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Events for the 1st week of November
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Communications Hub: Writing and Speaking for PhD Students - Drop In Hours
Mon, Oct 30, 2023 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. Students!
Need help with academic and professional writing and speaking tasks? Viterbi faculty at the Hub provide one-on-one help with journal and conference articles, dissertations, fellowship applications, and career communications!
Drop by RTH 222A on MWF 10am-1pm or make an online appointment via email at eishub@usc.edu.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Graduate
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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ECE Study Mixer
Mon, Oct 30, 2023 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Student Activity
All Viterbi ECE Students are invited! Socialize and study with your peers from ECE, grab FREE PIZZA AND BAGELS, and have fun with the Viterbi Learning Program (VLP)!
RSVP Today: https://cglink.me/2nB/r393181Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r393181
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Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition
Tue, Oct 31, 2023
Viterbi Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Student Activity
MEPC is accepting applications!
The 2023-2024 Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition (MEPC) season has officially begun.
We are currently accepting applications until Monday, November 6, 2023 @ 11:59pm.
All USC students are invited to participate, although each team must have at least one current Viterbi student (undergrad or grad). The maximum number of team members is 5.
Each team will participate in educational sessions, workshops, and meetings with mentors throughout the academic year. This year's MEPC programming will begin with a Kickoff on December 7, 2023.
https://viterbiinnovation.usc.edu/competitions-and-programs/mepc/Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi TIE
Event Link: https://viterbiinnovation.usc.edu/competitions-and-programs/mepc/
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PhD Thesis Proposal - Avijit Thawani
Tue, Oct 31, 2023 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Thesis Proposal - Avijit Thawani
Committee Members: Jay Pujara (advisor), Dani Yogatama, Swabha Swayamdipta, Aiichiro Nakano, Gerard Hoberg
Title: Tokenisation in Language Models: numeracy and beyond
Abstract: The first step for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT is to convert text (that humans understand) into indices (that models do). This crucial phase in the Language Modeling pipeline has unfortunately been understudied and is currently achieved by subword segmentation, a manually engineered set of heuristics. We deep dive into case studies where these heuristics fail and our proposed improvements: for example when representing numbers in text, as well as multi-word phrases. Finally, we present an end-to-end tokenized language model that understands both words and numbers better than subwords without any manually engineered heuristic. It also outperforms character-level tokenisation, promising up to 4/6x speed up in inference and training respectivelyLocation: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 110
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Melissa Ochoa
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Oct 31, 2023 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Haihao Lu, Assistant Professor, Department of Operations Management, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Talk Title: Scale up Constrained Continuous Optimization with First-Order Methods
Host: Dr. Meisam Razaviyayn
More Information: October 31, 2023.pdf
Location: SOS Building, B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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Tsinghua Undergraduate Research Program - App Open
Wed, Nov 01, 2023 @ 09:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
University Calendar
Live, Study and Research in Beijing this Summer! You are invited to apply to the USC Viterbi & Tsinghua University Undergraduate Summer Research Program! The Tsinghua Undergraduate Research Program allows Viterbi students to participate in research with faculty on-campus for the summer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Students are assigned to a lab and have an assigned Tsinghua student partner. Participants work 30 hours a week doing hands-on research in their assigned lab. During the program students will gain exposure to China and Chinese culture with opportunities to learn more about the country, culture and research approaches. Program Highlights include: Welcome Reception & Campus Tour On-Campus, Dormitory-Style Accommodations 6-7 Weeks over the summer Stipend for visa, airfare, housing, and living expenses 30 Hours per week in research lab Program dates for Summer 2024 are July 1 – August 11, 2024. The application and letter of recommendation deadline is December 1, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. PST. For more information and to apply, please visit the program website.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) -
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://studenttravelabroad.usc.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=10063
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CURVE Spring 2024 Application Now Open
Wed, Nov 01, 2023 @ 09:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
University Calendar
Spring 2024 CURVE Fellowship Applications Open The Center for Undergraduate Research in Viterbi Engineering (CURVE) provides a centralized resource for undergraduate students to explore research opportunities in Viterbi early on in their undergraduate career. Students will be given the opportunity to gain experience on a faculty-led research project. Selected CURVE fellows will be provided with a stipend to aid students in the pursuit of research. CURVE will be offering a limited number of fellowship positions for the spring 2024 semester. Application for the 2024 spring semester is now open until Sunday, November 26, 2023. Priority is granted for first-time researchers who have not been previous recipients of the CURVE fellowship. Please visit the CURVE website for additional details. For questions, please contact viterbi.studentservices@usc.edu
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) -
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://viterbiundergrad.usc.edu/research/curve/
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Communications Hub: Writing and Speaking for PhD Students - Drop In Hours
Wed, Nov 01, 2023 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. Students!
Need help with academic and professional writing and speaking tasks? Viterbi faculty at the Hub provide one-on-one help with journal and conference articles, dissertations, fellowship applications, and career communications!
