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Events for the 4th week of February

  • Morely Builders Trojan Talk

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 11:00 AM - 02:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Morley Builders will be hosting a lunch time Meet & Greet to discuss who we are, the work we do, and current job openings! Please join us for a very informal lunch, food will be provided, to meet a few of us and ask questions! Bring your resume.

    Hiring for: Bachelors & Masters, Civil Engineering Students (But all engineering majors welcome)

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • CS Colloquium: Cheng Tan (Courant Institute / New York University) - Auditing Outsourced Services

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Cheng Tan, Courant Institute / New York University

    Talk Title: Auditing Outsourced Services

    Series: CS Colloquium

    Abstract: How can users of a cloud service verify that the service truly performs as promised? This question is vital today because clouds are complicated black boxes, running in different administrative domains from users. Their correctness can be undermined by internal corruptions---misconfigurations, operational mistakes, insider attacks, unexpected failures, or adversarial control at any layer of the execution stack.


    This talk will present verifiable infrastructure, a framework that lets users audit outsourced applications and services. I will introduce two systems: Orochi and Cobra, which verify the execution of, respectively, untrusted servers and black-box databases. Orochi and Cobra introduce various techniques, including deduplicated re-execution, consistent ordering verification, GPU accelerated pruning, and others. Beyond these two systems, I will also discuss verifiable infrastructure more generally.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Cheng Tan is a computer science Ph.D. candidate in the Courant Institute at New York University. His interests are in operating systems, networked systems, and security. His work on the Efficient Server Audit Problem was awarded best paper at SOSP 2017. His work on data center network troubleshooting at Microsoft Research has been deployed globally in more than 30 data centers in Microsoft Azure.

    Host: Barath Raghavan

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • Self-Care Carnival

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    VITERBI's biggest week is coming up! To start it, come de-stress at the Self-Care Carnival. We will have FREE acai bowls, a puppy pen, booths that include DIY lip scrubs, succulent painting, and more -“ all hosted by Viterbi student organizations! Come by for some free food, free goods, and Viterbi friends!

    Location: Epstein Family Plaza (E-Quad)

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar

    ISE 651 - Epstein Seminar

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Dennis Kon-Jin Lin, University Distinguished Professor, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

    Talk Title: Order-of-addition Experiments: Design and Analysis

    Host: Dr. Qiang Huang

    More Information: February 18, 2020.pdf

    Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

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  • Interviews Open Forum

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Increase your preparedness for interviews by attending this professional development Q&A moderated by Viterbi Career Connections staff or Viterbi employer partners.
    For more information about Labs & Open Forums, please visit viterbicareers.usc.edu/workshops.

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

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Grand Challenges Lecture Series

    Tue, Feb 18, 2020 @ 05:30 PM - 06:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Carol Peden,

    Talk Title: Why Healthcare Needs Engineers

    Abstract: Grand Challenges Lecture Series - Health - Dr. Carol Peden


    Host: Grand Challenge Scholars Program

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

    Audiences: GCSP Participants

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Interviews Open Forum

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Increase your preparedness for interviews by attending this professional development Q&A moderated by Viterbi Career Connections staff or Viterbi employer partners.
    For more information about Labs & Open Forums, please visit viterbicareers.usc.edu/workshops.

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

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Joint Math-FLDS/ CPS Seminar

    Joint Math-FLDS/ CPS Seminar

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Reinhard Heckel, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical, University of Munich

    Talk Title: Image Recovery and Recognition via Exploiting the Structural Bias of Neural Networks

    Abstract: Deep neural networks are highly successful tools for image classification, recovery, and restoration. This success is often attributed to large amounts of training data. However, recent findings challenge this view and instead suggest that a major contributing factor to this success is that the architecture imposes strong prior assumptions-”so strong that it enables image recovery without any training data. In this talk we discuss two instances of this phenomena: First, we show that fitting a convolutional network to a corrupted and/or under-sampled measurement of an image provably removes noise and corruptions from that image, without ever having trained the network. Second, we show that it is possible to learn from a dataset with both true and false examples, obtained without explicit human annotations, by exploiting the phenomena that neural networks fit true examples faster than false ones.

