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Events for the 4th week of February
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2025 IISE Western Regional Conference from February 28 to March 2, 2025
Mon, Feb 17, 2025
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: The USC IISE Student Chapter, in partnership with the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, will be hosting the 2025 IISE Western Regional Conference from February 28 to March 2, 2025 at USC.
This is an excellent opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to connect with industry leaders, explore innovative ideas, and grow their professional networks.
Students can register at https://conference.usciise.org/.
We hope you can attend!
More Information: IISE Western Regional Conference One-Pager Final.pdf
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Technology for Business LeadersMon, Feb 17, 2025
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Bhaskar Krishnamachari, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Talk Title: Technology for Business Leaders
Abstract: This course is designed for current and aspiring business leaders seeking to navigate the complexities of digital transformation and drive organizational change effectively. The course consists of five modules, each containing multiple lessons, and is designed to be completed as an asynchronous course, offering flexibility for busy professionals. Upon successful completion of the program, participants receive a University of Southern California Continuing Education Certificate.
Host: USC Viterbi Corporate and Professional Programs
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: VASE Executive Education
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. Students
Mon, Feb 17, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
"Keys to Life" series at USC ORSL
Mon, Feb 17, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
"Keys to Life" with Prof. Weiss is a motivational discussion series designed to promote student success and well-being. This series is for students who want to develop their "keys" in a small group setting and a peaceful, reflective environment. Finding purpose is essential to living a meaningful life and key to personal fulfillment. This series will help students identify and articulate their purpose and provide group motivation to work towards it. A unique feature of the series will be its peripatetic "Purpose Walks" through campus.
More Information: Keys to Life with Prof. Weiss.jpg
Location: University Religious Center (URC) - courtyard
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elisabeth Arnold Weiss
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Viterbi - Job Searching in the US
Tue, Feb 18, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Please register through Handshake. This event is for Viterbi Engineering students only, non-Viterbi students will not be admitted.
Learn how to navigate the application process to help you find your fit and engage with Employers in the US. Understand the recruitment process and increase your career readiness!
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://usc.joinhandshake.com/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
DEN@Viterbi - How To Apply - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session
Tue, Feb 18, 2025 @ 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.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r5903095cb46ee1937f34bc45828b1b81
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r5903095cb46ee1937f34bc45828b1b81
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
AI Seminar-Building World-class AI Innovation Ecosystems: Experience and FutureBuilding World-class AI Innovation Ecosystems: Experience and Future
Tue, Feb 18, 2025 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Amit Sheth, Univ of South Carolina
Talk Title: Building World-class AI Innovation Ecosystems: Experience and Future
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: In the first part of this two-part talk, I will share my experience in building two high-impact innovation ecosystems focused on foundational, interdisciplinary, and translational AI. Key components of these ecosystems include visionary leadership—identifying and establishing a presence on topics and themes before they become trends—as well as creating high-performance, highly motivated collaborative teams. This involves recruiting exceptional faculty and students and providing world-class resources and facilities. The outcomes of these efforts include outstanding student success, interdisciplinary collaborations that merge foundational research with real-world applications, high-impact and well-cited publications, competitive funding, regional technical leadership, partnerships with industry, and support for startups and entrepreneurship. Additionally, there are significant regional economic impacts, along with national and international recognition for overall excellence.
https://usc.zoom.us/j/96128473400?pwd=RKbkQ0o8WLB0rxcTQVf2sxQbL0S6Oc.1
Meeting ID: 961 2847 3400
Passcode: 247398
Biography: Prof. Amit Sheth (Home Page, LinkedIn, GScholar) is an Educator, Researcher, and Entrepreneur. He is the NCR Chair & Professor of Computer Sc & Engg. He founded the university-wide AI Institute at the University of South Carolina in 2019 which now has ~50 researchers. Earlier, he was the Ohio Eminent Scholar and Exec. Director of Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing and BioHealth Innovation at Wright State University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and AAIA. His major awards include IEEE CS W. Wallace McDowell and IEEE TVSVC Research Innovation awards. He has (co-)founded four companies based on his university research, including the first Semantic Search company in 1999 that pioneered technology similar to what is found today in Google Semantic Search and Knowledge Graph, ezDI, which developed knowledge-infused clinical NLP/NLU, and Cognovi Labs at the intersection of emotion and AI. He is particularly proud of the success of his >>45 Ph.D. advisees and postdocs in academia, industry research, and entrepreneurship.
