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Events for the 2nd week of October
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 03, 2016 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Qifa Zhou, PhD,
Talk Title: Photoacoustic Imaging
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Ming Hsieh Institute Pioneer Series with George Bekey
Mon, Oct 03, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Receptions & Special Events
My research career at USC was characterized by variety. I have always had broad interests, and hence my research did not center in any one area for long periods. In this talk I will describe my wanderings from human-machine systems to hybrid analog-digital computing to biological control systems and finally to robotics. Of course, there were common threads in all these areas and I was successful in obtaining significant research funding in all of them. I will also highlight some of the more successful projects and the Ph.D. students who made this success possible.
Program
2:00pm Introduction & Welcome
2:05pm Technical talk by George Bekey, Professor of Electrical Engineering
2:50pm George Bekey in Conversation with Gaurav Sukhatme
3:35pm Reception - Light refreshments
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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EE 598 Cyber-Physical Systems Seminar Series
Mon, Oct 03, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Laith Shalalfeh, PhD Candidate, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Early-Warning Signals to Power System Blackouts
Abstract: The rapid deployment of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) can keep the smart grid in a secure and reliable state. The large amount of data collected from the power grid by PMUs requires new algorithms to detect abnormal and potentially catastrophic events. In this presentation, we introduce a novel method to assess the distance to blackout or other instability of the smart grid. Based on the existence of long-range correlation in the PMU data, we exhibit an increase in the frequency Hurst exponent before the blackout. The increase in the Hurst exponent is quantified by Kendall rank correlation coefficient, which is known as Kendall's tau. High Kendall's tau of the frequency Hurst exponent is proposed as an early-warning signal for power system blackout.
Biography: Laith Shalalfeh is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering department at the University of Southern California. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan in 2009, and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2012. His research interests include electric vehicles, load modeling, voltage collapse, smart grid, and phasor measurement units.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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USC Stem Cell Seminar: Fabio Rossi, University of British Columbia
Tue, Oct 04, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Fabio Rossi, University of British Columbia
Talk Title: TBD
Series: Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC Distinguished Speakers Series
Host: USC Stem Cell
More Info: http://stemcell.usc.edu/events
Webcast: http://keckmedia.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/StemCellSeminarWebCast Link: http://keckmedia.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/StemCellSeminar
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cristy Lytal/USC Stem Cell
Event Link: http://stemcell.usc.edu/events
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Preparing for the Engineering Career Fair
Tue, Oct 04, 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Students, make a great first impression at the Career Fair no matter what your class standing! You will learn how to optimize your time, approach employers, and prepare for this event.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Epstein Institute Seminar - ISE 651
Tue, Oct 04, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Anton Kleywegt, Ph.D., Associate Professor Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Distributionally Robust Stochastic Optimization Using Wasserstein Distance
Abstract: Distributionally robust stochastic optimization is an approach to optimization under uncertainty in which one hedges against a set of probability distributions, possibly taking into account available data. The talk considers a distributionally robust stochastic optimization problem that hedges against all probability distributions that are within a specified Wasserstein distance of a nominal distribution, for example, an empirical distribution obtained with data. We obtain a strong duality result, and we use it to derive a simple characterization of worst-case distributions in the Wasserstein ball. We use the results to study problems, including an on/off stochastic control problem, that would not make sense if one hedged against only an empirical distribution, but for which distributionally robust stochastic optimization formulations result in reasonable solutions.
Biography: Anton Kleywegt is an associate professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Kleywegt conducts research in optimization and stochastic modeling with applications in transportation, distribution, and logistics, especially in the following areas: vehicle routing and scheduling, inventory routing, distribution operations, fleet assignment, vendor managed inventory, distribution network design, yield management, terminal design and operations, logistics planning and control, multi-modal transportation, and intelligent transportation systems. He has also worked with Praxair, Columbian Chemicals Company, Delta Air Lines, Manhattan Associates, and The Home Depot on SCL projects in addressing logistics research in vendor managed inventory, fleet sizing and allocation, revenue management, scheduling of order picking, and distribution planning. Dr. Kleywegt received a Ph.D. from the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University in 1996 and joined the ISyE faculty this same year as an assistant professor.
