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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for the 4th week of October
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Information Session in Xi'an, China
Sun, Oct 16, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 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 Ray Xu, Director of the USC Viterbi Shanghai Office, and joined by Camillia Lee, Assistant Dean 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: The Westin Xi'an, Xi'an, China
Audiences: Prospective students with a background in engineering, math or hard science
Contact: Mary Kae/Graduate and Professional Programs
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Engineering Ventures, Innovation and LaunchMon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
University Calendar
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is an introductory course for scientists and engineers interested in learning the basics of developing and evaluating new investment and innovation opportunities.
The course will review lean startup concepts and methodologies, with a focus on customer discovery and value propositions. Participants will learn how to develop and validate business models to commercialize new technologies.
Additionally, the 3-day program will cover various financial, technological, and strategic assessment frameworks to evaluate and prioritize commercial opportunities. Evaluation frameworks will be discussed individually and integrated to provide a complete view of potential technology commercialization.
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is designed for scientific and engineering staff with 3 or more years of professional technical experience. Course participants do not need any advanced business experience or education.
For more information and to register, please visit https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/engineering-ventures-innovation-and-launch.Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paul Meadows, MS, USC BME, VP of Engineering, CTO-ImThera Medical, CEO Int Functional Electrical Stim Soc (IFESS)
Talk Title: TBA
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuanzhang Xiao, Northwestern University, Postdoctoral Fellow
Talk Title: Towards Efficient Electricity Markets For Smart Grid
Abstract: Electricity markets, as the major instrument in balancing supply and demand, have been crucial for the stability of current power systems. However, it is increasingly challenging for electricity markets to remain efficient as the power systems are transitioning into "smart grid", which is featured by a large number of distributed (renewable) energy sources. The challenges are faced by both the market designer (i.e., the independent system operator) and the market participants (i.e., energy suppliers). For the market designer, the challenge is to design market mechanisms that induce efficient outcomes without having to monitoring a large number of market participants. For the market participants, the challenge is to maximize their profits under incomplete knowledge about their opponents and uncertainty of their own renewable energy generation. Using tools from game theory, optimization, and reinforcement learning, we will present some of our works towards addressing these challenges.
Biography: Yuanzhang Xiao is a postdoctoral fellow in Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University. He is broadly interested in game theory, optimization, and learning, and their applications in designing cyber-physical systems. His recent focus has been smart grid. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 2014, and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University in 2006 and 2009.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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JPL Information Session
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
You're invited to a special engagement for students who are focusing on Engineering, Science, Computer Science, and other STEM related majors. Meet with our team and learn about the opportunities that are waiting for you at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Clark Construction Info Session
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Location: Gwynn Wilson Student Union (STU) - B6 Cardinal Conference Room
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Viterbi Major Spotlight-Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Students will hear from panelists regarding various career options with a biomedical engineering degree.
To register, click here https://myviterbi.usc.edu/vasa/?PostingID=1234567997.Location: 211
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: Diane Yoon
Event Link: https://myviterbi.usc.edu/vasa/?PostingID=1234567997
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Viterbi Major Spotlight-Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Oct 17, 2016 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Students will hear from panelists regarding various career options with a biomedical engineering degree.
To register, click here https://myviterbi.usc.edu/vasa/?PostingID=1234567997Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
University Calendar
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is an introductory course for scientists and engineers interested in learning the basics of developing and evaluating new investment and innovation opportunities.
The course will review lean startup concepts and methodologies, with a focus on customer discovery and value propositions. Participants will learn how to develop and validate business models to commercialize new technologies.
Additionally, the 3-day program will cover various financial, technological, and strategic assessment frameworks to evaluate and prioritize commercial opportunities. Evaluation frameworks will be discussed individually and integrated to provide a complete view of potential technology commercialization.
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is designed for scientific and engineering staff with 3 or more years of professional technical experience. Course participants do not need any advanced business experience or education.