    Host: Mahdi Soltanolkotabi, soltanol@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • AME Seminar

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Alberto Aliseda, University of Washington

    Talk Title: Fluid Mechanics of Intracranial Aneurysms: Fundamental Aspects and Application to Clinical Decision-Making

    Abstract: The fluid mechanics inside intracranial aneurysms dominate the efficacy of endovascular treatment methods, modulating the mechanical stresses and residence times inside the sac and at the aneurysmal neck. Embolic coils and flow-diverting stents, the two dominant types of endovascular devices for treatment, are designed to slow down flow inside the aneurysmal volume and reduce stresses on the aneurysmal sac, creating an environment that enables successful thrombosis in the aneurysm, which eliminates the risk of rupture.

    In-vitro experiments characterize the hemodynamics inside intracranial aneurysms, prior to treatment and post-treatment with flow-diverting stents. We use stereo (2D-3C) and 3D (3D-3C) particle image velocimetry (PIV) to explore the parameter space of aneurysms in a large cohort of patients followed along several years. The flow measurements are interpreted as a combination of two canonical flows: flow in a curved pipe and cavity flow. As such, the parent-vessel Reynolds and Dean numbers are the relevant non-dimensional parameters. Unsteadiness in the cardiac cycle introduces the Womersley number as a third component of flow inertia. Despite inertia dominating the parent-vessel flow, flow-diverting stents significantly reduce the velocity inside the aneurysmal sac, leading to viscous-dominated flow. A critical Dean number is identified that separates two opposite flow behaviors that could help predict treatment success.

    I will also discuss a computational investigation of a large population of patients whose aneurysm treatments are followed over time, to determine the mechanism by which endovascular treatment fails to prevent aneurysmal growth. A novel modeling technique that uses high-resolution, synchrotron micro-CT scans to understand the flow inside coiled aneurysm enables homogenization methods for improved porous medium representation of deployed coils or stents, improving the clinical utility of the simulation results.

    Host: AME Department

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

    Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

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

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  • AME Seminar

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Alberto Aliseda, University of Washington

    Talk Title: Fluid Mechanics of Intracranial Aneurysms: Fundamental Aspects and Application to Clinical Decision-Making

    Abstract: The fluid mechanics inside intracranial aneurysms dominate the efficacy of endovascular treatment methods, modulating the mechanical stresses and residence times inside the sac and at the aneurysmal neck. Embolic coils and flow-diverting stents, the two dominant types of endovascular devices for treatment, are designed to slow down flow inside the aneurysmal volume and reduce stresses on the aneurysmal sac, creating an environment that enables successful thrombosis in the aneurysm, which eliminates the risk of rupture.

    In-vitro experiments characterize the hemodynamics inside intracranial aneurysms, prior to treatment and post-treatment with flow-diverting stents. We use stereo (2D-3C) and 3D (3D-3C) particle image velocimetry (PIV) to explore the parameter space of aneurysms in a large cohort of patients followed along several years. The flow measurements are interpreted as a combination of two canonical flows: flow in a curved pipe and cavity flow. As such, the parent-vessel Reynolds and Dean numbers are the relevant non-dimensional parameters. Unsteadiness in the cardiac cycle introduces the Womersley number as a third component of flow inertia. Despite inertia dominating the parent-vessel flow, flow-diverting stents significantly reduce the velocity inside the aneurysmal sac, leading to viscous-dominated flow. A critical Dean number is identified that separates two opposite flow behaviors that could help predict treatment success.

    I will also discuss a computational investigation of a large population of patients whose aneurysm treatments are followed over time, to determine the mechanism by which endovascular treatment fails to prevent aneurysmal growth. A novel modeling technique that uses high-resolution, synchrotron micro-CT scans to understand the flow inside coiled aneurysm enables homogenization methods for improved porous medium representation of deployed coils or stents, improving the clinical utility of the simulation results.

    Host: AME Department

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

    Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 159

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Tessa Yao

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

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  • Medical Imaging Seminars - Part 1 of 2

    Medical Imaging Seminars - Part 1 of 2

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: E. Brian Welch, Ph.D., M.B.A., Director of Clinical Science, Hyperfine, Guilford, CT

    Talk Title: Portable Point-of-Care Bedside MRI

    Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series

    Abstract: I will describe the career path that led me from USC (B.S. B.M.E.E. 1998) to graduate school, experiences in industry to academia and back to industry again, and conclude with the most exciting stage of my career so far -“ helping to validate the clinical utility of the world's first portable point-of-care bedside MRI scanner.


