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Events for the 4th week of February
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Six Sigma Black Belt Mon, Feb 22, 2016
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Course Dates (15 Day Program)
Week 1: February 22-26, 2016
Week 2: April 11-15, 2016
Week 3: May 2-6, 2016
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.
This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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 Seminar: Jim Boerkoel (Harvey Mudd) - Temporal Planning for Robust Human-Robot Teamwork
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 12:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jim Boerkoel, Harvey Mudd
Talk Title: Temporal Planning for Robust Human-Robot Teamwork
Series: CS Seminar Series
Abstract: Our work explores what it takes for teams of robots and humans to schedule robust interactions in the messiness of the real world.Temporal planning enables robots to automatically coordinate when the activities in their schedule should occur. In general, we want temporal plans that are adaptable to events that are beyond the direct control of agents; e.g., a robot may experience slippage or sensor failures. To do this, we must answer two questions: (1) how and when do new or unexpected events arise in practice?, and (2) how "good" is the temporal plan at adapting to unexpected events that might otherwise invalidate the plan? We have proposed a new metric called robustness, which assesses the likelihood that a multi-robot plan succeeds. We have shown that robustness is a better measure of multi-robot plan quality and that we can generate plans that optimize for robustness.
We also explore how to plan and schedule robots' interactions with humans on shared activities so that the exchanges are fluid and intuitive. For instance, one of our ongoing projects considers whether an agent can learn about the experiences of its human teammate in order to nudge them towards more optimal behavior. Another considers the roles that trust and cooperation play in human-robot interactions and how these differ from how humans trust and cooperate with each other.
Learn more: https://www.cs.hmc.edu/HEAT/
Host: Sven Koenig
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 322
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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: Muhammad Naveed (UIUC) - Making the World a Better Place with Cryptography
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Muhammad Naveed, UIUC
Talk Title: Making the World a Better Place with Cryptography
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that the health records of up to 86% of the U.S. population have been hacked. The Ashley Madison breach revealed the private information of 37 million individuals and led to suicides and shattered families. The Apple iCloud breach led to the public release of nude photos of several celebrities. Data breaches like these abound.
In this talk, I will first describe my research toward understanding the security of existing data breach prevention systems. To thwart data breaches, property-preserving encryption has been adopted in many encrypted database systems such as CryptDB, Microsoft Cipherbase, Google Encrypted BigQuery, SAP SEEED, and the soon-to-be-shipped Microsoft SQL Always Encrypted system. To simultaneously attain practicality and functionality, property-preserving encryption schemes permit the leakage of certain information such as the relative order of encrypted messages. I will explain the practical implications of permitting such leakage, and show in real-world contexts that property-preserving encryption often does not offer strong enough security.
Next, I will describe an application-driven approach to developing practical cryptography to secure sensitive data. The approach involves collaborating with application domain experts to formulate the requirements; investigating whether a practical solution meeting the requirements is possible; and, if not, exploring the reasons behind it to relax the requirements so as to find a useful solution for the application. I will describe how I developed a cryptographic model called Controlled Functional Encryption (CFE), and how we can adopt CFE to address the privacy concerns in emerging applications such as personalized medicine.
Biography: Muhammad Naveed is a PhD candidate at UIUC studying applied cryptography and systems security. In applied cryptography, he develops practical-yet-provably-secure cryptographic systems for real applications. In systems security, he explores the fundamental security flaws in popular systems and builds defense systems. His work has had a significant impact on Android security and has helped companies such as Google, Samsung, Facebook, and Amazon secure their products and services, improving security for millions of Android users. He is the recipient of the Google PhD Fellowship in Security, the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Fellowship, the CS@Illinois C.W. Gear Outstanding Graduate Student Award, and the best paper award at the NYU CSAW Security Research Competition. He was also a finalist in the NYU CSAW Cybersecurity Policy Competition.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Candidate Series
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Khalid Jawed, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Talk Title: Mechanics of Thin Elastic Rods: Computer Graphics Meets Engineering
Abstract: Thin rods are ubiquitous in both nature (e.g. bacterial flagella, human hair) and engineering (ropes, cables), from the micron to the kilometer scale, and often undergo extreme deformation. The geometric nonlinearities that result from the deformation process pose enormous challenges to traditional analytical and numerical tools. Moreover, it is often unfeasible to perform experiments at the original length scale of these systems. We overcome these challenges by combining model experiments and cutting-edge computational tools ported from computer graphics. The prominence of geometry in this class of systems enables the scaling (up or down) of the problem to the desktop scale, which allows for systematic experimental exploration of parameter space. In parallel, we conduct numerical simulations using the Discrete Elastic Rods (DER) method, which was originally developed for the animation industry. For the first time, we port DER into engineering as a predictive computational tool and test ride it against model experiments by studying two a priori unrelated problems, at disparate length scales: (1) coiling of rods on rigid substrate motivated from laying of submarine cables on seabed (kilometer scale), and (2) propulsion and instability in bacterial flagella (micron scale). The excellent agreement found between experiments and simulations illustrates the predictive power of our approach. Scaling (up or down) to the original application then offers unprecedented tools for rationalization and engineering design.