For more information and to register, please visit https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/engineering-ventures-innovation-and-launch.Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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USC Stem Cell Seminar: Victor Corces, Emory University
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Victor Corces, Emory University
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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ISE 651 Epstein Institute Seminar
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Matthew Plumlee, Assistant Professor - University of Michigan
Talk Title: Bayesian calibration of complex systems: methods, applications, and lingering issues
Abstract: -“ Bayesian calibration is used to combine collected
experimental or observational data with existing
understanding. The popularity of this method is tied to several
features: it can incorporate unknown parameters, it can function
when the model is imperfect, and it offers both future prediction
and uncertainty quantification. This seminar will discuss the
general methods and some applications of Bayesian calibration
while challenging the current state-of-the-art science on the
topic. Chiefly, this talk will discuss a modeling framework that is
widely adopted but leaves the posterior of the parameter often
sub-optimally broad. There has been no generally accepted
alternatives to date. This presentation will illustrate how using
Bayesian calibration where the prior distribution on the bias
(potential model incorrectness) is orthogonal to the gradient of the
computer model. Problems associated with Bayesian calibration
are shown to be mitigated through analytic results in addition to example.
Biography: Matthew Plumlee received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the
Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the department Industrial and
Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests include statistical learning with
special emphasis on model calibration and uncertainty quantification. He received the Georgia Tech Sigma Xi
Best Dissertation Award and the Quality, Reliability and Statisitistic Best Student Paper Award from INFORMS.
His work has appeared in the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Technometrics.
Host: Dr. Jong-Shi Pang & Dr. Qiang Huang
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Angela Reneau
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Interviewing Strategies and Techniques
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Discover tips on how to prepare for both technical and behavioral interviews, as well as the proper steps for follow-up!
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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CS Colloquium: Keshav Pingali (UT Austin) - Parallel Programming Needs Data-centric Foundations
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Keshav Pingali , UT Austin
Talk Title: Parallel Programming Needs Data-centric Foundations
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium.
Multicore and manycore processors are now ubiquitous, but
parallel programming remains as difficult as it was 30-40 years ago. During this time, our community has explored many promising approaches including functional and dataflow languages, logic programming, and automatic parallelization using program analysis and restructuring, but none of these approaches has succeeded except in a few niche application areas.
In this talk, I will argue that these problems arise largely from the computation-centric foundations and abstractions that we currently use to think about parallelism. In their place, I will propose a novel data-centric foundation for parallel programming called the operator formulation in which algorithms are described in terms of actions on data. The operator formulation shows that a generalized form of data-parallelism called amorphous data-parallelism is ubiquitous even in complex, irregular applications such as mesh generation/refinement/partitioning and SAT solvers. Regular algorithms emerge as a special case of irregular ones,
and many application-specific optimization techniques can be generalized to a broader context. The operator formulation also leads to a structural analysis of algorithms called TAO-analysis that provides implementation guidelines for exploiting parallelism efficiently. Finally, I will describe a system called Galois based on these ideas for exploiting amorphous data-parallelism on multicores and GPUs.
Biography: Keshav Pingali is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, and he holds the W.A."Tex" Moncrief Chair of Computing in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) at UT Austin. He was on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University from 1986 to 2006, where he held the India Chair of Computer Science.
Pingali is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM and the AAAS. He was the co-Editor-in-chief of the ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, and currently serves on the editorial boards of the ACM Transactions on Parallel Computing, International Journal of Parallel Programming and Distributed Computing. He has also served on the NSF CISE Advisory Committee.
Host: Chao Wang
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Phillips 66 Information Session
Tue, Oct 18, 2016 @ 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join Phillips 66 as they provide an overview company presentation and summer internship opportunities.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Executive Education
University Calendar
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is an introductory course for scientists and engineers interested in learning the basics of developing and evaluating new investment and innovation opportunities.
The course will review lean startup concepts and methodologies, with a focus on customer discovery and value propositions. Participants will learn how to develop and validate business models to commercialize new technologies.
Additionally, the 3-day program will cover various financial, technological, and strategic assessment frameworks to evaluate and prioritize commercial opportunities. Evaluation frameworks will be discussed individually and integrated to provide a complete view of potential technology commercialization.
Engineering Ventures, Innovation and Launch is designed for scientific and engineering staff with 3 or more years of professional technical experience. Course participants do not need any advanced business experience or education.
For more information and to register, please visit https://gapp.usc.edu/professional-programs/short-courses/engineering-ventures-innovation-and-launch.Audiences: Registered Attendees
Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
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15th Annual BioResearch Product Faire
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Workshops & Infosessions
You and the researchers in your department are invited to our 15th Annual BioResearch Product Faire coming to the University of Southern California.