    Biography: Brian is a biomedical-electrical engineer (B.S. BME-E University of Southern California, 1998) whose Ph.D. training at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine focused on biomedical imaging. Specifically, he is an expert in methods and software development for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). His previous and ongoing work concentrates on overcoming the real-world limitations that hinder research and clinical applications of MRI. Strategies to overcome these challenges include hardware and software solutions, alternative data acquisition and reconstruction methods, novel MRI pulse sequences, quantitative imaging methods and associated post-processing tools. Based on more than 20 years of experience in MRI and 6 years of work experience as the on-site Philips Healthcare MR clinical scientist supporting research projects at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Welch acquired deep knowledge of the capabilities of the 3T and 7T human scanners housed at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS). Dr. Welch applied that experience and knowledge to his own independent research programs as a Vanderbilt faculty member with contributions in the areas of fat-water MRI, human brown adipose tissue imaging, and continuously moving table MRI. Most recently, Dr. Welch joined the startup company Hyperfine in 2017 as the Director of Clinical Science with the goal of validating the clinical utility of the world's first portable point-of-care bedside MRI scanner.

    Host: Prof. Krishna Nayak, knayak@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • Medical Imaging Seminars - Part 2 of 2

    Medical Imaging Seminars - Part 2 of 2

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 04:30 PM - 05:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Houchun Harry Hu, Ph.D., Clinical Scientist, Hyperfine, Guilford, CT

    Talk Title: Fat to Water in Pediatric MRI

    Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series

    Abstract: I will share my experience and career path/choices as a MRI physicist working in three large children's hospitals, from Los Angeles (2011-2014), to Phoenix (2014-2017), to Columbus (2017-2019). I will highlight several projects, including my interests in childhood obesity, my work with spiral MRI in the clinical setting, my foray into non-Gadolinium angiography techniques and arterial spin labeling in children, and my interest in non-Cartesian free-breathing techniques. I will conclude with my thoughts on the promises of a portable point of care MRI system in pediatric settings.

    Biography: Houchun Harry Hu, Ph.D., Clinical Scientist, Hyperfine, Guilford, CT Talk Title: Fat to Water in Pediatric MRI Series: MHI Distinguished Visitor Seminar Series Abstract: I will share my experience and career path/choices as a MRI physicist working in three large children's hospitals, from Los Angeles (2011-2014), to Phoenix (2014-2017), to Columbus (2017-2019). I will highlight several projects, including my interests in childhood obesity, my work with spiral MRI in the clinical setting, my foray into non-Gadolinium angiography techniques and arterial spin labeling in children, and my interest in non-Cartesian free-breathing techniques. I will conclude with my thoughts on the promises of a portable point of care MRI system in pediatric settings. Biography: Harry has been working in the domain of pediatric MRI over the last 12 years. He obtained his undergraduate degree (B.S., BME/BMEC) from USC in 2001, and went on to earn a PhD (2006) in BME / MRI from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. From 2006-2011, he spent time in Professor Krishna Nayak's laboratory at USC working primarily on water-fat imaging. From 2011-2014, he transitioned to Children's Hospital Los Angeles to work on NIH-funded projects in brown adipose tissue. From 2014-2017, Harry moved to Arizona to work as a clinical MRI physicist at Phoenix Children's Hospital, collaborating with Dr. James Pipe from the Barrow Neurological Institute on spiral acquisitions in pediatric brain applications. In June 2017, Harry was recruited to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, as the Director of Imaging Research. In late 2019, Harry joined Hyperfine as a Clinical Scientist as a member of Dr. E. Brian Welch's team to focus on the deployment of the company's point-of-care portable MRI systems in pediatric centers. Harry has served as a Deputy Editor for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2012-2017) and is currently an Associate Editor for Radiology and the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

    Host: Prof. Krishna Nayak, knayak@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Talyia White

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  • Talent Show

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    KIUEL will be hosting a Talent Show on February 19th, 2020 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM! Come out and celebrate Engineers Week with your fellow peers and see all the different talents they have! For those interested in performing in the Talent Show, submit your act at:
    USC Viterbi KIUEL Talent Show

    Location: Ground Zero

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Spotlight Panel- Computer Science & Computer Engineering

    Wed, Feb 19, 2020 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    The Viterbi Alumni & Industry Spotlight Series is your opportunity to hear directly from USC alumni and industry professionals from all engineering disciplines. Learn more about a potential career, meet alumni in your field, and come have free dinner on us!