Biography: Khalid Jawed is a PhD candidate in mechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (expected graduation: May 2016). His research focuses on the mechanics of slender rods; e.g. fuel pipelines, knots in ropes, bacterial flagella. He attained his Master's degree from the same institution in 2014. He received his undergraduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan in 2012. His career vision is centered around using computational, experimental, and modeling tools to characterize, enhance, control, and apply the material properties and mechanical instabilities to program the mechanical response of structures. His academic awards include GSNP best speaker award at American Physical Society March Meeting (2014) and outstanding teaching assistant award from MIT Mechanical Engineering (2015).
Location: 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 12:30 PM - 01:49 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Rong Lu, Assistant Professor Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine
Talk Title: TBA
Biography: Professor Rong Lu's lab studies stem cell coordination, regulation and malfunction from a single cell perspective. They use mouse hematopoietic stem cells as a model system and integrate research strategies from various disciplines including molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, genetics and bioinformatics. Her research focuses on understanding the differences between individual stem cells and how they coordinate with each other. These studies can provide new insights into the origin of diseases such as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome as well as identify new therapeutic targets to treat them. http://pibbs.usc.edu/faculty/profile/?fid=457
Host: K. Kirk Shung, PhD
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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. -
Faculty Candidate Seminar
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Private, Private
Talk Title: Searching for Many Hidden Objects
Host: Epstein Department of ISE
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Michele 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. -
Viterbi E-Week Kick Off Carnival
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
E-Week 2016 officially kicks off in carnival style! Join us for free In N Out burgers sponsored by Northrop Grumman, carnival games, and other fun activities to kick off this week celebrating the contributions engineers make to society.
To register, click here https://myviterbi.usc.edu/vasa/?PostingID=1234567989.Location: Epstein Family Plaza
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: Jenny Vazquez-Akim
Event Link: https://myviterbi.usc.edu/vasa/?PostingID=1234567989
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: Robert West (Stanford) - Human Behavior in Networks
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Robert West, Stanford
Talk Title: Human Behavior in Networks
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Humans as well as information are organized in networks. Interacting with these networks is part of our daily lives: we talk to friends in our social network; we find information by navigating the Web; and we form opinions by listening to others and to the media. Thus, understanding, predicting, and enhancing human behavior in networks poses important research problems for computer and data science with practical applications of high impact. In this talk I will present some of my work in this area, focusing on (1) human navigation of information networks and (2) person-to-person opinions in social networks.
Network navigation constitutes a fundamental human behavior: in order to make use of the information and resources around us, we constantly explore, disentangle, and navigate networks such as the Web. Studying navigation patterns lets us understand better how humans reason about complex networks and lets us build more human-friendly information systems. As an example, I will present an algorithm for improving website hyperlink structure by mining raw web server logs. The resulting system is being deployed on Wikipedia's full server logs at terabyte scale, producing links that are clicked 10 times as frequently as the average link added by human Wikipedia editors.
Communication and coordination through natural language is another prominent human network behavior. Studying the interplay of social network structure and language has the potential to benefit both sociolinguistics and natural language processing. Intriguing opportunities and challenges have arisen recently with the advent of online social media, which produce large amounts of both network and natural language data. As an example, I will discuss my work on person-to-person sentiment analysis in social networks, which combines the sociological theory of structural balance with techniques from natural language processing, resulting in a sentiment prediction model that clearly outperforms both text-only and network-only versions.
I will conclude the talk by sketching interesting future directions for computational approaches to studying and enhancing human behavior in networks.
The lecture will be available to stream HERE. Please Open in New Tab for best results.
Biography: Robert West is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science in the Infolab at Stanford University, advised by Jure Leskovec. His research aims to understand, predict, and enhance human behavior in social and information networks by developing techniques in data science, data mining, network analysis, machine learning, and natural language processing. Previously, he obtained a Master's degree from McGill University in 2010 and a Diplom degree from Technische Universität München in 2007.
Host: CS Department
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
Schneider Electric Information Session
Mon, Feb 22, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Schneider Electric China oversea recruiting team is coming to USC campus to meet with our students!
Schneider Electric is a top 500 company globally. With 180 years of aggressive advances of innovation to look back on, it is now widely acknowledged as a global specialist in energy management.
If you are a Chinese student looking for a great opportunity to work in your home country after graduation, you definitely don't want to miss this opportunity to interact with our recruiters and learn more about Schneider Electric China opportunities!
Refreshment will be served. We look forward to seeing you here!Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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. -
Six Sigma Black Belt
Tue, Feb 23, 2016
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Course Dates (15 Day Program)
Week 1: February 22-26, 2016
Week 2: April 11-15, 2016
Week 3: May 2-6, 2016
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.
