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Events for the 2nd week of April
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Bay Area (San Mateo, CA) - Admitted Student Program
Sun, Apr 08, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Marriott San Mateo San Francisco Airport, 1770 South Amphlett Blvd
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Honolulu, HI - Admitted Student Program
Sun, Apr 08, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, 2552 Kalakaua Avenue
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Phoenix, AZ - Admitted Student Program
Sun, Apr 08, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Embassy Suites by Hilton Phoenix-Scottsdale, 4415 East Paradise Village Parkway South
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Spring Explore USC
Mon, Apr 09, 2018
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Spring Explore is a full-day program running from 8:30am-5pm. The day includes a presentation from the Office of Admission, a USC Campus Tour, and visit with us in the Viterbi School of Engineering. During your time with us you will learn what your life will be like as an engineering student at USC, meet some of our current engineering students, see facilities and labs, and get your questions answered about the enrollment process, housing, and your "next steps".
RSVP
Location: USC Admission Office
Audiences: Spring Admits and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Australian School Robotics Visit
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center
Receptions & Special Events
USC Viterbi STEM-EOP staff and student volunteers will host students from Australia's Geelong Grammar school for an exciting half-day Robotics Seminar.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115
Audiences: Middle and high school students
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CS Colloquium: Tim Althoff (Stanford University) – Data Science for Human Well-being
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Tim Althoff, Stanford University
Talk Title: Data Science for Human Well-being
Series: Computer Science Colloquium
Abstract: The popularity of wearable and mobile devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, has generated an explosion of detailed behavioral data. These massive digital traces provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to realize new types of scientific approaches that provide novel insights about our lives, health, and happiness. However, gaining valuable insights from these data requires new computational approaches that turn observational, scientifically 'weak' data into strong scientific results and can computationally test domain theories at scale.
In this talk, I will describe novel computational methods that leverage digital activity traces at the scale of billions of actions taken by millions of people. These methods combine insights from data mining, social network analysis, and natural language processing to generate actionable insights about our physical and mental well-being. Specifically, I will describe how massive digital activity traces reveal unknown health inequality around the world, and how personalized predictive models can target personalized interventions to combat this inequality. I will demonstrate that modelling how fast we are using search engines enables new types of insights into sleep and cognitive performance. Further, I will describe how natural language processing methods can help improve counseling services for millions of people in crisis.
I will conclude the talk by sketching interesting future directions for computational approaches that leverage digital activity traces to better understand and improve human well-being.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity in RTH 109, seats will be first come first serve.
Biography: Tim Althoff is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science in the Infolab at Stanford University, advised by Jure Leskovec. His research advances computational methods to improve human well-being, combining techniques from Data Mining, Social Network Analysis, and Natural Language Processing. Prior to his PhD, Tim obtained M.S. and B.S. degrees from Stanford University and University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He has received several fellowships and awards including the SAP Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Fulbright scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service scholarship, the German National Merit Foundation scholarship, and a Best Paper Award by the International Medical Informatics Association. Tim's research has been covered internationally by news outlets including BBC, CNN, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Host: Computer Science Department
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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EE-EP Faculty Candidate, Negar Reiskarimian - Monday, April 9th at 12pm in EEB 132
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Negar Reiskarimian, Columbia University
Talk Title: Breaking Lorentz Reciprocity: From New Physical Concepts to Applications
Abstract: Lorentz reciprocity is a fundamental characteristic of the vast majority of electronic and photonic structures. However, breaking reciprocity enables the realization of non-reciprocal components, such as isolators and circulators, which are critical to electronic and optical communication systems, as well as new components and functionalities based on novel wave propagation modes. In this talk, I will present a novel approach to break Lorentz reciprocity based on linear periodically-time-varying (LPTV) circuits. We have demonstrated the world's first CMOS passive magnetic-free non-reciprocal circulator through spatio-temporal conductivity modulation. Since conductivity in semiconductors can be modulated over a much wider range than the more traditionally exploited permittivity, our structure is able to break reciprocity within a compact form factor with very low loss and high linearity. I will discuss fundamental limits of space-time modulated nonreciprocal structures, as well as new directions to build non-reciprocal components which can ideally be infinitesimal in size. Furthermore, I cover some of the applications of nonreciprocal components in wireless communication systems.
Looking to the future, I am broadly interested in exploring novel fundamental physical concepts that have strong engineering applications. I wish to work in an interdisciplinary area between integrated circuit design and closely related fields such as applied physics, applied electromagnetics and nanophotonics, and to identify and investigate ideas and concepts that can best be implemented using the semiconductor platform. Finally, I will share with you some examples of the exciting research directions I would like to pursue with the aim of participating in building the next generation of technologies that augment human lives.