Stop by the free event to:
-network with other researchers
-view product demonstrations
-connect with industry experts
-discover new research tools
-learn troubleshooting skills
-hear about laboratory services
-learn about career opportunities
-enjoy an extensive buffet of refreshments
Using the right tools for your research saves you time at the bench.Location: Eli & Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Resch. (BCC) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Cristy Lytal/USC Stem Cell
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MHI CommNetS Seminar
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Amir Salimi, N/A
Talk Title: Generalized cut-set bounds and Symmetrical Projections of Entropy region
Series: CommNetS
Abstract: In this talk, we show two combinatorial optimization problems, which arise from network information theory. Many multi-terminal communication networks, content delivery networks, cache networks and distributed storage systems, can be modeled as a broadcast network. An explicit characterization of the capacity region of the general network coding problem is one of the best known open problems in network information theory. A simple set of bounds that are often used in the literature to show that certain rate tuples are infeasible are based on the graph-theoretic notion of cut. The standard cut-set bounds, however, are known to be loose in general when there are multiple messages to be communicated in the network. A new set of explicit network coding bounds, which combine different simple cuts of the network via a variety of set operations (not just the union), are established via their connections to extremal inequalities for submodular functions.
Moreover, it is known that there is a direct relationship between network coding solution and characterization of entropy region. We talk about the symmetric structures in network coding problems and their relation with symmetrical projections of entropy region and introduce new aspects of entropy inequalities. First, inequalities relating average joint entropies rather than entropies over individual subsets are studied. Second, the existence of non-Shannon type inequalities under partial symmetry is studied using the concepts of Shannon and non-Shannon groups.
Host: Prof. Ashutosh Nayyar
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
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CAIS Seminar: Stefano Ermon (Stanford) - Measuring Progress towards Sustainable Development Goals with Machine Learning
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Stefano Ermon, Stanford University
Talk Title: Measuring Progress towards Sustainable Development Goals with Machine Learning
Series: Center for AI in Society (CAIS) Seminar Series
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium.
Recent technological developments are creating new spatio-temporal data streams that contain a wealth of information relevant to sustainable development goals. Modern AI techniques have the potential to yield accurate, inexpensive, and highly scalable models to inform research and policy. As a first example, I will present a machine learning method we developed to predict and map poverty in developing countries. Our method can reliably predict economic well-being using only high-resolution satellite imagery. Because images are passively collected in every corner of the world, our method can provide timely and accurate measurements in a very scalable end economic way, and could revolutionize efforts towards global poverty eradication. As a second example, I will present some ongoing work on monitoring agricultural and food security outcomes from space.
Biography: Stefano Ermon is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he is affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Woods Institute for the Environment. He completed his PhD in computer science at Cornell in 2015. His research interests include techniques for scalable and accurate inference in graphical models, statistical modeling of data, large-scale combinatorial optimization, and robust decision making under uncertainty, and is motivated by a range of applications, in particular ones in the emerging field of computational sustainability. Stefano has won several awards, including two Best Student Paper Awards, one Runner-Up Prize, and a McMullen Fellowship.
Host: Milind Tambe
Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CANCELLED- Paypal Information Session and Panel
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 05:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
This Session has been cancelled.
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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A Conversation with Christopher Cool: Project Management and Careers at Northrop Grumman
Wed, Oct 19, 2016 @ 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
The IISE Student Chapter at USC and the LA-OC Professional Chapter are co-hosting an incredible event with the talented Christopher B. Cool.
Mr. Cool is vice president, Operations Optimization for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, a premier provider of manned and unmanned aircraft, space systems, and advanced technologies critical to our nation's security.
Mr. Cool will be speaking on his extensive experience in Project
Management and his inspiring career path. Mr. Katbamna, the Director of the Industrial Engineering Department, will also be joining us. He will provide information on job and career opportunities in the department at Northrop Grumman.
Please come in "dressy casual." We can't wait to see you all there!Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 200
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: USC Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers
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Biotechnology Lecture Series
Thu, Oct 20, 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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PhD Defense - Jiaping Zhao
Thu, Oct 20, 2016 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Title: Toward situation awareness: activity and object recognition
Time: Oct. 20 (Thursday), 10am ~ 12pm
Location: HNB 107
PhD Candidate: Jiaping Zhao
Committee:
Laurent Itti (chair)
Aiichiro Nakano
Bartlett Mel
Abstract:
Situation awareness focuses on modelling and understanding the user's environment, and helps the user to be aware of his current situation and anticipate future events. Often, situation awareness is divided into three levels: environmental perception, situation understanding and cognitive assistance. Here, we focus on the second level -"situation understanding", to understand the user's situation by analyzing and interpreting the perceived data.