This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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: Vincent Liu (U. Washington) - Improving the Cost and Reliability of Data Center Networks
Tue, Feb 23, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Vincent Liu , U. Washington
Talk Title: Improving the Cost and Reliability of Data Center Networks
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
In recent years, data center networks have grown to an unprecedented scale. The largest of these are expected to connect hundreds of thousands of servers and are expected to do so with high reliability and low cost. The current solution to these problems is to use an idea first proposed for telephone networks in the early 1950's: Clos network topologies. These topologies have a number of substantial benefits, but their use in this new domain raises a set of questions.
In this talk, I will present two systems that make small changes to state-of-the-art data center designs to provide large improvements to performance, reliability, and cost. I will first describe F10, a data center architecture that can provide both near-instantaneous reaction to failures and near-optimal handling of long-term load balancing. Central to this architecture is a novel network topology that provides all of the benefits of a traditional Clos topology, but also admits local reaction to and recovery from failures. I will also describe Subways, a network architecture that looks at how to use multiple network interfaces on each server to handle growth and performance issues in today's data centers.
Biography: Vincent Liu is a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Before that, he completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. His research is in the general area of networked systems across all layers of the networking stack, from hardware concerns to application and workload modeling. He has published in a variety of fields including data center networks, fault-tolerant distributed systems, energy-efficient wireless communication, and systems to preserve security and privacy. His work has won Best Paper Awards at NSDI 2013, ACM SIGCOMM 2013, and NSDI 2015. He was also awarded a Google PhD fellowship and Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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: Giuseppe Loianno (U. of Pennsylvania) - Flying Robots: Fast Autonomous Navigation and Physical Interaction
Tue, Feb 23, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Giuseppe Loianno, U. of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Flying Robots: Fast Autonomous Navigation and Physical Interaction
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Flying Robots are starting to play a major role in several tasks such as search and rescue, interaction with the environment, inspection and monitoring.
Unfortunately, their dynamics make them extremely difficult to control and this is particularly true in absence of external positioning systems, such as GPS and motion-capture systems. Additionally, autonomous maneuvers based on onboard sensors are still very slow compared to those attainable with motion capture systems.
It is essential to provide fast autonomous capabilities to Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) to fly in a reliable way in unstructured environments.
This is achieved giving the vehicle, the ability to identify its state, using either absolute and relative asynchronous measurements provided by different sensors. Those have to be fused, exploiting different rates and statistical sensors' properties.
Algorithms that rely on the combination of a camera and IMU, two lightweight and inexpensive sensors, represent a valid solution for autonomous navigation and environment interaction, especially in case of small scale vehicles.
In this talk, I will give an overview of my research activities toward fast autonomous navigation of MAVs, collaboration between multiple aerial vehicles and environment interaction using a camera and IMU as the main sensor modalities, showing how these problems can be even solved by the use of classic consumer electronic devices.
This lecture will be available to stream HERE. Please open in new tab for best results.
Biography: Giuseppe Loianno received B.Sc and M.Sc in Automation Engineering both with honours at University of Naples Federico II in December 2007 and February 2010, respectively. He has been, during the academic year 2008, an exchange student at KTH (Royal Insitute of Technology) in Stockholm.
He developed his master thesis at ETH Zurich at the ASL laboratory focusing on Micro Aerial Vehicles under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Davide Scaramuzza. He received his Ph.D in computer and automatic engineering focusing in Robotics in May 2014 in the PRISMA Lab group, led by Prof. Dr. Bruno Siciliano. From April 2013 he worked as vising Ph.D student for 14 months with the Grasp Lab at University of Pennsylvania, supervised by Prof. Dr. Vijay Kumar and working for 12 months a postdoctoral researcher. He is currently a research scientist. His research interests include visual navigation, sensor fusion and visual servoing for micro aerial vehicles.
Host: CS Department
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
The Business of Oil and Gas
Tue, Feb 23, 2016 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Lilien, Health Environment Safety Technical Services Manager Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company
Talk Title: Environmental and Societal Aspects of Oil & Gas Production in California
Series: USC Energy Institute Seminar Series
Host: USC Energy Institute
More Information: USCEI 2016 Seminar Series 022316.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Juli Legat
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. -
Clark Construction Information Session
Tue, Feb 23, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Clark Construction Group Information Session
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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. -
Six Sigma Black Belt
Wed, Feb 24, 2016
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Course Dates (15 Day Program)
Week 1: February 22-26, 2016
Week 2: April 11-15, 2016
Week 3: May 2-6, 2016
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.
This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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. -
Computer Science General Faculty Meeting
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 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
Audiences: Invited Faculty Only
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
Faculty Candidate Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Private, Private
Talk Title: Data Science for High Throughput Sequencing
Host: Epstein Department of ISE
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Michele 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. -
Online Information Session - Informatics
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Learn more about The University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering's two new Master's programs in Informatics.