Biography: Negar Reiskarimian received the Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran, and is currently a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. She has published in top-tier IEEE IC-related journals and conferences, as well as broader-interest high-impact journals in the Nature family. Her research has been widely covered in the press, and featured in IEEE Spectrum, Gizmodo and EE Times among others. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including Forbes 30 under 30, Paul Baran Young Scholar, Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship and multiple IEEE societies awards and fellowships.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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Biomedical Engineering Seminars
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Talk Title: TBA
Host: Professor Qifa Zhou
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Center for Systems and Control (CSC@USC) and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Anders Rantzer, Lund University
Talk Title: Towards a Scalable Theory of Control
Series: Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Abstract: Classical control theory does not scale well for large systems like traffic networks, power networks and chemical reaction networks. To change this situation, new approaches need to be developed, not only for analysis and synthesis of controllers, but also for modelling and verification. In this lecture we will present a class of networked control problems for which scalable distributed controllers can be proved to achieve the same performance as the best centralized ones. The control objective is stated in terms of frequency weighted H-infinity norms, which makes it possible to combine disturbance rejection at low frequencies with robustness to high frequency measurement noise and model errors. An optimal controller is given in the form of a multi-variable PI controller, which is distributed in the sense that control action along a given network edge is entirely determined by states at nodes connected by that edge. We will discuss some application examples, as well as connections to other aspects of scalability.
Biography: Anders Rantzer received a PhD in 1991 from KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. After postdoctoral positions at KTH and at IMA, University of Minnesota, he joined Lund University in 1993 and was appointed professor of Automatic Control in 1999. During the academic year of 2004-2005 he was visiting associate faculty member at Caltech and 2015-2016 he was Taylor Family Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota. Since 2008 he coordinates the Linnaeus center LCCC at Lund University.
Professor Rantzer is an editorial board member of Proceedings of the IEEE and several other publications. He is a winner of the SIAM Student Paper Competition, the IFAC Congress Young Author Price, and the award for best article in IEE Proceedings - Control Theory and Applications. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and former chairman of the Swedish Scientific Council for Natural and Engineering Sciences.
His research interests are in modeling, analysis and synthesis of control systems, with particular attention to uncertainty, optimization, scalability and adaptation.
Host: Mihailo Jovanovic, mihailo@usc.edu
More Information: rantzer.jpg (JPEG Image, 300 × 400 pixels).pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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CS Colloquium: He He (Stanford University) - Learning Interactive Agents
Mon, Apr 09, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: He He, Stanford University
Talk Title: Learning Interactive Agents
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: AI has made huge advancement into our daily life and increasingly we require intelligent agents that work intimately with people in a changing environment. However, current systems mostly work in a passive mode: waiting for requests from users and processing them one at a time. An interactive agent must handle real-time, sequential inputs and actively collaborate with people through communication. In this talk, I will present my recent work addressing challenges in real-time language processing and collaborative dialogue. The first part involves making predictions with incremental inputs. I will focus on the application of simultaneous machine interpretation and show how we can produce both accurate and prompt translations. Then, I will present my work on building agents that collaborate with people through goal-oriented conversation. I will conclude by discussing future directions towards adaptive, active agents.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity, seats will be first come first serve.
Biography: He He is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is interested in natural language processing and machine learning. Her research focuses on building intelligent agents that work in a changing environment and interact with people, with an emphasis on language-related problems. Specific applications include dependency parsing, simultaneous machine interpretation, and goal-oriented dialogue. She is the recipient of the 2016 Larry S. Davis doctoral dissertation award.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Explore USC – Admitted Student Day
Tue, Apr 10, 2018
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Explore USC is the most comprehensive campus visit program for admitted students. It is a full-day program that allows you to interact with dozens of our current students, tour the campus, learn more about financial aid, gives you opportunities to sit in on classes, and start the morning with the Viterbi School of Engineering.
Your time with us in the Viterbi School will take you through an informative session on our academic programs. We will arrange a meeting with faculty from the major you are interested in as well as engineering facility tours of that same area. For lunch we will have you hanging out with some of our engineering students for a few hours, eating in the dinning facilities, seeing the residence halls, but most importantly experiencing the full USC atmosphere.
RSVP
Location: USC Admission Office
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Professor Coffee Hour with Dr. Kay
Tue, Apr 10, 2018 @ 01:30 AM - 02:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Coffee hour is now on April 10th at 1:30 pm! We asked, you answered! Dr. Brittney Kay was selected by popular vote for this semester's professor coffee hour, so come by and enjoy some delicious java, yummy pastries, and great conversation! Come with questions for Dr. Kay about her research, career, or anything else that you might be wondering about BME! As an alum, Dr. Kay is very familiar with the undergraduate experience at USC, so make sure to stop by RTH 306 on Tuesday, March 27th at 1:30pm!
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
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CS Colloquium: Neha Kumar (Georgia Institute of Technology) - Solidarity Through Design: Across Borders and Intersections
Tue, Apr 10, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Neha Kumar, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Solidarity Through Design: Across Borders and Intersections
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The field of human-computer interaction is increasingly engaging in technology design targeting underserved contexts, both across and beyond the global south. Populations in these parts may be socioeconomically disadvantaged, impacted by patriarchy, infrastructurally challenged, discriminated on account of caste or class, or all of the above. Dominant discourse considers access to mobile technologies a key asset for addressing these multiple forms of marginalization. However, there may be other assets as well---such as the presence of care, extensive social ties, or resilient sensibilities---that my work examines and leverages.
