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Events for the 3rd week of April

  • Miami, FL - Admitted Student Program

    Sun, Apr 15, 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: Hollywood Beach Marriott Resort,2501 North Ocean Drive

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • New York, NY - Admitted Student Program

    Sun, Apr 15, 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: New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, 333 Adams Street

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Spring Explore USC

    Mon, Apr 16, 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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  • CS Colloquium: Srivatsan Ravi (ISI USC) - Synchronization using Transactions: Lower bounds and Algorithms

    Mon, Apr 16, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Srivatsan Ravi, ISI USC

    Talk Title: Synchronization using Transactions: Lower bounds and Algorithms

    Series: CS Colloquium

    Abstract: Designing algorithms to exploit today's distributed computing platforms ranging
    from general-purpose multicore CPUs, cloud infrastructures to domain-specific decentralized computing systems emphasizes the need for designing robust and fault-tolerant synchronization protocols. However, traditional techniques for synchronization are either too coarse-grained to exploit concurrency or require application-specific fine-grained synchronization.

    The Transactional Memory (TM) abstraction is a synchronization mechanism
    for multicore programming proposed as a middle ground: it intends to combine an easy-to-use programming model with an efficient utilization of hardware concurrency. TM allows the programmer to speculatively execute sequences of shared-memory operations as atomic in-memory transactions with safe semantics: state witnessed by each transaction is consistent with some sequential execution. Thus, the programmer can design applications having largely sequential semantics in mind and let TM take care, at run-time, of dealing with problems associated with process asynchrony and adversarial failures.

    In this talk, we focus on a model for hybrid TMs that exploits hardware extensions in prevalent CPU architectures to support small transactions. We present lower bound proof constructions for implementing safe hybrid transactions and its implications for the complexity of concurrent data structures. We conclude by outlining how transactions as a synchronization mechanism can serve as highly robust universal constructions for domain-specific distributed computing models.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity, seats will be first come first serve.

    Biography: Srivatsan Ravi is a computer scientist at the Information Sciences Institute in University of Southern California (USC). His research interests are centered around the theory and practice of distributed computing. Specifically, he works on algorithms and lower bounds for fault-tolerant distributed systems. His research is motivated by emerging new hardware trends that require a new abstract computation model or via introduction of distributed computing techniques to domains where the sequential implementation continues to be state-of-the-art.

    He received his Ph.D. degree from Technical University of Berlin in Germany, where he received the Marie Curie Ph.D. Fellowship and was a member of Deutsche-Telekom Labs, Berlin. His Masters degree is from Cornell University, U.S.A and his Bachelors degree is from Anna University, India.


    Host: John Heidemann

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • Biomedical Engineering Seminars

    Mon, Apr 16, 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 16, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: John Baras, The Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland

    Talk Title: Networked Cyber-Physical Systems (Net-CPS)

    Series: Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series

    Abstract: We describe recent results on foundational aspects of modeling, architecture and performance of networked cyber-physical systems. These include: multi-layer multigraph models, constrained coalitional games, analysis of trust and mistrust in collaboration, dynamics of signed graphs, distributed consensus with adversaries, new concepts of value of information and event-driven inference and decision making, non-commutative probability models. We conclude with directions for future research.

    Biography: John Baras is with the University of Maryland College Park, where he holds he endowed Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering. He received the Diploma in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, 1970; the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University 1971, 1973. Since 1973, he has been a faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and in the Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computation Program, at the University of Maryland College Park. Founding Director of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), 1985 to 1991. Since 1992, Founding Director of the Maryland Center for Hybrid Networks (HYNET). Since 2013, Guest Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. IEEE Life Fellow, SIAM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, NAI Fellow, IFAC Fellow, AIAA Associate Fellow, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Received the 1980 George Axelby Award from the IEEE Control Systems Society, the 2006 Leonard Abraham Prize from the IEEE Communications Society, the 2014 Tage Erlander Guest Professorship from the Swedish Research Council, and a three year (2014-2017) Senior Hans Fischer Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He was inducted in the A. J. Clark School of Engineering Innovation Hall of Fame (2016) of the University of Maryland and was awarded the 2017 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, and the 2017 AACC Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award. His research interests include systems and control, optimization, communication networks, signal processing and understanding, robotics, computing systems, network security and trust, systems biology, healthcare management systems, model-based systems engineering.