In the MS in Spatial Informatics program, students will learn about the overall field of data analytics, the role of the analyst and/or data scientist, and the domains where spatial informatics skills can be applied to critical organization missions. They will understand how spatially-enabled data management, data visualization, and artificial intelligence techniques (specifically data mining and machine learning) are critical to the analysis process, and how these can be applied to real world challenges. REGISTER
The Master of Communication Informatics is a cross-disciplinary joint degree program offered by the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. In this program students explore several of the most interesting technological phenomena impacting communication today, including online communities, social media and user-generated content, Crowdsourcing, Big Data and data analytics, virtual and augmented reality, and data mining.WebCast Link: http://ow.ly/YgHcr
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Graduate Programs
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. -
Communications, Networks & Systems (CommNetS) Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Hao Li, USC
Talk Title: Digitizing Humans into VR with a Glimpse into Deep Learning Applications
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: The age of social media and immersive technologies has created a growing need for processing detailed visual representations of ourselves. With recent advancements in graphics, we can now generate highly realistic digital characters for games, movies, and virtual reality. However, creating compelling digital content is still associated with a complex and manual workflow. While cutting-edge computer vision algorithms can detect and recognize humans reliably, obtaining functional digital models and their animations automatically still remains beyond reach. Such models are not only visually pleasing but would also bring semantical structure into the captured data, enabling new possibilities such as intuitive data manipulation and machine perception. With the democratization of 3D sensors, many difficult vision problems can be turned into geometric ones, where effective data-driven solutions exist. My research aims at pushing the boundaries of data-driven digitization of humans and developing frameworks that are accessible to anyone. Such system should be fully unobtrusive and operate in fully unconstrained environments. With these goals in mind, I will showcase several highlights of our current research efforts from dynamic shape reconstruction, human body scanning, facial capture, and the digitization of human hair. By the end of this decade, our homes will be equipped with 3D sensors that digitally monitor our actions, habits, and health. These advances will help machines understand our appearances and movements, revolutionizing the way we interact with computers, and developing new forms of live communication through compelling virtual avatars.
Biography: Hao Li joined USC in 2013 as an assistant professor of Computer Science. Before his faculty appointment he was a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic/Lucasfilm, where he developed the next generation real-time performance capture technologies for virtual production and visual effects. Prior to joining the force, Hao spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia and Princeton Universities. His research lies in geometry processing, 3D reconstruction, performance capture, a human hair digitization. While primarily developed to improve film production, his work on markerless dynamic shape reconstruction has also impacted the field of human shape analysis and biomedicine. His algorithms are widely deployed in the industry, ranging from leading visual effects studios to manufacturers of state-of-the-art radiation therapy systems. He has been named top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2013 and NextGen 10: Innovators under 40 by CSQ in 2014. He was also awarded the Google Faculty Award in 2015, the SNF Fellowship for prospective researchers in 2011, and best paper award at SCA 2009. He obtained his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2010 and received his MSc degree in Computer Science in 2006 from the University of Karlsruhe (TH). He was a visiting professor at Weta Digital in 2014 and visiting researcher at EPFL in 2010, Industrial Light & Magic (Lucasfilm) in 2009, Stanford University in 2008, National University of Singapore in 2006, and ENSIMAG in 2003.
Host: Dr. Mahdi Soltanolkotabi
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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. -
Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Nancy Love, University of Michigan, Civil & Environnental Engineering
Talk Title: A Balancing Act: Assessing the Fate of Emerging Contaminants in Urine-Derived Fertilizers that Reduce Nutrient Loads and Achieve Nutrient Recovery
Abstract:
Source separation of urine provides benefits over traditional wastewater nutrient management including providing urine-derived fertilizer and reducing nutrient loads to wastewater treatment systems. This talk reviews an evaluation of the largest known community-scale and office-scale urine separation programs in the US. Urine is collected from public events and used to fertilize crops (lettuce and carrots). The urine used for this study was well characterized for nutrient, biological, and pharmaceutical constituents. While the study is underway, this presentation will highlight results to date that focus on the effectiveness of different processing methods (storage, pasteurization, and struvite precipitation) on reducing emerging and traditional contaminants that could have an impact on public health. The potential impacts of separating urine at the source and making it a valuable product are discussed.
Biography: Dr. Nancy Love is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University Michigan. She served as chair of the department from January 2008 -“ August 2011. In September 2011, she became Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Initiatives in the Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan. Prior to 2008, Dr. Love was an Assistant, Associate and Full Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and an Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on environmental biotechnology and water quality with an emphasis on engineered treatment systems. Her specific interests focus on the fate of stressor chemicals in these systems, the use of technologies to sense and remove these chemicals, and on resource recovery from wastewater. Dr. Love has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, a Ph.D. in Environmental Systems Engineering from Clemson University, and is a licensed professional engineer (P.E.) in the state of Michigan. After completing her M.S. degree, she worked as a process design engineer for approximately 3 years for CH2M Hill, Inc.
Host: Dr. Adam Smith
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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. -
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Candidate Series
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Reza Avazmohammadi , Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Computational Engineering and Science at The University of Texas at Austin
Talk Title: Constitutive Modeling of Soft Engineering and Biological Materials: The Role of Microstructure
Abstract: The need for a better understanding of structure-function relationships in soft materials is on the rise. This need lies beneath several disciplines including the engineering materials industry and biomechanics. The study of multiscale mechanics of soft engineering materials offers unique opportunities to design multifunctional materials with novel properties. Also, in the field of biomechanics, investigating the mechanistic interplay between the diseased tissue microstructure and the organ-level response helps to develop computational tools that allow clinicians to efficiently predict the progression of diseases.