In my talk, I will present research conducted in three key areas of global development---access, health, and education---to discuss how we might engage in culturally relevant and appropriate technology design for populations across borders and intersections. Taking place in similar but different contexts across India, Cuba, and the United States, these projects highlight how lessons from one context might inform design in another.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity, seats will be first come first serve.
Biography: Neha Kumar is an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research lies at the intersection of human-centered computing and global development. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Information at UC Berkeley in 2013. Before starting at Georgia Tech in 2015, she completed two postdoctoral assignments---the first at University of Washington's Computer Science and Engineering department and the second at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. She also holds two Master's degrees from Stanford University---in Computer Science and Learning, Design and Technology. Neha's research publications have received multiple awards at major conferences. She is an inaugural member of the ACM Future of Computing Academy. She received the Lockheed Inspirational Young Faculty award from Georgia Tech's College of Computing in 2017. She was also a recipient of Google's Anita Borg Scholarship and a Facebook Fellowships Finalist in 2012.
Host: Bistra Dilkina
Location: 100D
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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EE Seminar: Analysis, Design, and Operation of Secure Cyber-Physical Systems
Tue, Apr 10, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Fabio Pasqualetti, Assistant Professor, University of California, Riverside
Talk Title: Analysis, Design, and Operation of Secure Cyber-Physical Systems
Abstract: Today's cyber-physical systems are the building blocks of smart and citizen-centric applications that will revolutionize the way people interact with the urban environment. Smart systems, cities, and communities will emerge, in which advanced levels of autonomy hold the promise of greater efficiency, reliability and sustainability in areas of national interest and social need, such as health, energy, and transportation. In this new realm of applications, however, enhanced connectivity and advanced autonomy will also pose novel and significant risks to people and the infrastructure, including safety, security, and privacy.
In this talk, I present a unified framework for the analysis of fundamental vulnerabilities affecting cyber-physical systems, the design of targeted detection and protection schemes, and the construction of systems that are provably resilient to accidental malfunctions and malicious attacks. I show how cyber-physical security differs from well-established disciplines, including cyber security and fault tolerance, and how our control- and graph-theoretic methods complement existing security practices to fully protect cyber-physical systems. Further, I reveal a novel class of integrity attacks against smart power grids, and show how these attacks lead to the formulation of novel sparse network control problems, which we also solve. Finally, I discuss directions of future research and open questions in cyber-physical security.
Biography: Fabio Pasqualetti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside. He completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2012, a Laurea Magistrale degree (M.Sc. equivalent) in Automation Engineering at the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2007, and a Laurea degree (B.Sc. equivalent) in Computer Engineering at the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2004. He received a Young Investigator Program award from ARO in 2017, and the 2016 TCNS Outstanding Paper Award from IEEE CSS. His main research interest is in secure control systems, with application to multi-agent networks, distributed computing, and power networks. Other interests include computational neuroscience, vehicle routing, and combinatorial optimization.
Host: Mihailo Jovanovic, mihailo@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Epstein Institute Seminar, ISE 651
Tue, Apr 10, 2018 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Shiyu Zhou, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Talk Title: Nonparametric Modeling and Prognosis of Condition Monitoring Signals for Internet of Things (IoT) Enabled Systems
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
More Information: April 10, 2018.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Preview USC - Admitted Student Half-Day
Wed, Apr 11, 2018
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Preview USC is a half-day program covering topics related to housing, financial aid, and transitioning from high school to college. It also offers the opportunity for admitted students to sit in on classes, be part of a session in the Viterbi School of Engineering, and interact with a number of current students in a shorter period of time.
RSVPLocation: USC Admission Office
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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USC VAST Annual Robotics Open House
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center
University Calendar
This is a fun day with all the robotics research labs providing demonstrations every half hour for groups of 15 people, plus some hands-on fun and games. The labs are spread out in four buildings, so there is a lot to walk around and see. Visitors can move at their own pace to attend as many lab demonstrations as they want and take a break any time to explore campus, find something to eat (bring your own lunch or use a campus dining facility), and enjoy the day. The most crowded time is when the schools visit between 9 am and 2 pm, and the more leisurely afternoon pace is perfect for after school groups, clubs, families, and robotics industry executives.
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Robotics Open HouseLocation: Check in at RTH-EEB Courtyard
WebCast Link: https://viterbipk12.usc.edu/research/robotics-openhouse/
Audiences: free event, pre-registration required!
Contact: Katie Mills
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Research and Technology Seminar
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sunil Bharitkar, Distinguished Member of Tech. Staff (HP Labs)
Talk Title: Advances in Joint Signal Processing, Perception, and Machine Learning at HP Labs
Abstract: In HP's Emerging Compute Lab, research is being conducted at the intersection of signal processing, auditory perception and machine learning to create fundamentally new experiences for differentiation in HP devices including VR HMD. In this talk we will present various techniques and algorithms, incorporating knowledge of binaural perception, machine learning, and signal processing, to enhance low-frequency perception, spatial rendering, and automated content classification. The research results have been validated through perceptual testing in large-scale studies giving statistically meaningful results. Ongoing research being conducted in the areas deep learning (stacked autoencoders and LSTM) for VR head-related transfer function synthesis, content classification, speech and multimodal biometrics, sensing towards emotion interpretation, and cancer cell data classification (jointly with Life Sciences Lab) will also be presented. The presentation will be accompanied with demonstrations.