Host: Craig Knoblock and Karen Rawlins
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5400/building-world-class-ai-innovation-ecosystems-experience-and-future/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96128473400?pwd=RKbkQ0o8WLB0rxcTQVf2sxQbL0S6Oc.1Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - CRs #1135-1137
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96128473400?pwd=RKbkQ0o8WLB0rxcTQVf2sxQbL0S6Oc.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5400/building-world-class-ai-innovation-ecosystems-experience-and-future/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 18, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Peter Frazier, Professor & UBER Scientist at the Department of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University
Talk Title: Bayesian preference learning for democratizing optimization
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
More Information: FLYER 651 Peter Frazier 2.18.25.png
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CS Colloquium: Amit Sheth (University of South Carolina) - Intelligent, Robust and Trustworthy AI: Managing GenAI Challenges, Next Phase of Hybrid AI Models and Enterprise AI for Mission-Critical Applications
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Amit Sheth, University of South Carolina
Talk Title: Intelligent, Robust and Trustworthy AI: Managing GenAI Challenges, Next Phase of Hybrid AI Models and Enterprise AI for Mission-Critical Applications
Abstract: This talk will present my team's current and future research themes. The first theme is the development of Civilized and Human-inspired AI. This encompasses addressing challenges associated with Generative AI (GenAI) and finding ways to mitigate its limitations, such as detecting AI-generated content, combating hallucinations, misinformation, and toxicity, and exploring methods for their reduction. The second theme involves the next phase of post-GenAI strategies aimed at creating robust and trustworthy AI solutions. This includes the development of a new generation of custom, compact, agile and neurosymbolic (CCAN) AI models for a more intelligent, robust and trustworthy AI with support for grounding, alignment, instructability, user-level explainability, attribution, safety, reasoning, planning, analogy and abstraction. Lastly, I will provide a brief demonstration of how these AI models, along with AI copilots and agents, are utilized for complex, enterprise-class, mission-critical decision-making applications in diverse fields such as behavioral and mental health, personalized nutrition, autonomous vehicles and smart manufacturing. This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Prof. Amit Sheth (Home Page, LinkedIn, GScholar) is an Educator, Researcher, and Entrepreneur. He is the NCR Chair & Professor of Computer Sc & Engg. He founded the university-wide AI Institute at the University of South Carolina in 2019 which now has ~50 researchers. Earlier, he was the Ohio Eminent Scholar and Exec. Director of Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing and BioHealth Innovation at Wright State University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and AAIA. His major awards include IEEE CS W. Wallace McDowell and IEEE TVSVC Research Innovation awards. He has (co-)founded four companies based on his university research, including the first Semantic Search company in 1999 that pioneered technology similar to what is found today in Google Semantic Search and Knowledge Graph, ezDI, which developed knowledge-infused clinical NLP/NLU, and Cognovi Labs at the intersection of emotion and AI. He is particularly proud of the success of his >>45 Ph.D. advisees and postdocs in academia, industry research, and entrepreneurship.
Host: Emilio Ferrara
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. Students
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
DREAM Industry Mentorship speaker series- with Anu Vij
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
DREAM Industry Mentorship speaker series connects students with experienced industry professionals from a variety of tech and destination companies who help them create a vision for their futures, align their careers around purpose, and build character in the context of growth, reinvention, and constant change. Industry mentors discuss how professional challenges present opportunities for character and leadership development. https://eis.usc.edu/dream/
This event features Anu Vij COO of Ship and Shore Environmental SolutionsMore Information: DREAM Flyer 2-19 Anu Vij.png
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 217
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elisabeth Arnold Weiss
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kyriakos Vamvoudakis , Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Learning-based Model-Free Sensor and Actuator Selection in Intelligent Complex Adaptive Systems
Abstract: Intelligent complex adaptive systems (ICAS) are heterogeneous systems that integrate analog and digital components, along with communication channels through which these components exchange data. Some of the prime components of an ICAS -- having a measurable impact on its operational efficiency and productivity -- are its sensors and actuators. These are the devices that allow the ICAS to collect data from its environment, as well as to use these data to steer itself toward a desirable direction. Generally speaking, they should be carefully selected to ensure that the system has a good level of observability and controllability, though additional specifications may also be placed depending on the underlying application's specifics. This problem of properly choosing the ICAS' sensors (or actuators) is called the sensor (or actuator) selection problem. In this talk, I will present data driven actuator and sensor selection algorithms, which choose the actuators and sensors of the ICAS while maximizing resiliency. Specifically, model-free learning-based actuator and sensor selection schemes will be proposed to optimize metrics of controllability, observability, and attack resilience for ICAS. I will show how you can use reinforcement learning to select such sensors and actuators with state and output feedback in continuous and discrete-time systems. I will finally present simulation examples with large-scale systems.