Biography: Reza Avazmohammadi is a postdoctoral fellow in the area of cardiovascular simulations at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin. Reza received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology (2005), and his M.Sc. in Applied Mechanics from Sharif University of Technology (2007). Reza continued to work as a researcher at Sharif University in the area of mechanics of composite materials (2007-09). Reza received his Ph.D. degree in Applied Mechanics from University of Pennsylvania (2014) in the area of constitutive modeling of soft composite materials. His research interests are in multiscale-multiphysics modeling of soft materials, with an emphasis on understanding and exploiting the mechanistic link between the microstructure of these materials and their overall response.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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. -
Information Session: Master's Programs in Informatics
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Learn about two new Master's programs at USC in the field of big data and meet Dr. Cyrus Shahabi, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Director of the Informatics Program at USC.
Students with an academic background in engineering, math, science, and related social sciences are welcome to apply for fall 2016 - the deadline has been extended to March 15 for these programs.
RESERVE YOUR SEAT
Master of Science in Spatial Informatics:
Navigate the field of data analytics and understand how spatial informatics skills can benefit forward-thinking companies. Students will also learn how spatial data management, data visualization, and artificial intelligence techniques like data mining and machine learning are powerful analytical tools to apply to real-world challenges.
Master of Communication Informatics:
Explore several of the most interesting technological phenomena impacting communication today, including online communities, social media and user-generated content, Crowdsourcing, Big Data and data analytics, virtual and augmented reality, and data mining.
RESERVE YOUR SEATLocation: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100D
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Graduate Programs
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. -
Disney Tech Talk
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Disney will be on campus at Viterbi for a tech talk! This event will feature a technologist from Walt Disney Imagineering who will deliver a keynote presentation, followed by Q&A. Food and drinks will be provided.
More Information: USC Tech Talk- Save the Date.pdf
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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. -
Paul Debevec: Lighting Hollywood's Photoreal Digital Actors
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
University Calendar
Come hear Paul Debevec, Chief Visual Officer of the USC Institute of Creative Technologies, talk about his work as part of Engineers Week!
We will have free CREAM ice cream sandwiches at the event! So come enjoy a night of free ice cream and computer graphics. What can be better than that?
This talk describes how the Light Stage scanning systems and HDRI lighting techniques developed at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies have helped create digital actors in a wide range of recent films.
For more info, check out the Facebook event page.Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - 227
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: USC ACM SIGGRAPH
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. -
IEEE@USC: Microduino Workshop
Wed, Feb 24, 2016 @ 06:15 PM - 08:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Workshops & Infosessions
During E-week, IEEE will hold a workshop with representatives from Microduino on Wednesday night, February 24th, from 6:15 to 8:30pm.
Chick-fil-a will be provided at the event!
Anyone is welcome to come and enjoy the discovery journey of microduino with us!
Microduino modules are easy-to-use electronic building blocks like super smart LEGO. They are small as a quarter, stackable with magnetic connectors and Arduino compatible. Each module has its own function, like wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, amplifier, sensors, etc. Simply stack the modules you need, you can create your own projects such as drones, robots, GPS trackers, 3d printers. It is amazing how easily it can turn your ideas into reality.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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. -
Six Sigma Black Belt
Thu, Feb 25, 2016
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Course Dates (15 Day Program)
Week 1: February 22-26, 2016
Week 2: April 11-15, 2016
Week 3: May 2-6, 2016
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.
This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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: Chao Wang (Virginia Tech) - Symbolic Analysis for Detecting and Mitigating Errors in Concurrent Software
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chao Wang, Virginia Tech
Talk Title: Symbolic Analysis for Detecting and Mitigating Errors in Concurrent Software
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
The use of multi-core architecture is now pervasive, spanning from embedded systems and smart phones, to commodity PCs, all the way to high-end servers and distributed systems. As such, developers must write concurrent software. However, writing correct and efficient concurrent software is difficult. Although automated analysis to aid in their development would be invaluable, existing methods are either fast but inaccurate, or accurate but slow, due to the inherent difficulty in circumventing the path and interleaving explosion problem. In this talk, I will introduce a series of symbolic predictive analysis methods for analyzing concurrent software. This analysis consists of two steps. First, we derive a predictive model from the execution traces collected at run time as well as the software code. The model captures not only the given executions but also the alterative interleavings of events in these executions. Then, we use symbolic analysis to check if errors exist in these alternative interleavings. This is accomplished by capturing these interleavings and the error conditions using a set of logic formulas and deciding them using a Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) solver. Although our primary focus is to reduce the cost associated with analyzing and verifying concurrent software, the predictive model and related analysis techniques are also useful in addressing issues related to performance and security.