    Host: Mihailo Jovanovic, mihailo@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos

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  • Explore USC – Admitted Student Day

    Tue, Apr 17, 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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  • EE Seminar - Controlling Dynamic Ensembles: from Cells to Societies

    Tue, Apr 17, 2018 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Jr-Shin Li, Das Family Distinguished Career Development Associate Professor of Systems Science and Mathematics, Washington University in St. Louis

    Talk Title: Controlling Dynamic Ensembles: from Cells to Societies

    Abstract: Natural and engineered systems that consist of populations of isolated or interacting dynamical components exhibit levels of complexity that are beyond human comprehension. These complex systems often require an appropriate excitation, an optimal hierarchical organization, or a periodic dynamical structure, such as synchrony, to function as desired or operate optimally. In many applications, the dynamics of such ensemble systems can only be regulated by the use of a single or sparsely distributed external inputs in order to alter their state configurations or dynamic patterns; for example, excitation of a large quantum ensemble using a sequence of electromagnetic fields in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, entrainment of a population of circadian cells by a light protocol in chronobiology, and desynchronization of a pathologically synchronized neuron ensemble with neurostimulation for the treatment of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease or epilepsy, in brain medicine. This unconventional control paradigm gives rise to challenging problems regarding robust broadcast control and computation for underactuated dynamic populations. Moreover, valid and precise mathematical models for describing the dynamics of such complex systems are often elusive, while their measurement data are available. This talk will address theoretical and computational challenges for targeted coordination of both isolated and networked ensemble systems arising in diverse areas at different scales. Both data-driven and model-based approaches for learning, decoding, control, and computation of dynamic structures and patterns in ensemble systems will be presented. Practical control designs, including synchronization waveforms for pattern formation in nonlinear oscillatory networks and optimal pulses in quantum control will be illustrated along with their experimental realizations. Lastly, future directions and opportunities in Systems and Controls will be discussed.

    Biography: Dr. Jr-Shin Li is currently Das Family Distinguished Career Development Associate Professor of Systems Science and Mathematics in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences since he joined Washington University in 2006. Dr. Li received a B.S. and an M.S. from National Taiwan University, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 2006. His research interests lie in the areas of systems, computational, and data sciences, and their applications to biology, neuroscience, quantum physics, brain medicine, and public health. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award in 2008 and the AFOSR Young Investigator Award in 2010. He is currently Associate Editor of the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (SICON) and the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology (TCST).

    Host: Edmond Jonckheere, jonckhee@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • Epstein Institute Seminar, ISE 651

    Tue, Apr 17, 2018 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, Chaired Professor, Georgia Tech

    Talk Title: Decentralized Generation Scheduling in Energy Networks

    Host: Prof. Suvrajeet Sen

    More Information: April 17, 2018.pdf

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

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  • Undergraduate Fall Registration Ends

    Wed, Apr 18, 2018

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    University Calendar


    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Sheryl Koutsis

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  • Preview USC - Admitted Student Half-Day

    Wed, Apr 18, 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.

    RSVP

    Location: USC Admission Office

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Computer Science General Faculty Meeting

    Wed, Apr 18, 2018 @ 12:00 AM - 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: Michelson 101

    Audiences: Invited Faculty Only

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • EE Seminar - From DC to Daylight: Harnessing Electromagnetic Fields for Bioelectronics, Wireless Communications, and Silicon Photonics

    Wed, Apr 18, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Constantine Sideris, Postdoctoral Scholar, Caltech

    Talk Title: From DC to Daylight: Harnessing Electromagnetic Fields for Bioelectronics, Wireless Communications, and Silicon Photonics