Biography: Kyriakos G. Vamvoudakis was born in Athens, Greece. He received the Diploma (a 5-year degree, equivalent to a Master of Science) in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Crete, Greece in 2006 with highest honors. After moving to the United States of America, he studied at The University of Texas at Arlington with Frank L. Lewis as his advisor, and he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2008 and 2011 respectively. During the period from 2012 to 2016 he was project research scientist at the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was an assistant professor at the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech until 2018. He currently serves as the Dutton-Ducoffe Endowed Professor at The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. His expertise is in reinforcement learning, control theory, game theory, cyber-physical security, bounded rationality, and safe/assured autonomy. Dr. Vamvoudakis is the recipient of a 2019 ARO YIP award, a 2018 NSF CAREER award, a 2018 DoD Minerva Research Initiative Award, a 2021 GT Chapter Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award and his work has been recognized with best paper nominations and several international awards including the 2016 International Neural Network Society Young Investigator (INNS) Award, the Best Paper Award for Autonomous/Unmanned Vehicles at the 27th Army Science Conference in 2010, the Best Presentation Award at the World Congress of Computational Intelligence in 2010, and the Best Researcher Award from the Automation and Robotics Research Institute in 2011. He currently is a member of the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board, an Associate Editor of: Automatica; IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control; IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems; IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine; IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems; IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence; Neurocomputing; Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications; and of Frontiers in Control Engineering-Adaptive, Robust and Fault Tolerant Control. He had also served as a Guest Editor for, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (Special issue on Learning from Imperfect Data for Industrial Automation); IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (Special issue on Reinforcement Learning Based Control: Data-Efficient and Resilient Methods); IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (Special issue on Industrial Artificial Intelligence for Smart Manufacturing); and IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (Special issue on Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management). He is also a registered Electrical/Computer engineer (PE), a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96060458816?pwd=8LmoG2q6vBCQubqqWpcizd2F1bxqsH.1Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 252
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96060458816?pwd=8LmoG2q6vBCQubqqWpcizd2F1bxqsH.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
ECE Seminar - John Hennessy, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Thursday, February 20th at 10am in EEB 248
Thu, Feb 20, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: John Hennessy, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Talk Title: Atomic layer processing to optimize the performance of ultraviolet coatings and sensors
Series: ECE Seminar
Abstract: The talk will describe the development of atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) processes that utilize hydrogen fluoride as a co-reactant. At JPL this work has been motivated by the development of sensors and coatings operating in the far ultraviolet (λ = 90-200 nm) with an eye towards the emerging requirements of the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA's next astrophysics flagship mission of the 2030's. This talk will discuss the integration of these ALD/ALE coatings into two technologies at JPL: detector-integrated UV bandpass filters on silicon imaging sensors to enable solar- or visible-blind operation, and the demonstration of reflective aluminum mirror coatings protected by ALD fluorides. In both cases additional performance enhancement can also be obtained using novel atomic layer etching (ALE) processes to remove residual oxide contamination. Other applications of these processes in selective-area deposition, superconducting detectors, and lithium-ion batteries will be discussed.
Biography: John Hennessy is a microdevices engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Advanced Detectors and Nanomaterials Group. His current research interests include the development of atomic layer deposition processes for optical and electrical applications related to UV detector-integrated filters, UV reflective coatings, and semiconductor surface passivation. He is currently the JPL institutional PI of the Caltech-led UVEX astrophysics mission, and the chair of the IEEE Metro LA Photonics Chapter. He received his BE and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from The Cooper Union in 2002, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. He is a recipient of the SPIE Rising Researcher Award in 2017 and a NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal in 2020.