Biography: Chao Wang is an Assistant Professor of the ECE Department and the CS Department (by courtesy) of Virginia Tech. He received the ONR Young Investigator award in 2013 and the NSF CAREER award in 2012. His area of specialization is Software Engineering and Formal Methods, with emphasis on concurrency, formal verification, and program synthesis. He published a book and more than fifty papers in top venues of related field including ICSE, FSE, ASE, ISSTA, CAV, PLDI, and POPL. He received the FMCAD Best Paper award in 2013, the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper award in 2010, the ACM TODAES Best Paper of the Year award in 2008, and the ACM SIGDA Outstanding PhD Dissertation award in 2004. Dr. Wang received his PhD degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004. From 2004 to 2011, he was a Research Staff Member at NEC Laboratories of America in Princeton, NJ, where he received a Technology Commercialization award in 2006.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
ICT Distinguished Lecture Series
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: James W. Pennebaker, Social Psychologist and the Centennial Liberal Arts Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin
Talk Title: The synchronous massive online course (SMOC) and new model of online education
Abstract: Growing out of research on social and personality psychology and computerized text analysis, Pennebaker and his colleague Sam Gosling have developed a live online class that relies on daily testing, small online discussion groups, and a TV talk show format. Based on four classes ranging from 800 to 1500 students, significant gains were seen in performance in the class over previous courses. More striking, students taking the SMOC do better in courses in subsequent semesters and achieve large reductions in the achievement gap.
Biography: James Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Professor of Psychology and Executive Director of Project 2021 at the University of Texas at Austin. Author of over 300 publications and 9 books, his work on physical symptoms, expressive writing, and language psychology is among the most cited in psychology and the social sciences. He has received multiple research and teaching awards.
Light refreshments will be served.
Host: Stefan Scherer, ICT
Location: Institute For Creative Technologies (ICT) - Theater
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Orli Belman/ICT
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 Defense - Chin-Kai Chang "Autonomous Mobile Robot Localization and Navigation in Urban Environment"
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Defense - Chin-Kai Chang "Autonomous Mobile Robot Localization and Navigation in Urban Environment" 2/25; 3pm HNB RM 15
Date and Location: Thursday, February 25th, 3:00 pm at HNB RM15.
Title: Autonomous Mobile Robot Localization and Navigation in Urban Environment
PhD Candidate: Chin-Kai Chang
Committee: Laurent Itti (chair), Hao Li, Bosco Tjan(outside member)
Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) is one of the highly versatile carriers for transportation, surveillance and search and rescue task. For the service type mobile robot that ability to travel through indoor and outdoor environment may encounter complex challenges different than that of street vehicles. The urban pedestrian environment is typically GPS-denied which demands a further integrated approach of perception, estimation, planning and motion control to surmount. In this thesis, we present the design and implementation of Beobot 2.0 - an autonomous mobile robot that operates in unconstrained urban environments. We developed a distributed architecture to satisfy the requirement for computationally intensive algorithms. Furthermore, we propose several biological-inspired visual recognition methodologies for indoor and outdoor navigation. We describe novel vision algorithms base on saliency, gist, image contour and region segment to construct several perception modules such as place recognition, landmark recognition, and road lane detection. To conquer the latencies and update frequencies of each perception module while performing real-time navigation task. We further investigate hierarchical map representation to fuse the quick, yet limited state information while time-consuming but higher discriminating data remains in processing. We validated our system using a ground vehicle that autonomously traversed several times in multiple outdoor routes, each 400m or longer, in a university campus. The routes featured different road types, environmental hazards, moving pedestrians, and service vehicles. In total, the robot logged over 10km of successfully recorded experiments, driving within a median of 1.37m laterally of the center of the road, and localizing within 0.97m (median) longitudinally of its true location along the route.
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 015
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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: Hyun Oh Song (Stanford) -Beyond supervised pattern recognition: Efficient learning with latent combinatorial structure
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hyun Oh Song, Stanford
Talk Title: Beyond supervised pattern recognition: Efficient learning with latent combinatorial structure
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium
Supervised pattern recognition with 10^6 training data and 10^9 layered parameters has brought tremendous advances in artificial intelligence. However, there are two main limitations to this approach: 1) The knowledge learned in one area doesn't easily transfer to another and 2) supervising every single task is not only infeasible but also requires huge amounts of human labeled data which is costly and time consuming. In this talk, I will suggest a unifying framework which jointly reasons the prediction variable and the underlying latent combinatorial structure of the problem as a way to address such limitations. To demonstrate the practical benefits of the approach, we explore classification, localization, clustering, and retrieval tasks under settings that go beyond fully supervised pattern recognition.
Biography: Hyun Oh Song is a postdoc in SAIL in the computer science department at Stanford University. He received Ph.D. in Computer Science at UC Berkeley in late 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Trevor Darrell. He is a recipient of five year Ph.D. fellowship from Samsung Lee Kun Hee Scholarship Foundation. His research interest lies at the intersection between machine learning, computer vision, and optimization. He has an academic website at http://ai.stanford.edu/~hsong.
