Logo: University of Southern California

Events Calendar



Select a calendar:



Filter April Events by Event Type:



Events for the 5th week of April

  • Repeating EventACM TrojanHACKS

    Sun, Apr 24, 2022

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations

    Receptions & Special Events


    Introducing ACM's very own hackathon, TrojanHacks! If you're looking for experience working on a real world project, an outlet for your best ideas, collaboration with other ambitious individuals, free food, or a chance to win PRIZES... TrojanHacks is for you!

    This in-person, 24 hour event is the perfect hackathon for everyone from the first time newbie to the seasoned hacker. Come with your squad ready to build the project you always talk about but have never started, or come by yourself to meet others who will become your new power team! If you've never attended a hackathon before, do not fear! TrojanHacks is the perfect opportunity to dive in.

    The hackathon will run from 10am 4/23 to 1:30 4/24 and will consist of events and socials to get you mingling with other hackers (which will include free food!), workshops for you to try your hand at something new, and of course, hours of hacking. Skills might include git, figma, or webdev- you're invited to them all. Go sign up at https://bit.ly/trojanhacks-2022 and be sure to mark your calendars for April 23 and 24th!

    Location: TBA

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    View All Dates

    Contact: Association for Computing Machinery

    OutlookiCal
  • CS Colloquium: Kuldeep Meel (National University of Singapore) - Counting, Sampling, and Synthesis: The Quest for Scalability

    Mon, Apr 25, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Kuldeep Meel, National University of Singapore

    Talk Title: Counting, Sampling, and Synthesis: The Quest for Scalability

    Abstract: The current generation of automated symbolic reasoning techniques excel at the qualitative tasks (i.e., when the answer is Yes
    or No) owing to the dramatic progress in satisfiability solving, also referred to as the SAT revolution. The advances in SAT afford us the luxury to focus on quantitative reasoning tasks, whose development is critical to reason about the increasingly interconnected and complex computing systems.

    In this talk, I will discuss the design of the next generation of automated reasoning techniques to perform higher-order tasks such as quantification (aka counting), sampling of representative behavior, and automated synthesis of systems. Naturally, these tasks are hard from a complexity-theoretic viewpoint, and therefore, our frameworks focus on tight integration of real-world applications, beyond the worst-case analysis algorithmic design and data-driven system design. This has allowed us to achieve significant advances in counting, sampling, and synthesis, providing a new algorithmic toolbox in formal methods, probabilistic reasoning, databases, and design verification. I will discuss the core design principles and the utility of the above techniques on various real applications, including quantitative analysis of AI systems and critical infrastructure resilience estimation.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium


    Biography: Kuldeep Meel holds the NUS Presidential Young Professorship in the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore. His research interests lie at the intersection of Formal Methods and Artificial Intelligence. He is a recipient of the 2021 Amazon Research Award for Automated Reasoning, 2019 NRF Fellowship for AI, and was named AI's 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems in 2020. His research program's recognition include the 2022 ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight, 2021 ICCAD Best Paper Award Nomination, "Best of PODS-21" invite from ACM TODS, "Best Papers of CAV-20" invite from FMSD journal, IJCAI-19 Sister conferences best paper award track invitation.

    He holds a Ph.D. from Rice University, co-advised by Supratik Chakraborty and Moshe Y. Vardi. His thesis work received the 2018 Ralph Budd Award for Best Ph.D. Thesis in Engineering and the 2014 Outstanding Masters Thesis Award from Vienna Center of Logic and Algorithms, IBM PhD Fellowship, and Best Student Paper Award at CP 2015.


    Host: Mukund Raghothaman

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99187341067

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/99187341067

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Cherie Carter

    OutlookiCal
  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Matthew Fontaine

    Mon, Apr 25, 2022 @ 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Matthew Fontaine

    Committee:
    Stefanos Nikolaidis (Chair, USC, Computer Science)
    Bistra Dilkina (USC, Computer Science)
    Gaurav Sukhatme (USC, Computer Science)
    Haipeng Luo (USC, Computer Science)
    Satyandra Kumar (USC, Mechanical Engineering)
    Julian Togelius (NYU, Computer Science)