    Computer Science and Computer Engineering Alumni & Industry Panel

    Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101

    Audiences: Undergrad

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

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  • Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (WIE)

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 09:00 AM - 02:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    Students will come to campus and participate in fun, interactive science engineering activities facilitated by USC students.

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Limits of the quantitative approach, or why parallel and distributed system energy management needs to move on

    Limits of the quantitative approach,  or why parallel and distributed  system energy management needs to move on

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 10:15 AM - 11:30 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Kirk W. Cameron, Virginia Tech

    Talk Title: Limits of the quantitative approach, or why parallel and distributed system energy management needs to move on

    Abstract: In this talk, we begin with the progression of parallel computer system power management over the last two decades. In particular, we focus on the evolution of quantitative design approaches and the emergence of effective parallel and distributed system runtime power management. We observe that the growing complexity of today's machines limits the effectiveness of traditional quantitative approaches. The Compute-Overlap-Stall (COS) model of parallel computation is proposed to accurately capture the effects of emergent orchestrated power management of processor, memory, and thread throttling. The implication of our findings is that as power management techniques pervade, new machine-learning performance evaluation and prediction approaches will be essential to future computer system designs.

    Biography: Professor Kirk W. Cameron directs the stack@cs Center for Computer Systems at Virginia Tech. He pioneered Green HPC (PowerPack, Green500, SPECPower, grano.la) and his software has been downloaded by more than 500,000 people in 160+ countries. His accolades include both NSF and DOE Career Awards, IBM and AMD Faculty Awards, best papers (e.g., HPDC 2017) and the LLNL Science/Technology Excellence Award. His internationally acclaimed SeeMore cluster has been visited by tens of thousands and was named the second best RPi project of all time by MagPi Magazine. In 2017 he was named an ACM Distinguished Scientist and in 2018-2019 he held a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship from the UK Royal Academy of Engineering.

    Host: Xuehai Qian, xuehai.qian@usc.edu

    More Information: 200220_Kirk Cameron_CENG.pdf

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Brienne Moore

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  • CS Colloquium: Jiapeng Zhang (Harvard) - Sunflowers and Their Applications in Computer Science and Mathematics

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Jiapeng Zhang, Harvard University

    Talk Title: Sunflowers and Their Applications in Computer Science and Mathematics

    Series: CS Colloquium

    Abstract: The sunflower is a simple notion in combinatorics, originally invented and studied by Erdos and Rado in 1960. Surprisingly, it has deep connections to fundamental problems in computer science, such as matrix multiplication, efficient data structures, computational complexity and cryptography. In my talk, I will explain our new results on sunflowers, how ideas emerging from computer science were critical in the proof, and how our new techniques can help shed light on some central problems in computer science and mathematics.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium

    Biography: Jiapeng Zhang is a postdoc at Harvard with Prof. Salil Vadhan. He did his PhD at UC San Diego with Prof. Shachar Lovett. His research focuses on boolean function analysis, computational complexity, learning theory and cryptography.

    Host: Shaddin Dughmi

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • IEEE Xplore Tabling

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    IEEE Client Services Manager, Craig Griffith will be at USC providing IEEE swag and brochures, and informing students about the IEEE Xplore database.

    Location: Robert Glen Rapp Engineering Research Building (RRB) - Courtyard

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • ECE Seminar: Ad-Mageddon: The Next Frontier in Online Privacy

    ECE Seminar: Ad-Mageddon: The Next Frontier in Online Privacy

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Prof. Zubair Shafiq, University of Iowa

    Talk Title: Ad-Mageddon: The Next Frontier in Online Privacy

    Abstract: While online advertising supports the "free" web, it relies on a complex and opaque tracking ecosystem that surveils users across the web. Hundreds of millions of users rely on ad-blocking and anti-tracking tools to counter the negative externalities of online advertising and tracking. Perhaps unsurprisingly, advertisers are increasingly retaliating against the users of such tools -- prompting an arms race.