Host: Dr. John Gunnar Carlsson
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Angela Reneau
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ASBME Abbott Info Session and Product Demo
Tue, Oct 04, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 07:20 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Jim Oesterling, Site Director of Manufacturing at Abbott Laboratories' Temecula branch, as well as some of his recruiting team will be visiting campus to discuss employment opportunities at Abbott as well as give more insight into what the company does and how it is organized. Abbott manufactures a wide variety of health products ranging from nutrition and diagnostics, to vascular therapies and diabetes control and employs students from a variety of majors including BME, ME, EE, and more. Jim and team will also be offering a product demo of some intervention devices from Abbott Vascular. We are excited to offer you this opportunity to learn more about the company and employment options, get your foot in the door, and give you all the tools you need to shine bright this recruiting season. Food will be provided and there will be a chance to mingle after the event as well. We hope to see you there!
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - B4
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering
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Accenture Technology Workshop
Tue, Oct 04, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Preparing for the Engineering Career Fair
Wed, Oct 05, 2016 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Students, make a great first impression at the Career Fair no matter what your class standing! You will learn how to optimize your time, approach employers, and prepare for this event.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Trojan Talk with Accenture
Wed, Oct 05, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives from Accenture as they talk about USC Viterbi Tech & Engineers in Consulting: Demystifying the Recruiting Process and Crushing The Case.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Biotechnology Lecture SeriesThu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Various, Amgen
Talk Title: R&D Insights from Lab Bench to Patient Bedside
Abstract: USC researchers have the opportunity to gain research and development insights with a new biotechnology lecture series sponsored by Amgen and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC.
The weekly lecture series, "R&D Insights from Lab Bench to Patient Bedside" takes place Thursdays at 10:30AM-12:00PM at USC's Health Sciences Campus from September 1, 2016 through November 10, 2016.
The talks will feature Amgen scientists speaking about:
Identifying a possible therapeutic target and its role in disease
Increasing therapeutic efficacy and safety
Process development, devices and manufacturing
Case studies from bench to clinic
Lectures will take place at the BCC First Floor Seminar Room or ZNI Herklotz Seminar Room.
RSVP at http://www.usc.edu/esvp (use code: amgenlecture). Space is limited. Preference will be given to SCRM master's students, PhDs, and postdocs, and attending all lectures is mandatory.
Please contact qliumich@usc.edu or karenw03@amgen.com for further details.
Host: USC Stem Cell/Amgen
More Info: https://calendar.usc.edu/event/biotechnology_lecture_series_rd_insights_from_lab_bench_to_patient_bedside?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=USC+Event+Calendar#.V8dKNLX8vW4
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cristy Lytal/USC Stem Cell
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Annual Cornelius Pings Lecture
Thu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Professor Rachel Segalman, University of California, Santa Barbara
Talk Title: Functional Materials from Polymerized Ionic Liquids
Host: Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 123
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Aleessa Atienza
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CS Colloquium: Rong Ge (Duke University) - Avoid Spurious Local Optima: Homotopy Method for Tensor PCA
Thu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Rong Ge, Duke University
Talk Title: Avoid Spurious Local Optima: Homotopy Method for Tensor PCA
Series: Yahoo! Labs Machine Learning Seminar Series
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium. Part of Yahoo! Labs Machine Learning Seminar Series.
Recently, several non-convex problems such as tensor decomposition, phase retrieval and matrix completion are shown to have no spurious local minima, which allows them to be solved by very simple local search algorithms. However, more complicated non-convex problems such as the Tensor PCA do have local optima that are not global, and previous results rely on techniques inspired by Sum-of-Squares hierarchy. In this work we show the commonly applied homotopy method, which tries to solve the optimization problem by considering different levels of "smoothing", can be applied to tensor PCA and achieve similar guarantees as the best known Sum-of-Squares algorithms. This is one of the first settings where local search algorithms are guaranteed to avoid spurious local optima even in high dimensions.
This is based on joint work with Yuan Deng (Duke University).