Nowadays, mobile devices with embedded IMU sensors and cameras are ubiquitous: IMU sensors capture streams of acceleration and angular speed records, while camera records video streams. The former steams are multi-variate time series, while the latter are image sequences. At current stages, we analyze time series and image frames separately to understand the user's situation: concretely, we infer user's current activities from time series, while recognize objects from images.
First, we address activity recognition from time series. Activity recognition is naturally formulated as a time series classification problem. To achieve this goal, we developed several algorithms trying to address existing problems. First, we introduced a time series segmentation algorithm, which decomposes heterogeneous time series into homogenous segments. Then we proposed a new sequence alignment algorithm, named shapeDTW, which improves the traditional dynamic time warping (DTW) alignment by taking local temporal shapes into account. To better compare the similarity between temporal sequences, we proposed to learn multiple local distance metrics, and the measured DTW distance under the learned metrics, instead of under the default Euclidean metric, performs significantly for time series classification.
Then we did object recognition from natural images. Although contemporary deep convolutional networks advanced objection recognition by a big step, the underneath mechanism is still largely unclear. Here, we attempted to explore the mechanism of object recognition using a large-scale image dataset, iLab20M, which contains 20 million images shot under controlled turntable settings. Compared with the ImageNet dataset, iLab20M is parametric, with detailed pose and lighting information for each image. Here we showed the auxiliary information could benefit object recognition. First, we formulate object recognition in a CNN-based multi-task learning framework, designed a specific skip connection pattern, and showed its superiority to single task learning theoretically and empirically. Moreover, we introduced an two-stream CNN architecture, which disentangles object identity from its instantiation factors (e.g., pose, lighting), and learned more discriminative identity representations. We experimentally showed that the learned feature from iLab20M generalizes well to other datasets, including ImageNet and Washington RGB-D.
Location: 107
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Lizsl De Leon
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CS Colloquium and RASC seminar: Ali Agha (Caltech, JPL) - Quantifiably safe robot motion planning under motion and sensing uncertainty
Thu, Oct 20, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ali Agha, Caltech, JPL
Talk Title: Quantifiably safe robot motion planning under motion and sensing uncertainty
Series: RASC Seminar Series
Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium.
Planning robot motions amidst obstacles, while actively enhancing localization, is a key component for true autonomy. With a growing number of autonomous robots and safety-critical applications, it is of paramount importance to design planners with the ability to guarantee and quantify the system's safety. In this talk, we explore planning methods that reason about the acquisition of future perceptual knowledge and incorporate this knowledge in planning to accurately quantify the success probability and safety of the plan. In particular, I present a planning framework under motion and sensing uncertainty, called Feedback-based Information RoadMap (FIRM). FIRM is a multi-query graph in belief space (space of probability distributions), which can be viewed as the belief space variant of the celebrated PRM (probabilistic roadmap). Each node of FIRM is a belief. Each edge (belief-to-belief transition) is realized via composition of closed-loop controllers that behave like funnels in belief space. We also discuss the feedback nature and scalability of the generated plan. We will demonstrate this approach in the context of robot navigation in indoor GPS-denied environments.
Biography: Ali-Akbar Agha-Mohammadi is a Robotics Research Technologist at NASA JPL/California Institute of Technology. Previously, he was a research engineer at Qualcomm Research and a post-doctoral researcher at LIDS/ACL at MIT. He has received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Texas A&M. He also holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering (Control Systems). His research interests include robotics, stochastic systems, control systems, estimation, and filtering theory.
Host: CS Department
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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Preparing for Technical Interviews
Thu, Oct 20, 2016 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join Electronic Arts Representatives as they go over insider tips on technical interviewing as well as the best strategies for success.
Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 201
Audiences: Viterbi CSCI & CECS Majors
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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EE 598 Computer Engineering Seminar
Thu, Oct 20, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Subhasish Mitra, Professor, Stanford University
Talk Title: Robust Systems: From Today to the N3XT 1,000X
Abstract: Today's mainstream electronic systems typically assume that transistors and interconnects operate correctly over their useful lifetime. With enormous complexity and significantly increased vulnerability to failures compared to the past, future system designs cannot rely on such assumptions. At the same time, there is explosive growth in our dependency on such systems.