    Abstract: Maxwell's equations are responsible for explaining the fundamental operating principles behind most of today's technology. In this talk, we will explore how understanding and controlling electromagnetic fields can lead to significant impact across a multitude of applications over a wide frequency range on the electromagnetic spectrum. Starting from the low-frequency end of the spectrum, I will present the design and implementation of a new integrated magnetic biosensor. The magnetic biosensor is fabricated in a standard CMOS foundry process without any post-fabrication processing and can perform in-vitro detection of DNA, proteins, and cells by utilizing magnetic nanoparticles as labels. We will discuss three different, improved sensor designs, which address sensor gain uniformity, enable multiplex target detection, and compensate sensor electrical and thermal drift based on spatial and temporal manipulations of the magnetic fields. I will present initial in-vitro biodetection experiments, and discuss future research directions moving towards in-vivo sensing with wearable and implantable devices, as well as actuation via targeted therapeutics. Next, we will look into the RF domain and develop maximal performance bounds for antennas. I will present a rapid simulation technique which, when coupled with heuristic optimization algorithms, can quickly and effectively produce new antenna structures de-novo with little or no manual intervention. The efficacy of these techniques will be shown in the context of a 3D printed coupling antenna for a dielectric waveguide communication link. Moving higher in frequency, we will explore the near-infrared (NIR) part of the spectrum in the context of silicon photonic device optimization. I will present on-going work in designing grating coupler and power splitting devices with arbitrary splitting ratios by using adjoint optimization and highly efficient integral equation techniques. We will also explore exciting future directions in these research areas, leveraging modern computation and efficient numerical algorithms as well as holistic co-design of circuits and electromagnetics.

    Biography: Constantine Sideris received the B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees with honors from the California Institute of Technology in 2010, 2011, and 2016 respectively. He was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Wireless Research Center from 2013 to 2014. He was a lecturer in the Electrical Engineering department for Caltech's popular machine learning project course in 2017. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar in the Electrical Engineering and Computational and Mathematical Sciences departments at Caltech. His research interests include RF and millimeter-wave integrated circuits and computational electromagnetics for biomedical applications, wireless communications, and silicon photonics. He was a recipient of an NSF graduate research fellowship in 2010, the Analog Devices Outstanding Student Designer Award in 2012, and the Caltech Leadership Award in 2017.

    Host: Murali Annavaram, annarvarm@usc.edu

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Mayumi Thrasher

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  • Explore USC – Admitted Student Day

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018

    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: USC Admission Office

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • PhD Defense - Sonal Mahajan

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Sonal Mahajan

    Time: April 19, 2018 (Thursday) 9.30am - 12pm

    Location: VHE 217

    Committee: William G. J. Halfond (chair), Nenad Medvidovic, Sandeep Gupta, Chao Wang, Jyotirmoy Vinay Deshmukh

    Title: Automated Repair of Presentation Failures in Web Applications Using Search-based Techniques

    Abstract:
    The appearance of a web application's User Interface (UI) plays an important part in its success. Issues degrading the UI can negatively affect the usability of a website and impact an end user's perception of the website and the quality of the services that it delivers. Such UI related issues, called presentation failures, occur frequently in modern web applications. Despite their importance, there exist no automated techniques for repairing presentation failures. Instead repair is typically a manual process were developers must painstakingly analyze the UI of a website, identify the faulty UI elements (i.e., HTML elements and CSS properties), and carry out repairs. This is labor intensive and requires significant expertise of the developers.

    My dissertation addresses these challenges and limitations by automating the process of repairing presentation failures in web applications. My key insight underlying this research is that search-based techniques can be used to find repairs for the observed presentation failures by intelligently and efficiently exploring large solution spaces defined by the HTML elements and CSS properties. Based on this insight, I designed a novel general-purpose search-based framework for the automated repair of presentation failures in web applications. To evaluate the effectiveness of my framework, I designed and developed instantiations for repairing different types of presentation failures in web applications. The first instantiation focuses on the repair of Cross Browser Issues (XBIs), i.e., inconsistencies in the appearance of a website when rendered in different web browsers. The second instantiation addresses the Mobile Friendly Problems (MFPs) in websites, i.e., improves the readability and usability of a website when accessed from a mobile device. The third instantiation repairs problems related to internationalization in web application UIs. Lastly, the fourth instantiation addresses issues arising from mockup-driven development and regression debugging. In the empirical evaluations, all of the four instantiations were highly effective in repairing presentation failures, while in the conducted user studies, participants overwhelmingly preferred the visual appeal of the repaired versions of the websites compared to their original (faulty) versions. Overall, these are positive results and indicate that the framework can help developers repair presentation failures in web applications, while maintaining their aesthetic quality.