Drop by RTH 222A on MWF 10am-1pm or make an online appointment via email at eishub@usc.edu.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Graduate
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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CS Colloquium: Fei Miao - Learning and Control for Safety, Efficiency, and Resiliency of Embodied AI
Wed, Nov 01, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Fei Miao, University of Connecticut
Talk Title: Learning and Control for Safety, Efficiency, and Resiliency of Embodied AI
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: With rapid evolution of sensing, communication, and computation, integrating learning and control presents significant Embodied AI opportunities. However, current decision-making frameworks lack comprehensive understanding of the tridirectional relationship among communication, learning and control, posing challenges for multi-agent systems in complex environments. In the first part of the talk, we focus on learning and control with communication capabilities. We design an uncertainty quantification method for collaborative perception in connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). Our findings demonstrate that communication among multiple agents can enhance object detection accuracy and reduce uncertainty. Building upon this, we develop a safe and scalable deep multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) framework that leverages shared information among agents to improve system safety and efficiency. We validate the benefits of communication in MARL, particularly in the context of CAVs in challenging mixed traffic scenarios. We incentivize agents to communicate and coordinate with a novel reward reallocation scheme based on Shapley value for MARL. Additionally, we present our theoretical analysis of robust MARL methods under state uncertainties, such as uncertainty quantification in the perception modules or worst-case adversarial state perturbations. In the second part of the talk, we briefly outline our research contributions on robust MARL and data-driven robust optimization for sustainable mobility. We also highlight our research results concerning CPS security. Through our findings, we aim to advance Embodied AI and CPS for safety, efficiency, and resiliency in dynamic environments.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Fei Miao is Pratt & Whitney Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, a Courtesy Faculty of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Connecticut, where she joined in 2017. She is affiliated to the Institute of Advanced Systems Engineering and Eversource Energy Center. She was a postdoc researcher at the GRASP Lab and the PRECISE Lab of Upenn from 2016 to 2017. She received Ph.D. degree and the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in Electrical and Systems Engineering, with a dual M.S. degree in Statistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. She received the B.S. degree in Automation from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2010. Her research focuses on multi-agent reinforcement learning, robust optimization, uncertainty quantification, and game theory, to address safety, efficiency, robustness, and security challenges of Embodied AI and CPS, for systems such as connected autonomous vehicles, sustainable and intelligent transportation systems, and smart cities. Dr. Miao is a receipt of the NSF CAREER award and a couple of other awards from NSF. She received the Best Paper Award and Best Paper Award Finalist at the 12th and 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS) in 2021 and 2015, Best paper Award at the 2023 AAAI DACC workshop, respectively.
Host: Heather Culbertson
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Melissa Ochoa
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AME Seminar
Wed, Nov 01, 2023 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nikhil Admal, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: TBD
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98121141178?pwd=VGEyaXVWYnRaazFYWUVhbVAycGVWQT09 Meeting ID: 981 2114 1178 Passcode: NhXrDOqQU8Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 202
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98121141178?pwd=VGEyaXVWYnRaazFYWUVhbVAycGVWQT09 Meeting ID: 981 2114 1178 Passcode: NhXrDOqQU8
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
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Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition
Thu, Nov 02, 2023
Viterbi Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Student Activity
MEPC is accepting applications!
The 2023-2024 Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition (MEPC) season has officially begun.
We are currently accepting applications until Monday, November 6, 2023 @ 11:59pm.
All USC students are invited to participate, although each team must have at least one current Viterbi student (undergrad or grad). The maximum number of team members is 5.
Each team will participate in educational sessions, workshops, and meetings with mentors throughout the academic year. This year's MEPC programming will begin with a Kickoff on December 7, 2023.
https://viterbiinnovation.usc.edu/competitions-and-programs/mepc/Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi TIE
Event Link: https://viterbiinnovation.usc.edu/competitions-and-programs/mepc/
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NL Seminar- What We Learned from 570K ChatGPT Interaction Logs In The Wild
Thu, Nov 02, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Wenting Zhao, Cornell University
Talk Title: What We Learned from 570K ChatGPT Interaction Logs In The Wild
Series: NL Seminar
Abstract: Reminder: Meeting hosts only admit guests that they know to the Zoom meeting. Hence, you are highly encouraged to use your USC account to sign into Zoom. If you are an outside visitor, please inform us at nlg DASH seminar DASH host AT isi DOT edu beforehand so we will be aware of your attendance and let you in. In-person attendance will be permitted for USC/ISI faculty, staff, students only. Open to the public virtually via the zoom link. More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/ Chatbots such as GPT 4 and ChatGPT are currently serving millions of users. Despite their widespread use, there remains a lack of public datasets that showcase how these tools are used by users in practice. In this talk, I will introduce in the WildChat, a corpus of 570K user ChatGPT conversations, which comprises over 1.5 million interaction turns. I will show that, compared to other popular user-chatbot interaction datasets, WildChat offers the most diverse user prompts and presents the richest variety of potentially toxic use-cases. Finally, I will demonstrate the potential utility of this dataset in fine-tuning state-of-the-art instruction following models.