Host: Richard Leahy
More Information: John Hennessy Seminar Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
PhD Thesis Proposal - Curtis Bechtel
Thu, Feb 20, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Title: Incentivizing Efficient Delegation without Payments
Date and Time: Thursday, Feb 20, 2025 at 12:00pm
Location: Ginsburg Hall (GCS) 502C
Committee: Shaddin Dughmi (Chair), David Kempe, Shanghua Teng, Vatsal Sharan, Ruolin Li (external)
Abstract: In delegation problems, a principal wants to search through a stochastic space of feasible solutions for one maximizing their utility, but they lack the ability to conduct this search on their own. Instead, they must delegate this search problem to one or more untrusted agents with distinct utility functions. The principal is then faced with the problem of designing a mechanism that incentivizes agents to find and propose a solution maximizing their utility. Importantly, the principal's power is limited to announcing which feasible solutions they would accept or reject, so we don't allow the principal to offer direct transfers of value, either positive or negative, for any outcome. Despite this limitation, there often exist mechanisms under which the principal is guaranteed a constant-factor approximation of their first-best utility. In this work, we propose three broad approaches to modeling delegation problems that address different aspects of the problem: combinatorial search and solution constraints, additive costs for searching, and delegating to multiple agents. We then show how the principal can achieve competitive approximations for several variants of each of these approaches.Location: Ginsburg Hall (GCS) - 502C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Curtis Bechtel
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. Students
Fri, Feb 21, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
AI Seminar- Evaluating Sparse Autoencoders with Board Game Models
Fri, Feb 21, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Adam Karvonen, Machine Learning Researcher with the ML Alignment & Theory Scholars
Talk Title: Evaluating Sparse Autoencoders with Board Game Models
Abstract: Join Zoom Meeting: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94409584905?pwd=Sm5LVkd0bndUdEluM3piK0NWTUQrUT09 Meeting ID: 944 0958 4905Passcode: 822247 Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) have recently become one of the most popular approaches in interpretability. As a result, there has been a flurry of new proposed SAE approaches. However, we struggle to evaluate these new approaches because there isn’t an underlying ground truth in natural language that we can use to create objective metrics for interpretability. We examine the setting of board games, using OthelloGPT and ChessGPT, and create two supervised metrics: “coverage” to assess individual feature quality and “board reconstruction” to measure overall state capture. Additionally, we propose a new SAE training approach called “p-annealing”. Our metrics reveal improvements that were hidden by existing proxy metrics, and the p-annealing approach performs the best on our metrics. While SAEs achieve high performance on board reconstruction (F1 scores of 0.85 and 0.95 on Chess and Othello), they don’t match the performance of linear probes, suggesting current techniques may not capture all of a model’s board state information. Papers: Intro to Sparse Autoencoders: What are SAEs? How do they work? What are the next steps for the field to take? Similar to this blog post: https://adamkarvonen.github.io/machine_learning/2024/06/11/sae-intuitions.html Board Game Models: Covers this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.00113 and this blog post: https://adamkarvonen.github.io/machine_learning/2024/06/12/sae-board-game-eval.html
Biography: I am mostly interested in machine learning and software engineering. Lately, a lot of my focus has been on Large Language Models - both in using them as a tool when combined with formal methods, and in understanding and interpreting them. Outside of work, I race dirt bikes. I race A class in hard enduro, and B class in regular enduro and hare scrambles.
Host: Abel Salinas and Justina Gilleland
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5368/evaluating-sparse-autoencoders-with-board-game-models/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94409584905?pwd=Sm5LVkd0bndUdEluM3piK0NWTUQrUT09Location: Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94409584905?pwd=Sm5LVkd0bndUdEluM3piK0NWTUQrUT09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5368/evaluating-sparse-autoencoders-with-board-game-models/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series
Fri, Feb 21, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Corina Amor Vegas, Assistant Professor, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Talk Title: "Deconstructing aging with senolytic CAR T cells"
Abstract: Senescent cells accumulate in organisms over their lifespan and play a key role in age-related tissue decline and the development of chronic aging pathologies. Thus, effective strategies to eliminate senescent cells (senolytics) could have broad therapeutic implications. In a departure from conventional chemical approaches we developed the first cell-based senolytic therapy based on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting uPAR, a cell-surface protein upregulated on senescent cells. Our initial proof of concept showed their efficiency in young animal models of liver fibrosis and cancer. We now show that uPAR-positive senescent cells accumulate during physiological aging and characterize their cell types and expression profiles. Importantly, we find that they can be safely targeted with senolytic CAR T cells in aged animals where they result in significant improvements in both tissue regeneration and metabolic function. Of note, we find that the beneficial effects of senolytic CAR T cells are long lasting; single administration of a low dose is sufficient to safely achieve long-term therapeutic and preventive effects in healthspan.