    Location: Vivian Hall of Engineering (VHE) - 217

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

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  • EE Seminar - Trustworthy Autonomy: Algorithms for Human-Robot Systems

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Katherine Driggs-Campbell, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory

    Talk Title: Trustworthy Autonomy: Algorithms for Human-Robot Systems

    Abstract: Autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars, are becoming tangible technologies that will soon impact the human experience. However, the desirable impacts of autonomy are only achievable if the underlying algorithms can handle the unique challenges humans present: People tend to defy expected behaviors and do not conform to many of the standard assumptions made in robotics. To design safe, trustworthy autonomy, we must transform how intelligent systems interact, influence, and predict human agents. In this work, we'll use tools from robotics, artificial intelligence, and control to explore and uncover structure in complex human-robot systems to create more intelligent, interactive autonomy.

    In this talk, I'll present on robust prediction methods that allow us to predict driving behavior over long time horizons with very high accuracy. These methods have been applied to intervention schemes for semi-autonomous vehicles and to autonomous planning that considers nuanced interactions during cooperative maneuvers. I'll also present a new framework for multi-agent perception that uses people as sensors to improve mapping. By observing the actions of human agents, we demonstrate how we can make inferences about occluded regions and, in turn, improve control. Finally, I'll present on recent efforts on validating stochastic systems, merging deep learning and control, and implementing these algorithms on a fully equipped test vehicle that can operate safely on the road.

    Biography: Katie is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. She received a B.S.E. with honors from Arizona State University in 2012 and an M.S. from UC Berkeley in 2015. In May of 2017, she earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Professor Ruzena Bajcsy. Her thesis was entitled "Tools for Trustworthy Autonomy: Robust Prediction, Intuitive Control, and Optimized Interaction," which contributed to the field of autonomy, by merging ideas robotics, transportation, and control to address problems associated with human-in-the-loop. Her work considers the integration of autonomy into human dominated fields, in terms of safe interaction, with a strong emphasis on novel modeling methods, experimental design, robust learning, and control frameworks. She received the Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award for her contributions to the community, has instigated many events and groups for women in STEM, including founding a group for Women in Intelligent Transportation Systems, and was selected for the Rising Stars in EECS program in 2017.

    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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  • Best Dissertation Symposium

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Doctoral Programs

    Receptions & Special Events


    All are invited to attend the 4th Annual Viterbi Best Dissertation Symposium. 3-4 Ph.D. graduates will present their research for a chance to win the William F. Ballhaus, Jr. Prize for Excellence in Graduate Engineering Research, which includes a $10,000 award!

    The award winner will be recognized at the Viterbi Ph.D. Hooding and Awards Ceremony on May 10, 2018.

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Jennifer Gerson

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  • Epstein Institute Seminar, ISE 651

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Rüdiger Schultz, Professor, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

    Talk Title: Applied Optimization - Certainly Uncertain

    Host: Prof. Suvrajeet Sen

    More Information: April 19, 2018_Schultz.pdf

    Location: GER 206

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

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  • CAIS Seminar: Dr. Vipin Kumar (University of Minnesota) – Big Data in Climate and Earth Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities for Machine Learning

    Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Vipin Kumar, University of Minnesota

    Talk Title: Big Data in Climate and Earth Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities for Machine Learning

    Series: USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series

    Abstract: A massive amount of data about Earth and its environment is continuously being generated by a large number of Earth observing satellites as well as physics-based earth system models running on large-scale computational platforms. These datasets offer huge potential for understanding how the Earth's climate and ecosystem have been changing and how they are being impacted by humans' actions. This talk will discuss various challenges involved in analyzing these massive datasets as well as opportunities they present for both advancing machine learning as well as the science of climate change in the context of monitoring the state of the tropical forests and surface water on a global scale.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium


    Biography: Dr. Vipin Kumar is a Regents Professor and holds William Norris Chair in the department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include data mining, high-performance computing, and their applications in climate/ecosystems and health care. He is currently leading an NSF Expedition project on understanding climate change using data science approaches.