    In this talk, I will first discuss the pain points of the state-of-the-art ad-blocking and anti-tracking tools. I will then describe our recent work on building effective and robust countermeasures against online advertising and tracking using machine learning techniques. I will highlight the unique challenges and opportunities in deploying ad-blocking and anti-tracking tools in web browsers as well as mobile and IoT systems. I will conclude with a discussion of my future research vision for a privacy-respecting web.

    Biography: Zubair Shafiq is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. Prior to this, he received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 2014. His research focuses on building privacy-enhancing tools to counter online tracking and surveillance. More broadly, his work takes a data-driven approach to addressing emerging online privacy and security threats. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2018), Andreas Pfitzmann PETS Best Student Paper Award (2018), ACM IMC Best Paper Award (2017), NSF CRII Award (2015), Fitch-Beach Outstanding Graduate Research Award (2013), IEEE ICNP Best Paper Award (2012), and the Dean's Plaque of Excellence for undergraduate research (2007, 2008). More information at https://cs.uiowa.edu/~mshafiq

    Host: Professor Konstantinos Psounis, kpsounis@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • MASCLE Machine Learning Seminar: Rose Yu (Northeastern University) - Physics Guided AI for Learning Spatiotemporal Dynamics

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Rose Yu, Northeastern University

    Talk Title: Physics Guided AI for Learning Spatiotemporal Dynamics

    Series: Machine Learning Seminar Series hosted by USC Machine Learning Center

    Abstract: Applications such as sports, climate science, and aerospace engineering require learning complex dynamics from large-scale spatiotemporal data. Such data is often non-linear, non-Euclidean, high-dimensional, and demonstrates complicated dependencies. Existing machine learning frameworks are still insufficient to learn spatiotemporal dynamics as they often fail to exploit the underlying physics principles. I will demonstrate how to inject physical knowledge in AI to deal with challenges such as non-linear dynamics, non-Euclidean geometry, and multi-resolution structure. I will showcase the application of these methods to problems such as accelerating turbulence simulations, imitating basketball gameplay and combating ground effect in quadcopter landing.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Dr. Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech Computing and Mathematical Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Sciences at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on advancing machine learning techniques for large-scale spatiotemporal data, with a particular emphasis on physics-guided AI. Among her awards, she has won Google Faculty Research Award, the NSF CRII award, best dissertation award in USC, best paper award at the NeurIPS time series workshop, and was nominated as one of the 'MIT Rising Stars in EECS'.


    Host: Yan Liu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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  • Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Subhayan De , Postdoctoral Associate, Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder

    Talk Title: Design Optimization under Uncertainty using a Stochastic Gradient Approach

    Abstract: Design optimization of complex engineering systems requires understanding and modeling the underlying physical phenomena and their interactions. In addition, uncertainties and their influences on both the design objective and the design constraints must be considered to achieve a robust design. Such uncertainties are typically due to intrinsic variabilities in the system or manufacturing processes, as well as the lack of knowledge in precisely describing the governing physics in terms of mathematical/computational models. However, accounting for uncertainty in the optimization process requires, for example, computing the statistical moments of the objective, which may lead to high computational costs. For example, a Monte Carlo approach based on random sampling in such cases requires many forward and adjoint solves, thus requiring significant computational resources. To alleviate this computational burden, in this talk, a stochastic gradient-based approach will be discussed. In this approach, stochastic approximations of the gradients, using only a handful of random samples of the uncertainty, are constructed at every design optimization iteration. Popular variants of stochastic gradient descent algorithms (e.g., AdaGrad and Adam) are used with this approach. In practical engineering settings, often models with different levels of fidelity are employed to describe the problem at hand. Lower-fidelity models (e.g., using coarser grid discretizations) can be simulated cheaply but may lead to inaccurate solutions relative to high-fidelity models (e.g., using fine grid discretizations) that are often expensive to simulate. To reduce the design optimization cost further, these low-fidelity models are incorporated in the optimization process to propose bi-fidelity versions of stochastic gradient descent algorithms with a linear rate of convergence. The stochastic gradient approach for design optimization is illustrated using numerical examples from shape and topology optimizations. These examples show that the use of stochastic gradients along with bi-fidelity approaches can reduce the computational cost of design optimization under uncertainty significantly. In the presence of uncertainty in the microscale properties of the structure, homogenization methods like FE2 require solving boundary value problems to quantify the effect of microscopic heterogeneity at the macroscale for all random samples in a Monte Carlo approach. Instead, the stochastic gradient-based approach is applied to this multiscale optimization problem to reduce the computational effort of design under microstructural uncertainty. The design of a fiber composite beam with uncertain microstructural properties is used to illustrate the proposed stochastic gradient approach. Ongoing work will introduce the application of this approach to 3D structural components with microstructural uncertainty and the limitations applying it to large-scale realistic aerospace structures, such as solid rocket fuel design.