Host: CS Department
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/501895444Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/501895444
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
Institute of Industrial Engineers General Meeting featuring Accenture
Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Come out to the Institute of Industrial Engineer's General Meeting featuring Accenture! Accenture reps will be there to answer questions and give you all of the details about careers at the company. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in a career in consulting, especially underclassmen. We can't wait to see you all there!
Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: USC Institute of Industrial Engineers
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. -
Six Sigma Black Belt
Fri, Feb 26, 2016
Executive Education
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract: Course Dates (15 Day Program)
Week 1: February 22-26, 2016
Week 2: April 11-15, 2016
Week 3: May 2-6, 2016
Learn the advanced problem-solving skills you need to implement the principles, practices and techniques of Six Sigma to maximize performance and cost reductions in your organization. During this three-week practitioner course, you will learn how to measure a process, analyze the results, develop process improvements and quantify the resulting savings. You will be required to complete a project demonstrating mastery of appropriate analytical methods and pass an examination to earn Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate.
This practitioner course for Six Sigma implementation provides extensive coverage of the Six Sigma process as well as intensive exposure to the key analytical tools associated with Six Sigma, including project management, team skills, cost analysis, FMEA, basic statistics, inferential statistics, sampling, goodness of fit testing, regression and correlation analysis, reliability, design of experiments, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis and simulation. Computer applications are emphasized.
More Info: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Event Link: https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/industrial-systems/six-sigma-black-belt
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. -
ASBME’s First Annual Makeathon Competition
Fri, Feb 26, 2016
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
The Makeathon is a medical device design competition in which student teams will be presented with a challenge and a limited amount of time and resources to solve it. A big thank you to all of the teams and individuals that have registered so far - this event is free for ASBME members and $5 for non-members.
The Makeathon prizes are as follows: First Place will receive $750, Second Place will receive $500, and Third Place will receive $250. If you haven't signed up yet, make sure to do so soon - space is limited!!
For more information and registration please visit the MAKEATHON WEBSITE.
You can also support this event by visiting https://ignite.usc.edu/project/1463.
Make sure to also check out the Facebook event!Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering
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. -
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Candidate Series
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Matthew Zahr, Ph.D Candidate, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University
Talk Title: Accelerating PDE-Constrained Optimization Problems using Adaptive Reduced-Order Models
Abstract: Optimization problems constrained by partial differential equations are ubiquitous in modern science and engineering. They play a central role in optimal design and control of multiphysics systems, as well as nondestructive evaluation and detection, and inverse problems. Methods to solve these optimization problems rely on, potentially many, numerical solutions of the underlying equations. For complicated physical interactions taking place on complex domains, these solutions will be computationally expensive - in terms of both time and resources -“ to obtain, rendering the optimization procedure difficult or intractable.
I will introduce a globally convergent, non-quadratic trust-region method to accelerate the solution of PDE-constrained optimization problems by adaptively reducing the dimensionality of the underlying computational physics discretization. In this approach, the method of snapshots and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) are used to build a reduced-order model whose fidelity is progressively enriched while converging to the optimal solution. This ensures the reduced-order model is trained exactly along the optimization trajectory and effort is not wasted by training in other regions of the parameter space. A novel minimum-residual framework for computing surrogate sensitivities of the reduced-order model is introduced that equips the trust-region method with desirable properties. The proposed method is shown to solve canonical aerodynamic shape optimization problems several times faster than accepted methods. This work has been extended to address the specific challenges posed by topology optimization, where high-dimensional parameter spaces are inevitable.
Biography: Matthew Zahr is a PhD candidate in Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University, with minors in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics/Astronautics, under the advisement of Prof Charbel Farhat. He received his BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a minor in Mathematics, from UC Berkeley in 2011.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 218
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Valerie Childress
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
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jie Xu, Assistant Professor at University of Miami
Talk Title: Real time knowledge discovery and decision making
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: As the world becomes ever more connected and instrumented, decision makers have ever more rapid access to ever changing and growing streams of data, but this makes the decision makers problems ever more complex as well, because it is impossible to learn everything in the time frame in which decisions must be made. What the decision maker must do, therefore, is to discover in real time what is relevant in the enormous stream of data and use the relevant information to make good decisions. This talk presents a systematic framework and associated algorithms that enable a decision maker to do this, and shows how to use them in real time traffic prediction as an application scenario. One key challenge in traffic prediction is how much to rely on prediction models that are constructed using historical data in real time traffic situations. Our decision framework learns from the current traffic situation in real time and predicts the future traffic by matching the current situation to the most effective prediction model. The algorithms we propose yield strong performance guarantees for both the long run and the short run. The applications are numerous besides traffic prediction, including patient monitoring, surveillance, social networks etc.
Biography: Jie Xu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Miami. His research mainly focuses on game theory and learning theory. His interests lie in both developing the theory in these areas and applying it in real world engineering systems, including communication networks, cyber-security systems, online social platforms and healthcare informatics. Jie received his BS and MS degrees in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in China in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2015. In 2014, he was with IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where he interned in the Clinical Stream Analytics team during the summer. Jie is a recipient of Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award at UCLA.