Biography: Sunil Bharitkar received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2004 and is involved in research in speech/audio analysis and processing including spatial audio for AR/VR, biometric & biomedical signal processing, multimodal signal processing, and machine learning. From 2011-2016 he was at Dolby leading/guiding research in audio, signal processing, haptics, machine learning, hearing augmentation, and standardization activities at ITU, SMPTE, AES. He co-founded the company Audyssey Laboratories in 2002 where he was VP of Research and responsible for inventing new technologies which were licensed to companies including IMAX, Denon, Audi, Sharp, etc. He also taught in the Department of Electrical Engineering at USC. Sunil has published over 50 technical papers and has over 20 patents in the area of signal processing applied to acoustics, neural networks and pattern recognition, and a textbook (Immersive Audio Signal Processing) from Springer-Verlag. He is a reviewer for papers at various conferences and journals. He has also been on the Organizing and Technical Program Committees of various conferences such as the 2008 and 2009 European Sig. Proc. Conference (EUSIPCO), the 57th AES Conference, SMPTE Conferences. He has also served as an invited tutorial speaker at the 2006 IEEE Conf. on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, the Acoustical Soc. of America (ASA), European Association for Signal and Image Processing (EURASIP), and the Audio Eng. Soc. (AES). Sunil is a PADI diver and enjoys playing the Didgeridoo.
Host: Panos Georgiou and Shri Narayanan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cathy Huang
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Computer Science General Faculty Meeting
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 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
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CiSoft Seminar
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mr. Jim Crompton, Reflections Data Consulting Founder
Talk Title: Is there an Autonomous Well in Your Future
Series: CiSoft Seminar
Host: CiSoft
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Audiences: Please RSVP: legat@usc.edu
Contact: Juli Legat
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PhD Defense - Rui Miao
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Candidate: Rui Miao
Committee: Minlan Yu (Chair), Ramesh Govindan, Konstantinos Psounis
Title: Scaling-out Traffic Management in the Cloud
Abstract:
Managing cloud traffic is challenging due to its large and constantly growing traffic in scale and traffic anomalies. Network infrastructure and traffic management need to scale their capacity to such traffic growth and anomalies, or the application performance will suffer. Existing traffic management functions have so far focused on proprietary hardware appliances and software servers. However, with limited capacity and/or fixed functionality, those solutions incur a high cost, low performance, and high management complexity.
In this thesis, we argue that we should scale-out traffic management functions for the full throughput of datacenter networks. The key idea of this thesis is to leverage the hardware switches with line-rate packet processing and the emerging programmability to directly build advanced functionaries. We have scaled-out three major traffic management functions: load balancing, attack mitigation, and congestion control. Our evaluation shows a high performance and cost-efficiency from our solutions.
Location: Charles Lee Powell Hall (PHE) - 631
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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From Gaussian Multiterminal Source Coding to Distributed Karhunen Loève Transform
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jun Chen, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University
Talk Title: From Gaussian Multiterminal Source Coding to Distributed Karhunen Loève Transform
Series: Joint Seminar Series Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems and CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Abstract: Characterizing the rate-distortion region of Gaussian multiterminal source coding is a longstanding open problem in network information theory. In this talk, I will show how to obtain new conclusive results for this problem using nonlinear analysis and convex relaxation techniques. A byproduct of this line of research is an efficient algorithm for determining the optimal distributed Karhunen-“Loève transform in the high-resolution regime, which partially settles a question posed by Gastpar, Dragotti, and Vetterli. I will also introduce a generalized version of the Gaussian multiterminal source coding problem where the source-encoder connections can be arbitrary. It will be demonstrated that probabilistic graphical models offer an ideal mathematical language for describing how the performance limit of a generalized Gaussian multiterminal source coding system depends on its topology, and more generally they can serve as the long-sought platform for systematically integrating the existing achievability schemes and converse arguments. The architectural implication of our work for low-latency lossy source coding will also be discussed. This talk is based on joint work with Jia Wang, Farrokh Etezadi, and Ashish Khisti.
Biography: Jun Chen received the B.E. degree with honors in communication engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2001 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, from September 2005 to July 2006, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, from July 2006 to August 2007. Since September 2007 he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, where he is currently an Associate Professor and a Joseph Ip Distinguished Engineering Fellow. His research interests include information theory, machine learning, wireless communications, and signal processing. He received the Josef Raviv Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2006, the Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario in 2010, and the IBM Faculty Award in 2010. He served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2014 to 2016.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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John Laufer Lecture
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Charles Meneveau, Louis M. Sardella Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Talk Title: New Analytical Models for Turbulence Spectra and Turbine Wakes in Wind Farms
Abstract: Reduced order, analytically tractable models remain an important tool in the wind energy area, both for design and control purposes. In this presentation we focus on two fluid mechanical themes relevant to wind farm design and control. The first topic deals with spectral characteristics of the fluctuations in power generated by an array of wind turbines in a wind farm. We show that modeling of the spatio-temporal structure of canonical turbulent boundary layers coupled with variants of the Kraichnan's random sweeping hypothesis can be used to develop analytical predictions of the frequency spectrum of power fluctuations of wind farms. In the second part we describe a simple (deterministic) dynamic wake model, its use for wind farm control, and its extension to the case of yawed wind turbines. The work to be presented arose from collaborations with Juliaan Bossuyt, Johan Meyers, Richard Stevens, Michael Wilczek, Laura Lukasen, Michael Howland, Carl Shapiro and Dennice Gayme. We are grateful for National Science Foundation support.