Biography: Corina received an M.D. from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain and a PhD from the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY. Following graduation she established her own research group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as an Independent Fellow in January 2022 and was rapidly promoted to assistant professor in January 2024. She is also the Co-chair of the department of cellular communication at the CSHL Cancer Center. The Amor laboratory studies aging biology with a focus on cellular senescence. The long-term goal of their research is to elucidate the contribution of senescent cells to the aging process and to develop novel cell-based therapeutic strategies to treat age-related pathologies. This work has lead to several awards including the the Chairman’s Prize award from MSKCC, listing as Forbes 30 under 30 and the the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5).
Host: Peter Wang
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CA DREAMS - Technical Seminar Series
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Fri, Feb 21, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jeong-sun Moon, HRL Laboratories
Talk Title: HRL's Millimeter-wave GaN Technologies
Abstract: This talk will present HRL’s millimeter-wave GaN technologies developed under the DARPA DREAM program to advance millimeter-wave GaN transistor technologies with higher linearity, efficiency, and power density, leveraging HRL’s long history of GaN technology development.
Biography: Dr. Jeong-sun Moon is a Principal Scientist at HRL Laboratories, Malibu, CA and a Fellow of IEEE. He has been with HRL since 2000 and working on developing next-generation advanced RF/EO/IR technologies and has been a PI for numerous contracts from DARPA, ONR, and USG. Before joining the HRL, he worked at the Sandia National Laboratories. He has over 200 technical publications and holds 30 patents.
Host: Dr. Steve Crago
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5342/hrls-millimeter-wave-gan-technologies/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addonWebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addon
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amy Kasmir
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5342/hrls-millimeter-wave-gan-technologies/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE feat. Noah A. Smith, PhD
Fri, Feb 21, 2025 @ 02:00 PM - 04:15 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Noah A. Smith, PhD, Amazon Professor of Machine Learning - Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington
Talk Title: OLMo, Tulu, and Friends: Accelerating the Science of Language Modeling
Abstract: Neural language models with billions of parameters and trained on trillions of words are powering the fastest-growing computing applications in history and generating discussion and debate around the world. Yet most scientists cannot study or improve those state-of-the-art models because the organizations deploying them keep their data and machine learning processes secret. I believe that the path to models that are usable by all, at low cost, customizable for areas of critical need like the sciences, and whose capabilities and limitations are made transparent and understandable, is radically open development, with academic and not-for-profit researchers empowered to do reproducible science. In this talk, I’ll share the story of the work our team is doing to radically open up the science of language modeling. We've released multiple iterations of OLMo, a strong language model with fully open pretraining data, including a strong mixture-of-experts model, OLMoE. From these we also built Molmo, an open language-vision model. We’ve also built and released Tülu, a series of models that systematically explore the post-training landscape. All of these come with open-source code and extensive documentation, including new tools for evaluation. Together these artifacts make it possible to explore new scientific questions and democratize control of the future of this fascinating and important technology.
The work I’ll present was led by a large team at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, with collaboration from the Paul G. Allen School at the University of Washington and various kinds of support and coordination from many organizations, including the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University, AMD, CSC - IT Center for Science (Finland), Databricks, Together.ai, and the National AI Research Resource Pilot.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
RSVP Deadline: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
ZOOM: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94658825749?pwd=PSuL9G8Aw9BaR7haIuAfPwIyQ7d7Hq.1
Meeting ID: 946 5882 5749
Passcode: 02212025
Biography: Noah Smith is a computer scientist working in several fields of artificial intelligence research. He recently wrote Language Models: A Guide for the Perplexed, a general-audience tutorial, and he co-directs the OLMo open language modeling effort with Hanna Hajishirzi.
Broadly, his research targets algorithms that process data encoding language, music, and more, to augment human capabilities. He also works on core problems of research methodology like evaluation. You can watch videos of some of his talks, read his papers, and learn about his research groups, Noah’s ARK and AllenNLP. Smith is most proud of his mentoring accomplishments: as of 2024, he has graduated 29 Ph.D. students and mentored 15 postdocs, with 27 alumni now in faculty positions around the world. 20 of his undergraduate/masters mentees have gone on to Ph.D. programs. His group’s alumni have started companies and are technological leaders both inside and outside the tech industry.
Host: Prof. Jieyu Zhao
More Info: https://forms.gle/FDsJM8mjfCw8M6Rk9
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94658825749?pwd=PSuL9G8Aw9BaR7haIuAfPwIyQ7d7Hq.1Location: Ginsburg Hall (GCS) - Auditorium (LL1)
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94658825749?pwd=PSuL9G8Aw9BaR7haIuAfPwIyQ7d7Hq.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Event Link: https://forms.gle/FDsJM8mjfCw8M6Rk9
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
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