekly regular faculty meeting for invited full-time Computer Science faculty only. Event details emailed directly to attendees.

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526 - Hybrid

    Audiences: Invited Faculty Only

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • PhD Defense -Sara Mohammadinejad

    Wed, Dec 14, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Sara Mohammadinejad

    Title: Learning logical abstractions from sequential data

    Committee: Jyotirmy Deshmukh, Chao Wang, Jesse Thomason, Mukund Raghothaman, Paul Bogdan

    Sequential data refers to data where order between successive data-points is important. Time-series data and spatio-temporal data are examples of sequential data. Cyber-physical system applications such as autonomous vehicles, wearable devices, and avionic systems generate a large volume of time-series data. The Internet-of-Things, complex sensor networks, multi-agent cyber-physical systems are all examples of spatially distributed systems that continuously evolve in time, and such systems generate huge amounts of spatio-temporal data. Designers often look for tools to extract high-level information from such data. Traditional machine learning (ML) techniques for sequential data offer several solutions to solve these problems; however, the artifacts trained by these algorithms often lack interpretability. A definition of interpretability by Biran and Cotton is: Models are interpretable if their decisions can be understood by humans.

    Formal parametric logic, such as Signal Temporal Logic (STL) and Spatio-temporal Reach and Escape Logic (STREL) are seeing increasing adoption in the formal methods and industrial communities as go-to specification languages for sequential data. Formal parametric logic are machine-checkable, and human-understandable abstractions for sequential data, and they can be used to tackle a variety of learning problems that include but are not limited to classification, clustering and active learning. The use of formal parametric logic in the context of machine learning tasks has seen considerable amount of interest in recent years. We make several significant contributions to this growing body of literature. This dissertation makes five key contributions towards learning formal parametric logic from sequential data. (1) We develop a new technique for learning STL-based classifiers from time-series data and provide a way to systematically explore the space of all STL formulas. (2) We conduct a user study to investigate whether STL formulas are indeed understandable to humans. (3) As an application of our STL-based learning framework, we investigate the problem of mining environment assumptions for cyber-physical system models. (4) We develop the first set of algorithms for logical unsupervised learning of spatio-temporal data and show that our method generates STREL formulas of bounded description complexity. (5) We design an explainable and interactive learning approach to learn from natural language and demonstrations using STL. Finally, we showcase the effectiveness of our approaches on case studies that include but are not limited to urban transportation, automotive, robotics and air quality monitoring.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94145108434?pwd=R3M0Smh0ZVp6UkR4S2hiamdhdjlMUT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

    OutlookiCal
  • ServiceNow Open House (Virtual, External)

    Thu, Dec 15, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    At ServiceNow, our technology makes the world work for everyone, and our people make it possible. Our diverse team is changing the world with products that make a meaningful impact on people and communities. The more of 'you' you bring to work, the better. When you join ServiceNow, the world works.
    Who is ServiceNow?
    ServiceNow creates digital experiences that help organizations work smarter, faster, and better. Our purpose is to make the world work better for everyone.

    ServiceNow Open Houses:
    We are excited to announce our new Open Houses this Fall! These Open Houses are
    available to anyone that would like to learn more about ServiceNow, our culture, and opportunities. Each open house will consist of an info session about ServiceNow and breakout rooms with recruiters and ServiceNow professionals. Join us and do not miss out on all the fun!

    ServiceNow Workshops:
    We are excited to announce that we are bringing back our career development
    workshop series. These are free, virtual, career development workshops aimed to help those looking to jumpstart their careers in the tech industry. We'll be covering valuable topics that you won't want to miss!