    Title: Towards Automating the Generation of Human-Robot Interaction Scenarios

    Abstract: The human robot interaction (HRI) community currently evaluates their algorithms via hand-authored user studies. When proposing a novel algorithm, each researcher designs an experimental setup to evaluate how their new algorithm performs with human subjects. While such studies are essential to evaluating how a real human will interact with a robot, robots deployed in the real world will encounter novel scenarios not evaluated in experimental settings. To discover scenarios outside of human subjects experiments, this work proposes simulating HRI scenarios, where a scenario constitutes both an environment and simulated human agents. However, both how to explore the vast space of scenarios efficiently for diverse failures and how to generate realistic scenarios that present a feasible challenge to a human-robot team are very challenging problems. This work approaches searching the continuous space of possible scenarios as a quality diversity (QD) problem, a class of optimization problem where solving algorithms find a collection of solutions spanning a space specified by measure functions, where each solution also maximizes an objective. I present methods advancing the state-of-the-art of QD algorithms, but also a new problem setting called differentiable quality diversity (DQD) that allows for the objective and measure functions to be first order differentiable. To address the realism problem, I present methods for representing scenarios via generative models that guarantee task feasibility via mixed integer linear programming. Each of these methods is combined into an efficient scenario generation framework that tests and evaluates HRI systems. Finally, the proposed work discusses techniques for increasing the complexity of the generated scenarios and for evaluating the scenarios in real-world settings with actual end users.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/my/tehqin?pwd=Z2E1WVp3ais1Tng1V2NndTgvR1pQQT09

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

    OutlookiCal
  • Admitted Student Explore USC #7

    Mon, Apr 25, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    We are thrilled to finally be able to meet you on campus at one of our admitted student events. During the month of April, we have seven weekday events (each called Explore USC), as well as one full-day program (called Admitted Students Day) which is scheduled for a Sunday. Please only register for one event, either an Explore USC event during the week, or the Admitted Students Day on the weekend.

    Explore USC includes a Viterbi School overview, Faculty discussion from your major, lab/facility tour, lunch, and many opportunities to engage with current students.


    Register here!

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

    OutlookiCal
  • Repeating EventVirtual First-Year Admission Information Session

    Tue, Apr 26, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Our virtual information session is a live presentation from a USC Viterbi admission counselor designed for high school students and their family members to learn more about the USC Viterbi undergraduate experience. Our session will cover an overview of our undergraduate engineering programs, the application process, and more on student life. Guests will be able to ask questions and engage in further discussion toward the end of the session.

    Register Here!



    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    View All Dates

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

    OutlookiCal
  • Forza Silicon Job Opportunities Trojan Talk (Virtual)

    Tue, Apr 26, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    In this virtual event we will be introducing Forza Silicon and talk about full-time and internship opportunities available.

    This is a virtual Viterbi-specific Trojan Talk. RSVP on Zoom HERE:https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtcu6oqT4pHtHdRpMHRfBG8W42TJX7WwIO.

    At Forza Silicon we design custom integrated circuits geared towards high-resolution and high-speed CMOS image sensors.
    We are looking for analog/mixed-signal design engineers with experience in bandgaps, bias, op-amps, switched-cap circuits, LDOs, PLL, SERDES, high-speed TX, general feedback and compensation techniques.

    We are recruiting for: M.S., PhD.
    Majors of interest: Electrical Engineering
    Yes, we can sponsor internal candidates and hire on CPT and OPT.

    Location: Virtual

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • ISE 651 Epstein Seminar

    Tue, Apr 26, 2022 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM

    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Carolyn Conner Seepersad, J.Mike Walker Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

    Talk Title: Additive Manufacturing and Design Innovation: Challenges and Opportunities

    Host: Prof. Qiang Huang

    More Information: April 26, 2022.pdf

    Location: Online/Zoom

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Grace Owh

    OutlookiCal
  • CS Distinguished Lecture: Henrik I. Christensen (UC San Diego) - Deploying autonomous vehicles for micro-mobility in urban environments

    Tue, Apr 26, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Henrik I. Christensen, UC San Diego

    Talk Title: Deploying autonomous vehicles for micro-mobility in urban environments

    Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series

    Abstract: Autonomous vehicles are already widely deployed on the inter-states. Providing robust autonomous systems for urban environments is a more difficult challenge, as the road network is more complex, there are many more types of road-users (cars, bikes, pedestrians) and the potential interactions are more complex. In an urban environment it is also harder to use pre-computed HD-maps as the world is more dynamic. We study the design of micro-mobility solutions for the UCSD campus. In this presentation we will discuss an overall systems design, eliminating the need for HD-maps and use course topological maps such as Open Street Maps, fusing vision and lidar for semantic mapping /localization, detection and handling other road-users. Dynamic planning in the presence of other agents. The system has been deployed in multiple long-term test to evaluate performance across weather, season changes, etc. We will present both underlying methods, algorithms, and experimental insights. Finally, we will present some challenges for the future.