Biography: Rong Ge is an assistant professor at Duke computer science department. He got his Ph.D. in Princeton University and was a post-doc at Microsoft Research New England before joining Duke. Rong Ge is broadly interested in theoretical computer science and machine learning. His research focuses on designing algorithms with provable guarantees for machine learning problems, with applications to topic models, sparse coding and computational biology.
Host: Yan Liu
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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EE 598 Computer Engineering Seminar
Thu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Vivek Sarkar, Professor, Rice University
Talk Title: Software Challenges for Extreme Scale Systems, or how to play the End-Game for Moore's Law
Abstract: It is widely recognized that a major disruption is under way in computer hardware as processors strive to extend the end-game of Moore's Law by an increased reliance on parallelism and heterogeneity, leading to systems with thousands/millions/billions of processor cores at the node/rack/data-center levels. Unlike previous generations of hardware evolution, these "extreme scale" systems will have a profound impact on future software.
In this talk, we summarize experiences gained in the Habanero Extreme Scale Software Research Laboratory at Rice University in addressing the software challenges for extreme scale systems. Our overall approach is based on introducing a set of unified primitives for structured parallelism, which can be used to enable new advances in programming models, compilers, and runtime systems for future hardware. Some of these primitives have already influenced industry standards for parallelism including the doacross construct in OpenMP 4.5, the task blocks library for C++, and Java's Phaser library, as well as the open source Open Community Runtime (OCR) system project.
Biography: Vivek Sarkar is Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Rice University. He currently leads the Habanero Extreme Scale Software Research Laboratory at Rice University, and is PI of the DARPA-funded Pliny project on "big code" analytics. Prior to joining Rice in July 2007, Vivek was Senior Manager of Programming Technologies at IBM Research. His research projects at IBM included the X10 programming language, the Jikes Research Virtual Machine for the Java language, the ASTI optimizer used in IBM's XL Fortran product compilers, and the PTRAN automatic parallelization system. Vivek became a member of the IBM Academy of Technology in 1995, the E.D. Butcher Chair in Engineering at Rice University in 2007, and was inducted as an ACM
Fellow in 2008. Vivek has been serving as a member of the US Department of Energy's Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC) since 2009, and on CRA's Board of Directors since 2015.
Host: Xuehai Qian
Location: OHE 100D
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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j2 Global Inc. Information Session
Thu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Canada Information Session
Thu, Oct 06, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Interested in graduate studies in engineering or computer science?
Candidates with a strong academic background and a Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, or physical science (such as physics, biology, or chemistry) are welcome to attend an information session to learn more about applying to graduate engineering programs at the University of Southern California.
These events will be hosted by Mary Kae, Assistant Director for Graduate Recruitment at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Topics to be covered:
- Master's & Ph.D. Programs in Engineering and Computer Science
- How to Apply
- Scholarships and Funding
- Student Life at USC and in Los Angeles
- Application Tips
There will also be sufficient time for questions during the information session.
For questions about these events, please contact us at viterbi.gradprograms@usc.edu.
REGISTER NOWLocation: Varscona Hotel, Alberta, Canada
Audiences: Prospective students with a background in engineering, math or hard science
Contact: Mary Kae/Graduate and Professional Programs
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10th Annual USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 09:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Honored Guest and Keynote Speaker Mark Stevens, USC Stevens Center for Innovation
Talk Title: 10th Annual USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase
Abstract: The USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase is a USC student business competition promoting young entrepreneurs and their cutting-edge business ideas in all disciplines ranging from the arts and social sciences to engineering and medicine. During the daylong event, USC student teams present and pitch their startup ideas and prototypes to expert judges from the entrepreneur and investment communities as well as Trojan Family Weekend attendees to compete for thousands in USC-sponsored awards that can help to develop their ideas further. The most promising innovative student teams are selected as finalists to participate in an afternoon fast pitch round featuring 3-minute business pitches by each team to a panel of esteemed judges, and an awards ceremony for the winners.
This year's event will feature Honored Guest and Keynote Speaker Mark Stevens. Mr. Stevens is one of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists and benefactor to the USC Stevens Center for Innovation. All USC students, faculty, and staff are invited to join for Mr. Stevens' Keynote Speech at 12pm during the Showcase on Friday, October 7, 2016 on the lawn of the Allan Hancock Foundation Building (AHF).