    Biography: Bio: Dr. Subhayan De is a postdoctoral associate in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder). His research at CU focuses on design optimization under uncertainty and physics-based machine learning. Subhayan received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2018, where he was supported by a Viterbi Ph.D. Fellowship, a Gammel Scholarship and several NSF grants. At USC, he worked on probabilistic model validation, machine learning, uncertainty quantification, and structural control design. Subhayan also holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from USC and an MEng in Structural Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He received his B.Eng. in Civil Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

    Host: Dr. Erik Johnson

    Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

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  • ASTE Seminar Announcement

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    Astronautical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Aloissia Russo and David Bernachia, Masters Candidates

    Talk Title: LEAPFROG: USC's FLlight Testbed re-thinking Planetary Landers for Next Generation Exploration

    Abstract: The SERCS LEAPFROG project will be presented and key technologies being developed to re-architecture how a lunar lander is used on the moons surface.

    Host: Astronautical Engineering Department

    Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 222

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Dell Cuason

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  • SMASH Tournament

    Thu, Feb 20, 2020 @ 06:30 PM - 11:59 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    Join the first official E-week Smash Tournament for food, competition, and prizes. Free entry for all USC students with $500 in gifts given away to the victors. Sign up with the link
    USC E-Week Smash Tournament

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Escape Room

    Fri, Feb 21, 2020 @ 06:30 AM - 09:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    Engineer your way to an epic escape! You only have 30 minutes to get out, so you and your team of 4-6 people better give it your all!

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Discover Engineering Day (SHPE)

    Fri, Feb 21, 2020 @ 09:00 AM - 02:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    SHPE Jr. is a biweekly mentorship program in which student volunteers at USC mentor high school students from Augustus Hawkins High School. Each meeting is around three hours long, during which we touch on topics like time management, leadership, or mental health (to name a few), followed by academic tutoring sessions and college preparation. Our curriculum and focus is dependent on grade level.

    Location: Epstein Family Plaza (E-Quad)

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Undergraduate Programs

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  • Repeating EventGrammar Tutoring

    Fri, Feb 21, 2020 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Workshops & Infosessions


    INDIVIDUAL GRAMMAR TUTORIALS
    Need help refining your grammar skills in your academic and professional writing? Meet one-on-one with professors from the Engineering Writing Program, work together on your grammar skills, and take your writing to the next level!

    ALL VITERBI UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS WELCOME!
    Sign up here: http://bit.ly/grammaratUSC

    All sessions will be via Zoom.

    Questions? Contact helenhch@usc.edu

    Location: ZOOM

    Audiences: Graduate and Undergraduate Students

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    Contact: Helen Choi

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  • Open Alpha Preliminary Playtest!

    Open Alpha Preliminary Playtest!

    Fri, Feb 21, 2020 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations

    Student Activity


    For Viterbi's E-Week, OA will be hosting an open playtest of our first playable version of the first cohort's game! A vertical slice, as called in industry. Attendees will be able to sign up for a mailing list for upcoming Pizza & Playtesting events, as well as head information about our Final Release Demo in May!

    Location: E-Quad

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Open Alpha USC

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