    ServiceNow Virtual Events

    - Open House September 7th | 10 to 11 am

    - Stand Out at Career Fairs and Conferences
    Workshop September 14th| 10 to 11 am

    - Open House September 22nd | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House October 5th | 10 to 11 am

    - Build Your Personal Brand and Give Your LinkedIn a Makeover Workshop October 12th |10 to 11 am

    - Open House October 20th | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House November 2nd |10 to 11 am

    - How to Ace your In-Person and Virtual Interview Workshop November 9th 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT

    - Open House November 17th |10 to 11 am

    - Open House November 30th | 10 to 11 am

    - Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Workshop December 14th | 10 to 11 am

    - Open House December 15th | 10:00 to 11:00 am

    Check out all of our events and RSVP HERE
    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Viterbi Career Connections Office. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participants responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu



    Location: online

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Repeating EventEiS HUB Winter Writing Retreat for Viterbi Ph.D. Students

    Thu, Dec 15, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join us at the Hub for concentrated writing time! Quiet writing space, lunch, and optional one-on-one writing consultations with Hub staff will be provided.

    RSVP required; space is extremely limited.

    Dates: Dec. 15 and Dec. 16
    Time: 11AM to 4PM
    Location: RTH 222

    RSVP by December 8 here: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/writing-retreat

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222

    Audiences: Ph.D. Students with RSVP

    View All Dates

    Contact: Helen Choi

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  • DEN@Viterbi - 'Limited Status: How to Get Started' Virtual Info Session

    Thu, Dec 15, 2022 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi for our upcoming Limited Status: How to Get Started Virtual Information Session via WebEx to learn about the Limited Status enrollment option. The Limited Status enrollment option allows individuals with an undergraduate degree in engineering or related field, with a 3.0 GPA or above to take courses before applying for formal admission into a Viterbi graduate degree program.

    USC Viterbi representatives will provide a step-by-step guide for how to get started as a Limited Status student and enroll in courses online via DEN@Viterbi as early as the Spring 2023 semester.

    Register Now!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=ef310a23e206176fa6adee3b6dd88b9cf

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

    OutlookiCal
  • Repeating EventEiS HUB Winter Writing Retreat for Viterbi Ph.D. Students

    Fri, Dec 16, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join us at the Hub for concentrated writing time! Quiet writing space, lunch, and optional one-on-one writing consultations with Hub staff will be provided.

    RSVP required; space is extremely limited.

    Dates: Dec. 15 and Dec. 16
    Time: 11AM to 4PM
    Location: RTH 222

    RSVP by December 8 here: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/writing-retreat

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222

    Audiences: Ph.D. Students with RSVP

    View All Dates

    Contact: Helen Choi

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  • PhD Defense - Hannes Leipold

    Mon, Dec 19, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 11:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar



    Committee: Greg ver Steeg, Federico M. Spedalieri, Aiichiro Nakano, and Todd A. Brun

    Title: Imposing Classical Symmetries on Quantum Operators with Applications to Optimization

    Abstract (shortened):
    Applying quantum computers to solve combinatorial optimization tasks is one of the most exciting ways to leverage quantum systems for practical computational advantage. Two of the primary paradigms to leverage NISQ quantum computers for such tasks are Quantum Annealing (QA) and the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA). A typical approach for both would be to map a combinatorial optimization problem with feasibility constraints to an unconstrained quadratic optimization problem. However, it is possible to impose these constraints on the evolution of the quantum system by selecting the quantum operators applied to the system such that the corresponding observables remain invariant under the evolution of the quantum state. We consider such approaches to be imposing classical symmetries on the quantum operators. As such, the task of finding such Hamiltonians or unitaries for a collection of constraints is an important task for tailoring quantum algorithms to optimization problems with feasibility constraints.

    In this thesis, we give an algebraic formulation for imposing an arbitrary collection of constraint symmetries on quantum operators. This allows us to describe a general algorithm to solve the corresponding task for linear constraints in polynomial time for bounded weight operators and classify the complexity of several related computational problems.

    We then consider a quantum annealing protocol for the problem of combinational circuit fault diagnostics (CCFD) and analyze features of our approach that make it attractive for quantum annealers built to solve this class of combinatorial optimization problems. Next, we consider several QAOA protocols that are tailored to impose different constraint symmetries underlying this problem and study the trade-offs between the protocols. Our results are consistent with the view that tailoring the ansatz of a protocol to match the underlying symmetry of an optimization problem can be benefical to finding solutions with a lower QAOA depth under several parameter optimization schemes.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93517166738

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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