All Trojan Family Weekend attendees (USC students, parents, faculty, staff) are welcome to attend this free event.
More information about the USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase can be found at: http://stevens.usc.edu/events/student-innovator-showcase. Questions can be directed to Peijean Tsai at peijeant@usc.edu.
Host: USC Stevens Center for Innovation
More Info: http://stevens.usc.edu/events/student-innovator-showcase
Location: Allan Hancock Foundation (AHF) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cristy Lytal/USC Stem Cell
Event Link: http://stevens.usc.edu/events/student-innovator-showcase
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AI Seminar-The Future is on Your Wrist: Challenges and Opportunities of Wearable Technologies
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Luca Foschini, Evidation Health
Talk Title: The Future is on Your Wrist: Challenges and Opportunities of Wearable Technologies
Series: Artificial Intelligence Seminar
Abstract: Wearable technologies have seen a tremendous development in recent years: step and calorie counters have long made their way to our phones and watches, and new consumer-grade sensors can now measure a breadth of physiological functions that until recently could only be found in the monitoring equipment of intensive care units. However, despite the undisputed short-term benefits due to the user increased awareness, quantifying the potential value of wearable technologies in improving longer-term health outcomes remains an open question. In this talk we will present evidence that activity tracking data contains a wealth of information that is predictive of metrics directly related to health outcomes, ranging from medication adherence to lifestyle. To this end, we will show how machine learning tools need to be adapted to take full advantage of densely sampled, multi-variate time series of tracker data. Finally, we will reflect on how the predictive power of wearable data can be harnessed to inform behavior change interventions, and how expertise in computer science, clinical medicine, and behavioral psychology will have to join forces to overcome obstacles in adoption, user engagement, and regulations.
Biography: As Co founder and Head of Data Science at Evidation Health, Luca Foschini PhD is responsible for data analytics, computing, research and development. Dr. Foschini has driven research collaborations with machine learning experts at NYU, behavioral economics departments at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School. Prior to this role, Dr. Foschini worked as R&D at Ask.com and was a visiting scholar at Google Research and ETH Zurich where he developed efficient algorithms for mining spatial data, partitioning large graphs, and detecting traffic anomalies in computer networks. He earned a PhD in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara focusing on traffic analysis in computer and road networks. He has published numerous papers in the broader area of computer science and he co-authored several patents in information clustering and behavior phenotyping. Dr. Foschini is an alumnus of the Sant'Anna School of Pisa, Italy
Host: Emilio Ferrara
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
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Techniques for Analysis of Folding Development in the Cerebral Cortex
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Rosita Shishegar, University of Melbourne
Talk Title: Techniques for Analysis of Folding Development in the Cerebral Cortex
Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series
Abstract: Gyrification describes the series of events through which the immature cortex develops from a smooth surface to a folded sheet. While there is considerable speculation about the biological mechanisms that underpin the formation of gyri and sulci, little known about the events that directly lead to folding. In this talk, Rosita Shishegar will introduce the open problems in understanding cortical gyrification and provide an overview of a research program aimed at expanding knowledge in this area through the longitudinal study of brain development in the fetal sheep. In particular, she will focus on tools for morphometric analysis of the structural and diffusion-weighted MRI data, and present a new gyrification index derived from Laplace Beltrami eigenfunction level sets that combines the strengths of surface-based and curvature-based gyrification metrics.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - B18
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia White
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IEEE@USC Google Tech Talk
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Join IEEE at USC for a talk from Brain Hui, a former USC EE PHD student and current Google software engineer to learn more about the recruitment process and what it feels like to work in Google!
Free food and Google Swag will be provided!
RSVP and share your resume with Google: http://goo.gl/GhGxYt
More Information: 10%2F7%2F16 - IEEE Tech Talk.pdf
Location: 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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[CANCELLED] Insider Recruiting Tips Workshop
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Unfortunately this workshop has been cancelled.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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IEEE@USC Google Tech Talk
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Join IEEE at USC for a talk from Brain Hui, a former USC EE PHD student and current Google software engineer to learn more about the recruitment process and what it feels like to work in Google!