    Dr. Christensen will give the talk in person at SGM 124 and we will also host the talk over Zoom.

    Register in advance for this webinar at:

    https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M0LX4fKmSIqVhjLX05mWCg

    After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Henrik I Christensen is the Qualcomm Chancellor's Chair of Robot Systems and the director of robotics at UC San Diego. He is an academic, entrepreneur and investor. Dr. Christensen does research on a systems approach to robotics. Solutions need a solid theoretical basis, effective algorithms, a good implementation and must be evaluated using realistic scenarios. He has made contributions to computer vision, SLAM, and systems engineering. His research has been adopted by many companies. Henrik is also the main editor of the US National Robotics Roadmap (2009, 2013, 2016 and 2020). He is serving / has served on a significant number of editorial board (PAMI, IJRR, JFR, RAS, Aut Sys). He co-founded Robust.AI and Robo Global (AUM: $3.5B) and serves as a consultant to companies and agencies across 5 continents


    Host: Stefanos Nikolaidis

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M0LX4fKmSIqVhjLX05mWCg

    Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 124

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M0LX4fKmSIqVhjLX05mWCg

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

    OutlookiCal
  • Computer Science General Faculty Meeting

    Wed, Apr 27, 2022 @ 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: TBD

    Audiences: Invited Faculty Only

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

    OutlookiCal
  • PhD Thesis Proposal - Chris Denniston

    Wed, Apr 27, 2022 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar



    PhD Candidate: Chris Denniston

    Title: Active Robot Perception for Understanding the Natural World

    Abstract: Robot information gathering has transformed the way we take measurements of the natural world in oceans, lakes, and underground environments. This talk will highlight key areas of improvement in using measurements of the environment to inform robot autonomy. The talk will focus on improving the efficiency and usability of these systems, combining these systems with the uncertainty in the robots pose which is characteristic of these environments, and tying the end scientific goal directly to the actions the robot performs.

    Time & Venue: RTH 406 and virtual (See zoom link below), 4/27 3:00PM - 4:30PM PST

    Guidance Committee Members: Stefanos Nikolaidis, Heather Culbertson, Jesse Thomason, David Caron, Gaurav Sukhatme (Chair)

    Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 406

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/2869134593

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

    OutlookiCal
  • Repeating EventVirtual First-Year Admission Information Session

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Our virtual information session is a live presentation from a USC Viterbi admission counselor designed for high school students and their family members to learn more about the USC Viterbi undergraduate experience. Our session will cover an overview of our undergraduate engineering programs, the application process, and more on student life. Guests will be able to ask questions and engage in further discussion toward the end of the session.

    Register Here!



    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    View All Dates

    Contact: Viterbi Admission

    OutlookiCal
  • DEN@Viterbi - 'Limited Status: How to Get Started' Virtual Info Session

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi for our upcoming Limited Status: How to Get Started Virtual Information Session via WebEx to learn about the Limited Status enrollment option. The Limited Status enrollment option allows individuals with an undergraduate degree in engineering or related field, with a 3.0 GPA or above to take courses before applying for formal admission into a Viterbi graduate degree program.

    USC Viterbi representatives will provide a step-by-step guide for how to get started as a Limited Status student and enroll in courses online via DEN@Viterbi as early as the Spring 2023 semester.

    Register Now!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=e9133e61b0faf4fd265b397d62ef06eef

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

    OutlookiCal
  • ENGR 395 CPT Information Session

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    ENGR 395 CPT Info Session: Thursday, April 28, from 12-1pm

    Are you interested in receiving technical elective credit for your internship? Do you need to complete the CPT application and need to enroll in an internship course for credit? Join Career Connections to learn more about the internship for-credit course, ENGR 395. We will discuss qualifications, application materials, and course requirements.