Biography: Charles Meneveau is the Louis M. Sardella Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and is Associate Director of the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES) at Hopkins. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa MarÃa in ValparaÃso, Chile, in 1985 and M.S, M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University in 1987, 1988 and 1989, respectively. During 1989/90 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford. He has been on the Johns Hopkins faculty since 1990. His area of research is focused on understanding and modeling hydrodynamic turbulence, and complexity in fluid mechanics in general. The insights that have emerged from Professor Meneveau's work have led to new numerical models for Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and applications in engineering and environmental flows, including wind farms. He also focuses on developing methods to share the very large data sets that arise in computational fluid dynamics. He is Deputy Editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and served (until 2015) for 13 years as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Turbulence. Professor Meneveau is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (2018), a foreign corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences (2005), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics, the U.S. American Physical Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He received an honorary doctorate from the Danish Technical University (in 2016), the inaugural Stanley Corrsin Award from the American Physical Society (2011), the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association's Excellence in Teaching Award (2003), and the APS' François N. Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics (2001).
Host: Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ashleen Knutsen
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CAIS Seminar: Dr. Edward Kaplan (Yale) – Adventures in Policy Modeling!
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Edward Kaplan, Yale
Talk Title: Adventures in Policy Modeling!
Series: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series
Abstract: Policy Modeling refers to the application of operations research, statistics, and other quantitative methods to model policy problems. Recognizing that analyses of all sorts often exhibit diminishing returns in insight to effort, the hope is to capture key features of various policy issues with relatively simple 'first-strike' models. Problem selection and formulation thus compete with the mathematics of solution methods in determining successful applications: where do good problems come from? How can analysts tell if a particular issue is worth pursuing? In addressing these questions, Dr. Kaplan will review some personal adventures in policy modeling selected from public housing, HIV/AIDS prevention, bioterror preparedness, suicide bombings and counterterrorism, in vitro fertilization, predicting presidential elections, and sports.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Dr. Edward H. Kaplan is the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Operations Research, Public Health, and Engineering at Yale. An elected member of both the National Academies of Engineering and Medicine, his research in HIV prevention and counterterrorism has been recognized with the Lanchester Prize, the Edelman Award, and numerous other awards in operations research and public health. Dr. Kaplan was the President of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) during 2016, where he preferred the title 'Member in Chief.'
Host: Milind Tambe
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 123
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Computer Science Department
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ASBME GM 9:Shaping the Future: Engineer-driven Biotech Industry with KGI
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Interested in working in the medical field? ASBME is collaborating with SWE to host a panel with Keck School of Medicine where industry representatives and doctors from Keck will be speaking about how engineers are revolutionizing the biotech industry! If you are premed or even just looking to learn how your engineering skills can help others, this is the event for you!
Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - 227
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
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Philadelphia, PA - Admitted Student Program
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue, 4200 City Avenue
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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CiSoft Seminar
Wed, Apr 11, 2018 @ 11:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mr. Jim Crompton, Reflections Data Consulting Founder
Talk Title: Is there an Autonomous Well in Your Future
Series: CiSoft Seminar
Host: CiSoft
Location: 306
Audiences: Please RSVP: legat@usc.edu
Contact: Juli Legat
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Explore USC – Admitted Student Day
Thu, Apr 12, 2018
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Explore USC is the most comprehensive campus visit program for admitted students. It is a full-day program that allows you to interact with dozens of our current students, tour the campus, learn more about financial aid, gives you opportunities to sit in on classes, and start the morning with the Viterbi School of Engineering.
Your time with us in the Viterbi School will take you through an informative session on our academic programs. We will arrange a meeting with faculty from the major you are interested in as well as engineering facility tours of that same area. For lunch we will have you hanging out with some of our engineering students for a few hours, eating in the dinning facilities, seeing the residence halls, but most importantly experiencing the full USC atmosphere.
RSVP
Location: USC Admission Office
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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CS Colloquium: Mikael Henaff (New York University) - Learning Models of the Environment for Sample-Efficient Planning
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mikael Henaff, New York University
Talk Title: Learning Models of the Environment for Sample-Efficient Planning
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Learning to predict how an environment will evolve and the consequences of one's actions is an important ability for autonomous agents, and can enable planning with relatively few interactions with the environment which may be slow or costly. However, learning an accurate predictive model is made difficult due to several challenges, such as partial observability, long-term dependencies and inherent uncertainty in the environment. In this talk, I will present my work on architectures designed to address some of these challenges, as well as work focused on better understanding recurrent network memory over long timescales. I will then present some recent work applying learned environment models for planning, using a simple gradient-based approach which can be used in both discrete and continuous action spaces. This approach is able to match or outperform model-free methods while requiring fewer environment interactions and still enabling real-time performance.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity, seats will be first come first serve.