Robust system design is essential to ensure that future systems perform correctly despite rising complexity and increasing disturbances. For coming generations of silicon technologies, several causes of hardware failures, largely benign in the past, are becoming significant at the system-level. Furthermore, emerging nanotechnologies such as carbon nanotubes are inherently highly subject to imperfections. Such Nano-Engineered Computing Systems Technologies (N3XT) are key to building transformative nanosystems since future computing demands far exceed the capabilities of today's electronics.
This talk will address the following major robust system design goals:
• New approaches to thorough test and validation that scale with tremendous growth in complexity.
• Cost-effective tolerance and prediction of failures in hardware during system operation.
• A practical way to build nanosystems that can overcome substantial inherent imperfections in emerging nanotechnologies and deliver three orders of magnitude energy efficiency improvements for future data-intensive applications.
Significant recent progress in robust system design impacts almost every aspect of future systems, from ultra-large-scale networked systems all the way to their nanoscale components.
Biography: Professor Subhasish Mitra directs the Robust Systems Group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science of Stanford University, where he is the Chambers Faculty Scholar of Engineering. Before joining Stanford, he was a Principal Engineer at Intel.
Prof. Mitra's research interests include robust systems, VLSI design, CAD, validation and test, nanosystems, and neurosciences. His X-Compact technique for test compression has been key to cost-effective manufacturing and high-quality testing of a vast majority of electronic systems, including numerous Intel products. X-Compact and its derivatives have been implemented in widely-used commercial Electronic Design Automation tools. He, jointly with his students and collaborators, demonstrated the first carbon nanotube computer, and it was featured on the cover of NATURE. The US NSF presented this work as a Research Highlight to the US Congress, and it also was highlighted as "an important, scientific breakthrough" by the BBC, Economist, EE Times, IEEE Spectrum, MIT Technology Review, National Public Radio, New York Times, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and numerous others worldwide.
Prof. Mitra's honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House, the highest US honor for early-career outstanding scientists and engineers, the ACM SIGDA/IEEE CEDA A. Richard Newton Technical Impact Award in Electronic Design Automation, "a test of time honor" for an outstanding technical contribution, the Semiconductor Research Corporation's Technical Excellence Award, and the Intel Achievement Award, Intel's highest corporate honor. He and his students published several award-winning papers at major venues: IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference, IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, IEEE International Test Conference, IEEE Transactions on CAD, IEEE VLSI Test Symposium, Intel Design and Test Technology Conference, and the Symposium on VLSI Technology. At Stanford, he has been honored several times by graduating seniors "for being important to them during their time at Stanford."
Prof. Mitra has served on numerous conference committees and journal editorial boards. He served on DARPA's Information Science and Technology Board as an invited member. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE.
Host: Xuehai Qian
Location: OHE 100D
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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EA Tech Talk
Thu, Oct 20, 2016 @ 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Information Session in Beijing, China
Thu, Oct 20, 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 Ray Xu, Director of the USC Viterbi Shanghai Office, and joined by Camillia Lee, Assistant Dean 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: Crowne Plaza Beijing Zhongguancun, Beijing, China
Audiences: Prospective students with a background in engineering, math or hard science
Contact: Mary Kae/Graduate and Professional Programs
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program Colloquium
Fri, Oct 21, 2016 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
Join us for a presentation by Colette Lohr, Mars Surface Uplink Systems Engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, titled "Operating Mars Rovers- This is How We Roll."
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Julie Phaneuf
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Biomedical Engineering Speakers
Fri, Oct 21, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Pak Kin Wong, PhD, Professor, Penn State, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Talk Title: A Systems Bioengineering Framework for Probing Collective Cell Migration
Series: Distinguished Speaker Series, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Abstract: Collective cell migration is a fundamental multicellular activity that plays essential roles in numerous physiological and pathological processes, such as tissue development, regeneration, and cancer metastasis. Proper coordination of cells, for instance, is required to repair damaged tissues in which cells crawl collectively atop exposed extracellular matrix following injury. The collective migration mechanisms responsible for tissue development are also utilized in the invasion and metastasis of malignant tumors. Despite its significance, the fundamental processes that drive collective cell migration, such as leader cell formation and multicellular cooperativity, remain poorly understood. To elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing collective cell migration, my laboratory is developing a single molecule biosensor for dynamic multigene analysis in complex tissue environments. By integrating the single molecule biosensor with microengineered 3D tissue models, single cell photothermal ablation, biomechanical analysis, and agent-based computational modeling, we establish a systems bioengineering framework for probing collective cell migration. Using the systems bioengineering framework, we reveal that the formation of leader cells during collective migration is dynamically regulated by Dll4 signaling through both Notch1 and intercellular tension. Our finding provides a molecular basis for the stochastic emergence of leader cells, which may enable novel approaches in regenerative medicine, wound healing and anti-metastasis therapy in the future.