    Register for the event here:

    https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYsf-irqzIqG9N7U-bPN6P4IoyKw_o96Ism

    Location: Virtual

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Meet Meta Seattle Offices (Virtual)

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Meet Meta Seattle Offices (Virtual)

    Where: This will be a virtual event hosted on Zoom
    Day: Thursday, April 28th
    Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, PDT

    My name is Carolina Barreto, and I'm a SWE University Recruiter at Meta (formerly the Facebook company). We're hosting an event for a select group of engineering students who may be interested in working out of our Seattle office.

    The event will be hosted virtually and will serve as an opportunity to learn about life in Seattle and the Meta office culture. You'll meet engineers who are based in Seattle and learn about the exciting projects they are working on! You'll also have the opportunity to ask any recruiting-related questions.

    RSVP through the link below by Monday, April 25th.
    SplashThat Link: builtinseattle.splashthat.com




    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Career Center. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participant's responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM

    Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Dr. Sara Billington, Chair and UPS Foundation Professor , Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University

    Talk Title: Hybrid Physical Plus Digital Spaces for Enhanced Sustainability and Wellbeing

    Abstract: Please see attached abstract bio and a photo. Thank you.

    Host: Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber

    More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659

    More Information: S. Billington-abstract-bio.pdf

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

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Evangeline Reyes

    Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91873923659 Meeting ID: 918 7392 3659

    OutlookiCal
  • CS Colloquium: Malte Jung (Cornell University) - Teamwork with Robots

    Thu, Apr 28, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Malte Jung, Cornell University

    Talk Title: Teamwork with Robots

    Series: Computer Science Colloquium

    Abstract: Research on Human-robot Interaction to date has largely focused on examining a single human interacting with a single robot. This work has led to advances in fundamental understanding about the psychology of human-robot interaction (e.g. how specific design choices affect interactions with and attitudes towards robots) and about the effective design of human-robot interaction (e,g. how novel mechanisms or computational tools can be used to improve HRI). However, the single-robot-single-human focus of this growing body of work stands in stark contrast to the complex social contexts in which robots are increasingly placed. While robots increasingly support teamwork across a wide range of settings covering search and rescue missions, minimally invasive surgeries, space exploration missions, or manufacturing, we have limited understanding of how groups people will interact with robots and how robots will affect how people interact with each other in groups and teams. In this talk I present empirical findings from several studies that show how robots can shape in direct but also subtle ways how people interact and collaborate with each other in teams.

    Dr. Jung will give the talk in person at SGM 124 and we will also host the talk over Zoom.

    Register in advance for this webinar at:

    https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WnzW6E8UQQiLTd8N1tZoVw

    After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Malte Jung is an Associate Professor in Information Science at Cornell University and the Nancy H. '62 and Philip M. '62 Young Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. His research brings together approaches from design and behavioral science to build understanding about how we can build robots that function better in group and team settings. His work has received several awards including an NSF CAREER award. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD Minor in Psychology from Stanford University. Prior to joining Cornell, Malte Jung completed a postdoc at the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization at Stanford University. He holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich.


    Host: Stefanos Nikolaidis

    Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WnzW6E8UQQiLTd8N1tZoVw

    Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 124

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WnzW6E8UQQiLTd8N1tZoVw

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

    OutlookiCal
  • PhD Defense - Aida Mostafazadeh Davani

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 03:00 AM - 04:30 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar


    PhD Candidate: Aida Mostafazadeh Davani

    Time:
    Friday, April 29th, 3pm, SGM 911.

    Committee: Morteza Dehghani, Bistra Dilkina, Xiang Ren, and Stephen Read

    Title:
    Integrating Annotator Biases into Modeling Subjective Language Classification Tasks

    Abstract:
    Subjective annotation tasks are inherently nuanced due to annotators' individual differences in understanding of language. Training Natural Language Processing (NLP) models for making predictions in subjective tasks based on human-annotated datasets is also marked by challenges; model decisions are rarely generalizable to judgements of unseen annotators. Therefore, modeling an acceptable interpretation of subjective tasks requires integrating psychological dimensions that capture individual differences in perceiving language for each specific task. This thesis provides an alternative approach for modeling subjective NLP tasks by tailoring representations based on annotators' varying perceptions of language. First, NLP datasets for subjective tasks are investigated to demonstrate how aggregating annotation into single ground truth labels impacts the representation of different perspectives in language resources. Then, the impacts of annotators' social biases are explored to demonstrate sources for human-like biases in annotated datasets and language classifiers. And lastly, alternative approaches for incorporating annotators' individual differences into modeling their annotation behaviors are presented.

    Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 911

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

    OutlookiCal
  • DEN@Viterbi: How to Apply Virtual Info Session

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM

    DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Join USC Viterbi representatives for a step-by-step guide and tips for how to apply for formal admission into a Master's degree or Graduate Certificate program. The session is intended for individuals who wish to pursue a graduate degree program completely online via USC Viterbi's flexible online DEN@Viterbi delivery method.

    Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives and ask questions about the admission process throughout the session.

    Register Now!

    WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/uscviterbi/onstage/g.php?MTID=edfcddaf07b411d6e817e2199614b1670

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs

    OutlookiCal
  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: What Recruiters Look for in Your Resume

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Review strategies to showcase your experiences and highlight your skills on your resume to impress recruiters and land interviews.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshops
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: Hybrid

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Career & Internship Bootcamp: Find Your Dream Job or Internship (Job search strategies)

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions



    Spring 2022 Career & Internship Bootcamp
    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp on April 29th to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Focus your job search to find the right opportunities for you.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshop
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: HYBRID

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Viterbi Undergraduate Symposium

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 11:00 AM - 04:00 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

    Receptions & Special Events


    The Viterbi Undergraduate Symposium provides Viterbi undergraduate students the opportunity to showcase their research and significant works to faculty, staff, students, and industry partners. Presented works may come from senior design capstone courses, honors thesis/projects, student design teams, and research conducted under faculty supervision (e.g. CURVE). Students will present their projects in person throughout the day.

    More Information: Viterbi Undergraduate Symposium Flyer.pdf

    Location: Epstein Family Engineering Plaza

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Andy Jones-Liang

    OutlookiCal
  • BCG Walk & Talks

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions



    Our purpose is to provide a variety of opportunities for students to have their questions answered, learn more about BCG and our recruiting process.

    Designed for the students to listen in podcast style and hear from BCG Associates about why we think BCG is a great place to launch your career!

    Friday, April 29th 12pm-12:45pm: BCG Culture & Community- Click Here to Register: https://talent.bcg.com/Events?folderId=10047272&source=Event

    External employer-hosted events and activities are not affiliated with the USC Viterbi Career Connections Office. They are posted on Viterbi Career Connections because they may be of interest to members of the Viterbi community. Inclusion of any activity does not indicate USC sponsorship or endorsement of that activity or event. It is the participant's responsibility to apply due diligence, exercise caution when participating, and report concerns to vcareers@usc.edu

    Location: Virtual

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Career Connections Lunch and Learn (with Pizza!)

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Spring 2022 Career & Internship Bootcamp
    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp on April 29th to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Enjoy FREE pizza and drinks while sharing what you want to see from Viterbi Career Connections.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshop
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: HYBRID

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • PhD Defense - Ritesh Ahuja

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    University Calendar



    PhD Candidate: Ritesh Ahuja

    Dissertation Committee: Cyrus Shahabi, Bhaskar Krishnamachari, Aleksandra Korolova

    Venue: Online at 12 pm -2 pm

    Zoom: https://usc.zoom.us/j/7125668882

    Thesis title: Differentially Private Learned Models for Location Services

    Abstract:
    The emergence of mobile apps (e.g., location-based services, geosocial networks, ride-sharing) led to the collection of vast amounts of location data. Publishing aggregate information about user's movements benefits research on traffic optimization, context-aware notifications and public health (e.g., disease spread). While the benefits provided by location data are indisputable, preserving location privacy is essential, since even aggregate statistics (e.g., in the form of population density maps) can leak details about individual whereabouts. To protect against privacy risks, the data curator may publish a noisy version of the dataset, transformed according to Differential Privacy (DP), the de-facto standard for releasing statistical data.

    The goal of a DP mechanism is to ensure privacy while keeping the query answers as accurate as possible. Conventional approaches build DP-compliant representation of a spatial dataset by partitioning the data domain into bins, and then publishing a histogram with the noisy count of points that fall within each bin. These solutions fall short of properly capturing skewness inherent to sparse location datasets, and as a result yield poor accuracy. Instead, in this work, we propose a paradigm shift towards learned representations of data. We learn powerful machine learning (ML) models that exploit patterns within location datasets to provide more accurate location services. We focus on key location queries that are the building blocks of many processing tasks.