Biography: Mikael Henaff is a fifth-year PhD student in computer science at New York University, advised by Yann LeCun. His current research interests are centered around learning predictive models of the environment, model-based reinforcement learning and memory-augmented neural networks. Prior to his Ph.D studies, he worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center and has interned several times at Facebook AI Research. He holds a B.S in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S in mathematics from New York University.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100D
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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PhD Defense - Amulya Yavdav
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Candidate: Amulya Yadav
Committee: Milind Tambe (Chair), Kristina Lerman, Aram Galstyan, Eric Rice, Dana Goldman
Title: Artificial Intelligence for Low Resource Communities: Influence Maximization in an Uncertain World
Time: April 12 (Thursday) 1:00-3:00 PM
Location: KAP 209
Abstract:
The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to tackle challenging problems that afflict society is enormous, particularly in the areas of healthcare, conservation and public safety and security. Many problems in these domains involve harnessing social networks of under-served communities to enable positive change, e.g., using social networks of homeless youth to raise awareness about Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other STDs. Unfortunately, most of these real-world problems are characterized by uncertainties about social network structure and influence models, and previous research in AI fails to sufficiently address these uncertainties, as they make several unrealistic simplifying assumptions for these domains.
This thesis addresses these shortcomings by advancing the state-of-the-art to a new generation of algorithms for interventions in social networks. In particular, this thesis describes the design and development of new influence maximization algorithms which can handle various uncertainties that commonly exist in real-world social networks (e.g., uncertainty in social network structure, evolving network state, and availability of nodes to get influenced). These algorithms utilize techniques from sequential planning problems and social network theory to develop new kinds of AI algorithms. Further, this thesis also demonstrates the real-world impact of these algorithms by describing their deployment in three pilot studies to spread awareness about HIV among actual homeless youth in Los Angeles. This represents one of the first-ever deployments of computer science based influence maximization algorithms in this domain. Our results show that our AI algorithms improved upon the state-of-the-art by 160% in the real-world. We discuss research and implementation challenges faced in deploying these algorithms, and lessons that can be gleaned for future deployment of such algorithms. The positive results from these deployments illustrate the enormous potential of AI in addressing societally relevant problems.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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EE Seminar: Towards Generalizable Imitation in Robotics
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Animesh Garg, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University AI lab
Talk Title: Towards Generalizable Imitation in Robotics
Abstract: Robotics and AI are experiencing radical growth, fueled by innovations in data-driven learning paradigms coupled with novel device design, in applications such as healthcare, manufacturing and service robotics. And in our quest for general purpose autonomy, we need abstractions and algorithms for efficient generalization.
Data-driven methods such as reinforcement learning circumvent hand-tuned feature engineering, albeit lack guarantees and often incur a massive computational expense: training these models frequently takes weeks in addition to months of task-specific data-collection on physical systems. Further such ab initio methods often do not scale to complex sequential tasks. In contrast, biological agents can often learn faster not only through self-supervision but also through imitation. My research aims to bridge this gap and enable generalizable imitation for robot autonomy. We need to build systems that can capture semantic task structures that promote sample efficiency and can generalize to new task instances across visual, dynamical or semantic variations. And this involves designing algorithms that unify in reinforcement learning, control theoretic planning, semantic scene & video understanding, and design.
In this talk, I will discuss two aspects of Generalizable Imitation: Task Imitation, and Generalization in both Visual and Kinematic spaces. First, I will describe how we can move away from hand-designed finite state machines by unsupervised structure learning for complex multi-step sequential tasks. Then I will discuss techniques for robust policy learning to handle generalization across unseen dynamics. I will revisit structure learning for task-level understanding for generalization to visual semantics.
And lastly, I will present a program synthesis based method for generalization across task semantics with a single example with unseen task structure, topology or length. The algorithms and techniques introduced are applicable across domains in robotics; in this talk, I will exemplify these ideas through my work on medical and personal robotics.
Biography: Animesh is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University AI lab. Animesh is interested in problems at the intersection of optimization, machine learning, and design. He studies the interaction of data-driven Learning for autonomy and Design for automation for human skill-augmentation and decision support. Animesh received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley where he was a part of the Berkeley AI Research center and the Automation Science Lab. His research has been recognized with Best Applications Paper Award at IEEE CASE, Best Video at Hamlyn Symposium on Surgical Robotics, and Best Paper Nomination at IEEE ICRA 2015. And his work has also featured in press outlets such as New York Times, UC Health, UC CITRIS News, and BBC Click.
Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo, nuzzo@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Epstein Department Seminar
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Michael Yu Wang, Profesor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Talk Title: Architectured Meso-Scale Cellular Materials and Structures: Topology Optimization for Additive Manufacturing
Host: Dr. Yong Chen
More Information: Michael Yu Wang_flyer.pdf
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - GER 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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2018 Viterbi Keynote Lecture
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: David Tse, Thomas Kailath and Guanghan Xu Professor, Stanford University
Talk Title: Maximum likelihood Genome Sequencing
Series: Viterbi Lecture
Abstract: Genome sequencing is one of the biggest breakthroughs in science in the past two decades. Modern sequencing methods use linking data at multiple scales to reconstruct pertinent information about the genome. Many such reconstruction problems can be formulated as maximum likelihood sequence decoding from noisy linking data. We discuss two in this talk: haplotype phasing, the problem of sequencing genomic variations on each of the maternal and paternal chromosomes, and genome scaffolding, the problem of finishing genome assembly using long-range 3D contact data. While maximum likelihood sequence decoding is NP-hard in both of these problems, spectral and linear programming relaxations yield efficient approximation algorithms that can provably achieve the information theoretic limits and perform well on real data. These results parallel the biggest success of information theory: efficiently achieving the fundamental limits of communication.
Biography: David Tse received the B.A.Sc. degree in systems design engineering from University of Waterloo in 1989, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1994 respectively. From 1995 to 2014, he was on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. He received the Claude E. Shannon Award in 2017 and was elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2018. Previously, he received a NSF CAREER award in 1998, the Erlang Prize from the INFORMS Applied Probability Society in 2000 and the Frederick Emmons Terman Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2009. He received multiple best paper awards, and is the inventor of the proportional-fair scheduling algorithm used in all third and fourth-generation cellular systems.
Host: Sandeep Gupta, sandeep@usc.edu
More Info: https://minghsiehee.usc.edu/viterbi-lecture/
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/401381224/More Information: 20180412 Tse Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/401381224/
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
Event Link: https://minghsiehee.usc.edu/viterbi-lecture/
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Washington D.C. - Admitted Student Program
Thu, Apr 12, 2018 @ 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Key Bridge Marriott, 1401 Lee Highway
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Meet USC: Admission Presentation, Campus Tour, and Engineering Talk
Fri, Apr 13, 2018
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
This half day program is designed for prospective freshmen (HS juniors and younger) and family members. Meet USC includes an information session on the University and the Admission process, a student led walking tour of campus, and a meeting with us in the Viterbi School. During the engineering session we will discuss the curriculum, research opportunities, hands-on projects, entrepreneurial support programs, and other aspects of the engineering school. Meet USC is designed to answer all of your questions about USC, the application process, and financial aid.
Reservations are required for Meet USC. This program occurs twice, once at 8:30 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.
Please make sure to check availability and register online for the session you wish to attend. Also, remember to list an Engineering major as your "intended major" on the webform!
RSVPLocation: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - USC Admission Office
Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors and Younger) & Family Members
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Preview Day
Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ 09:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Receptions & Special Events
Prospective students interested in pursuing a doctoral (Ph.D.) degree in the field of Biomedical Engineering are invited to visit the USC Viterbi School and attend Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Preview Day.
Attendees will:
-meet with Viterbi faculty, staff and current students
-tour USC Campus in Los Angeles, California
-learn more about the research areas in Biomedical Engineering
-Attend segments of the Grodins Research Symposium
-receive an application fee waiver
Advance registration is required. RSVPAudiences: Prospective students interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in the field of Biomedical Engineering
Contact: Graduate & Professional Programs
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W.V.T. RUSCH ENGINEERING HONORS COLLOQUIUM
Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Joseph Greenfield, Associate Professor of Information Technology Practice at USC, Digital Forensics Consultant at Maryman & Associates
Talk Title: Current Threats in Cybersecurity
Host: Dr. Prata & EHP
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Su Stevens
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Munushian Keynote Speaker - Dr. William Phillips - Nobel Laureate, Physics 1997, Friday, April 13th at 2pm in GER 124 Auditorium
Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. William Phillips, Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Maryland
Talk Title: Quantum Information: a scientific and technological revolution for the 21st century
Abstract: Two of the great scientific and technical revolutions of the 20th century were the discovery of the quantum nature of the submicroscopic world, and the advent of information science and engineering. Both of these have had a profound effect not only on our daily lives but on our worldview. Now, at the beginning
of the 21st century, we see a marriage of quantum mechanics and information science in a new revolution: quantum information. Quantum computation and quantum communication are two aspects of this revolution.
The first is highly speculative: a new paradigm more different from today's digital computers than those computers are from the ancient abacus. The second is already a reality, providing information transmission whose security is guaranteed by the laws of physics. The JQI/NIST Laser Cooling and Trapping Group is studying the use of single, ultracold atoms as quantum bits, or qubits, for quantum information processing.
Biography: William D. Phillips was born in 1948, in Wilkes-Barre PA, and attended public primary and secondary schools in Pennsylvania. He received a B.S. in
Physics from Juniata College in 1970 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1976. After two years as a Chaim Weizmann postdoctoral fellow at MIT, he joined the staff of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (then the National Bureau of Standards) in 1978. He is currently leader of the Laser Cooling and Trapping Group in the Quantum Measurement Division of NIST's Physical Measurement Laboratory, and a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute, a cooperative research organization of NIST and the University of Maryland that is devoted to the study of quantum coherent phenomena. At the JQI he is the co-director of an NSF-funded Physics Frontier Center focusing on quantum phenomena that span different subfields of physics.