Free food and Google Swag will be provided!
RSVP and share your resume with Google: http://goo.gl/GhGxYt
More Information: 10%2F7%2F16 - IEEE Tech Talk.pdf
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program Colloquium
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
Join us for a presentation by Professor. Craig Stark, Dept. of Neurobiology and Behavior, UC Irvine, titled "Using Neuroimaging to Understand How Memory Works".
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Julie Phaneuf
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Biomedical Engineering Speakers
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: TBA, TBA
Talk Title: TBA
Host: Brent Liu, PhD
Location: Corwin D. Denney Research Center (DRB) - 146
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Ming Hsieh Institute Seminar Series on Integrated Systems
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Prof. Sebastian Hoyos, Texas A&M University
Talk Title: Equalization Architectures for High Speed ADC-Based Serial I/O Receivers
Host: Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam
More Information: MHI Seminar Series IS - Sebastian_Hoyos_Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jenny Lin
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Ming Hsieh Institute CommNetS seminar
Fri, Oct 07, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mauro Da Lio, University of Trento
Talk Title: From vehicle dynamics to human-robot interactions
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: This seminar will provide a panorama of the main ideas of my main research line. I will start with the original problem of assessing the maneuverability of unstable vehicles - such as motorcycles - which was solved by imagining that these vehicles were driven "optimally". I will then introduce the (not surprising) discovery that minimum time optimal control of motorcycles matches the way trained race drivers actually drive. I will then shift to the problem of modeling which optimality criterion holds for ordinary drivers, introducing some theories about optimality of human control (in particular minimum jerk).
I will show the use of Optimal Control to model ideal ordinary drivers and its application to produce "reference maneuvers" used as gold standard in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, showing, in particular, the application of these ideas in the PReVENT project. I will then touch the problem of modelling human driver behavior when multiple choices are possible, reviewing the Simulation Hypothesis of Cognition and its implication for the inference of intentions of drivers (a process that in natural cognition is called mirroring - from mirror neuron theory - and which can also be considered as a "mother nature" version of model-based state estimation). I will show, in particular, the application of this mechanism in the EU InteractIVe project. I will review the notions of subsumption and layered control architecture and, in particular, the role of action selection, and finally introduce the notion of artificial (co)driver agents showing the current status of such an agent for the EU AdaptIVe project. In the conclusions I will introduce the Dreamn4Cars project and the related idea of using dream-like mechanisms to train the sensory-motor architecture of an artificial driver for rare situations developed as variations of real world (near miss) events.
Biography: I am professor of mechanical systems with the University of Trento, Italy. My initial research activity was focused on modeling and simulation of mechanical multibody systems, and on methods for generating the equations of motions symbolically. In particular, I developed symbolic models for vehicle and spacecraft dynamics and - exploiting the availability of symbolic equations - I worked on model-based control, and in particular Optimal Control. This was initially used to study the maneuverability and handling of motorcycles (which are unstable vehicles that cannot be studied otherwise in open loop) and later extended to the modeling of "optimal" drivers. More recently my focus shifted to the modeling of human sensory-motor control, in particular drivers and motor impaired people. In this framework, optimal control motor primitives are part of layered control architectures that can reproduce (to some extent) complex cognition and action-selection processes of humans. According to recent theories this in turn enables several possibilities for human-robot interactions.
Prior of academic carrier I worked for an off-shore oil research company in underwater robotics (an EU EUREKA project). I have been involved in several EU framework programme 6 and 7 projects (PReVENT, SAFERIDER, interactIVe, VERITAS, adaptIVe, No-Tremor) in the domains of Intelligent Vehicles and Virtual Physiological Humans. I am currently the coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 Dreams4Cars Research and Innovation Action: a 4.3M Euro collaborative project in the Robotics domain which aims at increasing the cognition abilities of artificial driving agents by means of an offline simulation mechanism broadly inspired to the dream states.
Host: Prof. Petros Ioannou
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/~ashutosn/CommNetS2016/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/~ashutosn/CommNetS2016/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start