    For population-density maps that support range count queries on snapshot releases, where each individual contributes a single location report, we design a neural database system called Spatial Neural Histograms (SNH). We model spatial data such that density features are preserved, even when DP-compliant noise is added. As such, learning can be used to also combat data modelling errors, present in DP setting. SNH employs a set of neural networks that learn from diverse regions of the dataset and at varying granularities, leading to superior accuracy. More often however, spatio-temporal density information is required for utility (e.g., in modeling COVID hotspots). As a result, the released statistics must continually capture population counts in small areas for short time periods.

    When releasing multiple snapshots, individuals may contribute multiple reports to the same dataset. The ability of an adversary to breach privacy increases significantly, and a shift to user-level privacy is necessitated. We employ the pattern recognition power of neural networks, specifically Variational Auto-Encoders (VAE), to reduce the noise introduced by DP mechanisms such that accuracy is increased, while the privacy requirement is still satisfied. The system called VAE based Data Release (VDR) enables longitudinal release of location data. In addition, by limiting the number of location reports from any single user, we reduce the noise needed by DP mechanisms, while ensuring data utility is not compromised. As a post-processing step we propose statistical estimators to adjust density information to account for the fact that they are calculated on a subset of the actual data.

    Lastly, recommending a user the next-location to visit is fundamentally more challenging. When considering trajectories exhibiting short and non-repetitive spatial and temporal regularity, capturing user-user correlations requires learning sophisticated ML models that have high dimensionality in the intermediate layers of the neural networks. We propose a technique called Private Location Prediction (PLP). Central to our approach is the use of the skip-gram model, and its negative sampling technique. Our work is the first to propose differentially-private learning with skip-grams. In addition, we devise data grouping techniques within the skip-gram framework that pool together trajectories from multiple users in order to accelerate learning and improve model accuracy.

    Extensive experimental results on real datasets with heterogeneous characteristics show that our proposed approaches---SNH, VDR and PLP--- significantly outperform the state of the art.

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/7125668882

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Lizsl De Leon

    OutlookiCal
  • Career Internship Bootcamp: Get Connected - Tapping into the Hidden Job Market

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 02:00 PM - 02:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Spring 2022 Career & Internship Bootcamp
    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp on April 29th to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Learn how to build a professional network that increases your access to employment opportunities.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshop
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: HYBRID

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Career and Internship Bootcamp: Interview Tips to Help You Secure the Job

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Spring 2022 Career & Internship Bootcamp
    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp on April 29th to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Your resume will get you an interview, but your interview will land you the job.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshop
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: HYBRID

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • Career and Internship Bootcamp: Increase Your Salary - Negotiating Your Job Offer

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 04:00 PM - 04:30 PM

    Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections

    Workshops & Infosessions


    Spring 2022 Career & Internship Bootcamp
    Want to secure an internship or job? Participate in Career & Internship Bootcamp on April 29th to learn how to increase your chances of getting contacted for an interview, how to excel at interviews, and how to negotiate a higher salary.

    Session description: Learn the ins and outs of an offer, what is up for negotiation, and how to get the most out of your offer.

    Location: In-Person, RTH 211 & Online via Zoom

    Register on Viterbi Career Gateway > Workshop
    https://viterbi-usc-csm.symplicity.com/

    Location: HYBRID

    Audiences: All Viterbi

    Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections

    OutlookiCal
  • USC Makers Spring Show Case

    Fri, Apr 29, 2022 @ 05:30 PM - 07:30 PM

    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Student Activity


    On behalf of USC Makers, we would love to extend an invitation to our Spring 2022 Showcase, which will be taking place on Friday, April 29, at 5:30 PM PST. Showcase will be hybrid, taking place on campus at USC, but also filmed and posted to a Zoom stream. We encourage you to attend in-person, but if you aren't able to make it, feel free to hop onto the Zoom!

    Physical Location:
    Zumberge Hall of Science (Room 159)

    Virtual link:
    https://usc.zoom.us/j/95203533368

    We have 11 awesome projects that will be presenting their final products, including a self-playing drum set, robotic cooking arm, and a chord-based piano game. We will also have catered food for all attendees.

    We hope to see you there!

    More Information: Makers Showcase Inivitation.pdf

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

    WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95203533368

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: USC Makers

    OutlookiCal