The research group led by Dr. Phillips at NIST has been responsible for developing some of the main techniques now used for laser-cooling and cold-atom experiments in laboratories around the world, including the deceleration of atomic beams, magnetic trapping of atoms, the storage and manipulation of cold atoms with optical lattices, and the coherent manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates. In 1988 the NIST group discovered that laser cooling could reach temperatures much lower than had been predicted by theory, a result that led to a new understanding of laser cooling and contributed to many of the subsequent developments in cold atomic gases. Early achievements included reaching laser-cooling temperatures within a millionth of a degree of Absolute Zero. Today, the group pursues research in laser cooling and trapping; Bose-Einstein condensation; atom optics; collisions of cold atoms; quantum information processing; cold atoms in optical lattices; production and transmission of non-classical light; and the study of cold-atom analogs to condensed matter systems. Phillips and colleagues demonstrated the first "atomic fountain" clock as proposed by Zacharias. Such clocks, as realized in other laboratories, have become the primary time standards for world timekeeping.
Dr. Phillips is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow and Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of the Gold Medal of the U. S. Department of Commerce (1993), the Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1996), the Schawlow Prize of the American Physical Society (1998), and the Service to America Medal, Career Achievement Award 2006. In 1997, Dr. Phillips shared the Nobel Prize in Physics "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light."
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 124
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. John Seinfeld, California Institute of Technology
Talk Title: Aerosols and Climate
Abstract: See attachment
More Information: John Seinfeld seminar announcement.pdf
Location: Ray R. Irani Hall (RRI) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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NL Seminar- Finding memory in time
Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuanhang Su , USC
Talk Title: Finding memory in time
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: For a large number of natural language processing NLP problems, we are concerned with finding semantic patterns from input sequences. In recurrent neural network RNN based approach, such pattern is encoded in a vector called hidden state. Since Elmans Finding structure in time published in 1990, it has long been believed that the magic power of RNNs memory, which is enclosed inside the hidden state, can handle very long sequences. Yet besides some experimental observations, there is no formal definition of RNNs memory, let alone a rigid mathematical analysis of how RNNs memory forms.
This talk will focus on understanding memory from two viewpoints. The first viewpoint is that memory is a function that maps certain elements in the input sequences to the current output. Such definition, for the first time in literature, allows us to do detailed analysis of the memory of simple RNN SRN, long short term memory ELSTM, and gated recurrent unit GRU. It also opens the door for further improving the existing RNN basic models. The end results are the proposal of a new basic RNN model called extended LSTM ELSTM with outstanding performance for complex language tasks, and a new macro RNN model called dependent bidirectional RNN DBRNN with smaller cross entropy than bidirectional RNN BRNN and encoderdecoder enc dec models. The second viewpoint is that memory is a compact representation of sparse sequential data. From this perspective, the process of generating hidden state of RNN is simply dimension reduction. Thus, method like principal component analysis PCA which does not require labels for training becomes attractive. However, there are two known problems in implementing PCA for NLP problems: the first is computational complexity; the second is vectorization of sentence data for PCA. To deal with this problem, an efficient dimension reduction algorithm called tree structured multi linear PCA is proposed.
Biography: Yuanhang Su received the dual B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation and Electronic and Electrical Engineering from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K. and Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai, China, respectively in 2009, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, in 2010. From 2011 to 2015, he worked as image video camera software and algorithm engineer for a Los Angeles startup named Exaimage, Shanghai Aerospace Electronics Technology Institute in China and Huawei Technology in China consecutively. He joined MCL lab in 2016 spring, and is currently pursing his Ph.D. in computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning.
Host: Nanyun Peng
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Chicago - HS Junior Program
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Join the Viterbi Admission Team - along with the USC Admission & Financial Aid staff - at the Discover USC Program.
Discover USC is a 2-hour info session that will cover: the USC Application Process, Financial Aid, Life on Campus, Plus, an Engineering Session!
RSVP
Location: Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel
Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors) & Family Members
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Boston - HS Junior Program
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
Join the Viterbi Admission Team - along with the USC Admission & Financial Aid staff - at the Discover USC Program.
Discover USC is a 2-hour info session that will cover: the USC Application Process, Financial Aid, Life on Campus, Plus, an Engineering Session!
RSVP
Location: Weston Copley Place, Boston
Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors) & Family Members
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Atlanta, GA - Admitted Student Program
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Grand Hyatt Atlanta - Buckhead, 3300 Peachtree Road, NE
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Boston, MA - Admitted Student Program
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Weston Copley Place - Boston, 10 Hungtinton Avenue
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Chicago, IL - Admitted Student Program
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
University Calendar
These Admitted Student Programs, hosted by the Undergraduate Admission Office, provide admitted students and their families an opportunity to meet admission counselors, representatives from academic departments, alumni, and you will have the opportunity to meet other admitted students from your local area. Viterbi and University Admission counselors will be there to answer any questions you might have, tell you more about campus life and your specific academic program, and welcome you to the Trojan Family. The program will last approximately two hours.
We love seeing our newly admitted students in person! if you live in or near a city we will be visiting, we encourage you to join us!
RSVP
Location: Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel, 1 West Upper Wacker Drive
Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families
Contact: Viterbi Admission