Webcast will be LIVE Broadcast ONLY (no recording):
http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=f1e4af9691fe4b2882a98b305b02458c1d
Host: Linhong Zhu
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th floor Large CR
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute
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 Seminar: Jim Hansen (Naval Research Laboratories) - Illicit Trafficking Surveillance and Interdiction: INTEL and METOC-informed Decision Guidance
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jim Hansen, Naval Research Laboratories
Talk Title: Illicit Trafficking Surveillance and Interdiction: INTEL and METOC-informed Decision Guidance
Series: CS Seminar Series
Abstract: Many Navy problems can be cast as a variant of "I have some assets with various capabilities and constraints that I need to distribute tomorrow in order to best carry out my mission. Which of them should go where and do what?" Factors that influence the decision include available intelligence information, an understanding of the adversary's expected behavior, and the environmental conditions. This talk will describe a general approach that has been applied to the pirate problem, illicit (drug) trafficking, and anti-submarine warfare. It will also include a discussion of challenges associated with working with users and transitioning research projects to operations.
Host: Computer Science Department
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 105
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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. -
W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program Colloquium
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
University Calendar
Join us for a presentation by Sandy Marshall, from Project Scientist, titled, "The Importance of STEM Role Models: Bringing Diversity to STEM Fields."
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 123
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ramon Borunda/Academic Services
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. -
EE-EP Seminar - Dina El-Damak, Friday, Feb. 26th at 2:00pm in EEB 132
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dina El-Damak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Empowering the IoT: Energy Scavenging and Ultra-low Power Processing
Abstract: The internet of things (IoT) is driving a new computing era by enabling the wireless connectivity of nearly everything we use. Vehicles, appliances, civil- engineering structures, manufacturing equipment, livestock and even our own bodies will have embedded sensors that report information directly to networked servers, aiding with maintenance and the coordination of tasks. The creativity in this new era of the IoT is boundless, with amazing potential to immensely improve human life. Realizing that vision, however, will require extremely low-power sensing systems that can run for months without battery changes - or, even better, that can extract energy from the environment to recharge. Moreover, the flexibility and the miniaturization of such systems are highly desirable to ease their integration with various structures. Thus, the future growth of the IoT will be contingent upon innovations in ultra- low power circuit design techniques, system architecture, as well as novel material technologies.
In the first part of this talk, I will present the design of a power management IC that can operate efficiently with input power in the range of 10 nW to 1uW with 3.2nW quiescent power consumption for energy harvesting applications. The asynchronous architecture, subthreshold operation, power-gating and dynamic pulse-width control enabled a peak efficiency greater than 80%. In the second part of the talk, I will show the results of an integrated power management IC using on-chip ferroelectric capacitors for dynamic voltage scaling. The integration of ferroelectric materials with silicon CMOS technology allowed the design of highly efficient switched capacitor DC- DC converter with a peak efficiency of 93%. In the last part of the talk, I will focus on circuit design using the flexible Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2 ) - one of the emerging two-dimensional materials. I will touch upon our system design flow - which is validated by the design and testing of various combinational logic and sequential circuits. Measurement results demonstrating fully-functional prototypes will be shown and future application opportunities will be discussed.
Biography: Dina El-Damak received the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engi- neering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012 and 2015 respectively, and the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. She is currently a postdoctoral associate in the Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems Group at MIT working under the supervision of Prof. Anantha Chandrakasan. Dr. El-Damak was the recipient of Texas Instruments Graduate Woman's Fellowship for leadership in microelectronics for the academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. Her research interests include energy harvesting, power management circuits and ultra-low power biomedical systems.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
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. -
NL Seminar-Interactive scene design using natural language
Fri, Feb 26, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Angel Chang , (Stanford University)
Talk Title: Interactive scene design using natural language
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: Designing 3D scenes is currently a creative task that requires significant expertise and effort in using complex 3D design interfaces. This design process starts in contrast to the easiness with which people can use language to describe real and imaginary environments. We present an interactive text to 3D scene generation system that allows a user to design 3D scenes using natural language. A user provides input text from which we extract explicit constraints on the objects that should appear in the scene. Given these explicit constraints, the system then uses a spatial knowledge base learned from an existing database of 3D scenes and 3D object models to infer an arrangement of the objects forming a natural scene matching the input description. Using textual commands the user can then iteratively refine the created scene by adding, removing, replacing, and manipulating objects.
Biography: Angel Chang recently received her PhD after working in the Stanford NLP group where she was advised by Chris Manning. Her research focuses on the intersection of natural language understanding, computer graphics, and AI. She is currently a visiting expert at Tableau Research. More details at http://stanford.edu/~angelx/
Host: Xing Shi and Kevin Knight
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=735bfbb4ba1a4b749fe591958f837ccb1dLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=735bfbb4ba1a4b749fe591958f837ccb1d
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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.