Biography: Pak Kin Wong is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Surgery at the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to Penn State, Dr. Wong was an Associate Professor in the Departments of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and a member of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005. He is an editor of Scientific Reports, IEEE Transaction on Nanotechnology, IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine, and Journal of Laboratory Automation. He organizes numerous international conferences, including serving as the General Co-Chair of IEEE NEMS 2017 in Los Angeles CA. His current research interest focuses on collective cell migration and clinical diagnostics. He has published 90 peer-reviewed journal articles in the area of nanotechnology and biomedical engineering, and is an inventor of two patents. Among other honors, Dr. Wong was awarded the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in 2010, Arizona Engineering Faculty Fellow in 2011, AAFSAA outstanding Faculty Award in 2013, and JALA 10 -“ A Top 10 Breakthrough in Innovation in 2015.
Host: Keyue Shen, PhD
More Information: Pak Kin Wong - flyer (2).pdf
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 21, 2016 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Brian Ginsburg, RF Design Manager, Texas Instruments
Talk Title: Compact mm-Wave Imaging and Sensing
Host: Prof. Hossein Hashemi, Prof. Mike Chen, and Prof. Mahta Moghaddam
More Information: MHI Seminar Series IS - Brian_Ginsburg_Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Jenny Lin
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NL Seminar
Fri, Oct 21, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Marjan Ghazvininejad, USC/ISI
Talk Title: EMNLP PRACTICE TALK. 1. GENERATING TOPICAL POETRY And 2. UNSUPERVISED NEURAL HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS
Series: Natural Language Seminar
Abstract: 1. In this talk I describe Hafez, a program that generates any number of distinct poems on a user-supplied topic. Poems obey rhythmic and rhyme constraints. I describe the poetry-generation algorithm, give experimental data concerning its parameters, and show its generality with respect to language and poetic form. 2. In this work, we present the first results for neuralizing an Unsupervised Hidden Markov Model. We evaluate our approach on tag induction. Our approach outperforms existing generative models and is competitive with the state-of-the-art though with a simpler model easily extended to include additional context.
Biography: Marjan Ghazvininejad is a PhD student at ISI working with Prof. Kevin Knight. Yonatan Bisk is a Postdoc at ISI working with Prof. Daniel Marcu.
Host: Xing Shi and Kevin Knight
More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 6th Floor -CR # 689; ISI-Marina del Rey
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Peter Zamar
Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Oct 21, 2016 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: JiachenZhang and Adam Keen , Astani CEE Ph.D. Candidates
Talk Title: Revisiting the climate impacts of cool roofs around the globe using an Earth system model, and Fragility of Floating Docks for Small Craft Marinas
Abstract: See attached
Revisiting the climate impacts of cool roofs around the globe using an Earth system model
AND
Fragility of Floating Docks for Small Craft Marinas
More Information: October 21 CEE-PhD Seminar.pdf
Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Information Session in Wuhan, China
Fri, Oct 21, 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 Ray Xu, Director of the USC Viterbi Shanghai Office, and joined by Camillia Lee, Assistant Dean 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: Ramada Plaza Optics Valley Wuhan, Wuhan, China
Audiences: Prospective students with a background in engineering, math or hard science
Contact: Mary Kae/Graduate and Professional Programs
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Information Session in Nanjing, China
Sat, Oct 22, 2016 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 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 Ray Xu, Director of the USC Viterbi Shanghai Office, and joined by Camillia Lee, Assistant Dean 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: The Westin Nanjing, Nanjing, China
Audiences: Prospective students with a background in engineering, math or hard science
Contact: Mary Kae/Graduate and Professional Programs