    Host: Milind Tambe

    Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 301

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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  • Meet USC: Admission Presentation, Campus Tour, and Engineering Talk

    Fri, Apr 20, 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!

    RSVP

    Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - USC Admission Office

    Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors and Younger) & Family Members

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • The Explosion in Neural Network Chips

    Fri, Apr 20, 2018 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Trevor Mudge, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Talk Title: The Explosion in Neural Network Chips

    Abstract: Until recently the conventional wisdom was that proposing a new chip startup in the US was a bad bet. Recently that perception has changed. There are dozens of startups that have found funding for new chip architectures that perform neural network computations much faster while consuming less power than general purpose CPUs. In fact, over 1.5 billion dollars in venture funding has already been dispersed for such startups. There are several factors behind this change of heart. First has been a slowing of Moore's Law that has made application specific computers more attractive. Second is the existence of application specific computers that could easily be repurposed, as exemplified by Digital Signal Processors and Graphics Processors. Finally, the presence of independent foundries such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and the United Microelectronics Corporation removed the need for every chip startup to build its own multi-billion dollar fabrication facility. In this talk I will discuss the reasons for this explosion starting with an overview of the problems these machines are targeting. I will then examine the aforementioned factors in more detail. Lastly, I will outline the co-design process that has led to many of the existing solutions. My concluding remarks will discuss the barriers to the success of these new architectures.

    Biography: Trevor Mudge received the Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana. He is now the Bredt Family Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of numerous papers on computer architecture, programming languages, VLSI design, and computer vision. He has also chaired 54 theses in these areas. In 2014 he received the ACM/IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award and the University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni Award. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the ACM, and a member of the IET and the British Computer Society.

    Host: Xuehai Qian, x04459, xuehai.qian@usc.edu

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos

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  • W.V.T. RUSCH ENGINEERING HONORS COLLOQUIUM

    Fri, Apr 20, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    USC Viterbi School of Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Shaun Arora, Managing Director and Co-founder, Make in LA

    Talk Title: Building a Lean Hardware Startup

    Host: Dr. Prata & EHP

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Su Stevens

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  • NL Seminar-Language as a Scaffold for Visual Recognition

    Fri, Apr 20, 2018 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM

    Information Sciences Institute

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Mark Yatskar , AI2

    Talk Title: Language as a Scaffold for Visual Recognition

    Series: Natural Language Seminar

    Abstract: In this talk we propose to use natural language as a guide for what people can perceive about the world from images and what ultimately machines should aim to see as well. We discuss two recent structured prediction efforts in this vein: scene graph parsing in Visual Genome, a framework derived from captions, and visual semantic role labeling in imSitu, a formalism built on FrameNet and WordNet. In scene graph parsing, we examine the problem of modeling higher order repeating structure motifs and present new state of the art baselines and methods. We then look at the problem semantic sparsity in visual semantic role labeling: infrequent combinations of output semantics are frequent. We present new compositional and data-augmentation methods for dealing with this challenge, significantly improving on prior work.


    Biography: Mark Yatskar is a post-doc at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and recipient of their Young Investigator Award. His primary research is in the intersection of language and vision, natural language generation, and ethical computing. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington with Luke Zettlemoyer and Ali Farhadi and in 2016 received the EMNLP best paper award and his work has been featured in Wired and the New York Times.

    Host: Nanyun Peng

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

    Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 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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  • Seattle - HS Junior Program

    Sat, Apr 21, 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: Grand Hyatt Seattle

    Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors) & Family Members

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Houston - HS Junior Program

    Sat, Apr 21, 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: Houston Marriott West Loop by the Galleria

    Audiences: Prospective Freshmen (HS Juniors) & Family Members

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Houston, TX - Admitted Student Program

    Sat, Apr 21, 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: Houston Marriott West Loop by the Galleria, 1750 West Loop South

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

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  • Seattle, WA - Admitted Student Program

    Sat, Apr 21, 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: Grand Hyatt Seattle, 721 Pine Street

    Audiences: Admitted Students and Their Families

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

    OutlookiCal