Biography: Wenting Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Cornell University. Her research focuses on improving reasoning capabilities of large language models by exploiting explicit problem structures. She organizes an ACL tutorial on complex reasoning over Natural Language and the second workshop on Natural Language Reasoning and Structured Explanations. She has done internships at IBM Research, Amazon Alexa, and AI2 Mosaic.
Host: Jon May and Justin Cho
More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: https://youtu.be/lx1XcTdhalULocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual and ISI-Conf Rm#689
WebCast Link: https://youtu.be/lx1XcTdhalU
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Adaptive Attention: Bringing Active Vision into the Camera - Prof. Sanjeev Koppal
Thu, Nov 02, 2023 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sanjeev Koppal, University of Florida
Talk Title: Adaptive Attention: Bringing Active Vision into the Camera
Abstract: Most cameras today capture images without considering scene content. In contrast, animal eyes have fast mechanical movements that control how the scene is imaged in detail by the fovea, where visual acuity is highest. The prevalence of active vision during biological imaging, and the wide variety of it, makes it very clear that this is an effective visual design strategy. In this talk, I cover our recent work on creating *both* new camera designs and novel vision algorithms to enable adaptive and selective active vision and imaging inside cameras and sensors.
Biography: Sanjeev J. Koppal is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and is a Kent and Linda Fuchs Faculty Fellow. He also holds a UF Term Professorship for 2021-23. Sanjeev is the Director of the FOCUS Lab at UF. Since 2022, Sanjeev has been an Amazon Scholar with Amazon Robotics. Prior to joining UF, he was a researcher at the Texas Instruments Imaging R&D lab. Sanjeev obtained his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. After CMU, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Southern California in 2003 as a Trustee Scholar. He is a co-author on best student paper awards for ECCV 2016 and NEMS 2018, and work from his FOCUS lab was a CVPR 2019 best-paper finalist. Sanjeev won an NSF CAREER award in 2020 and is an IEEE Senior Member and an Optica Senior Member. His interests span computer vision, computational photography and optics, novel cameras and sensors, 3D reconstruction, physics-based vision, and active illumination
Host: Gaurav S. Sukhatme
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Melissa Ochoa
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Fall Viterbi Homecoming Networking Event
Thu, Nov 02, 2023 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Receptions & Special Events
Join us for the Fall 2023 Homecoming Networking Event on November 2, 2023! Don't miss out – there are only a few spots left.
Connect with Viterbi Alumni and industry professionals to gain insights into various employers, explore diverse industries, receive valuable advice from recruiters and engineers, and even have the opportunity to arrange informational interviews.
Plus, we've got a special treat for you – food will be provided!
Hurry, the registration deadline is October 27, 2023. Register today!
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm PST
Location: Epstein Family Plaza
Organizations Represented by Participating Employers & Alumni
Amazon, Boeing, Disney, McKinsey & Company, Turner Construction, and much more
How to Register:
Login to Viterbi Career Gateway
Go to Events > “Fall 2023 Viterbi Homecoming Networking Event.”
View the details and logistics of this event on our website.Location: Epstein Family Plaza
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/employers/engage/networkingevent/
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Intro to Blockchain Hands-On-Workshop
Thu, Nov 02, 2023 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Join us for a hands-on workshop with Blockchain@USC to learn about blockchain in the world today. Create your own metamask wallet!
Location: Sign into EngageSC to View Location
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Thelma Federico Zaragoza
Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/WIE/rsvp?id=393345
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Preview Day
Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 09:00 AM - 03:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Preview Day is the annual visitation day for students interested in pursuing a Masters or PhD at USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Location: Town and Gown
Audiences: Prospective Viterbi Graduate Students
Contact: Maria Sandone
Event Link: https://viterbigradadmission.usc.edu/events/mspreview/
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Communications Hub: Writing and Speaking for PhD Students - Drop In Hours
Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. Students!
Need help with academic and professional writing and speaking tasks? Viterbi faculty at the Hub provide one-on-one help with journal and conference articles, dissertations, fellowship applications, and career communications!
Drop by RTH 222A on MWF 10am-1pm or make an online appointment via email at eishub@usc.edu.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Graduate
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series
Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Heather Clark, Director of the School for Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University
Talk Title: "Nanosensors for Imaging the Chemistry of the Body"
Abstract: My group is currently working at the interface of chemistry and biology to develop and apply novel nanoscale probes for biological measurements. In order to fulfill our goal of chemical imaging deep in the body (brain, central nervous system, circulatory system) we are we are tailoring our sensors to be compatible with advanced imaging techniques (diffuse in vivo flow cytometry, photoacoustics, or MRI) to image deep in the body. Ultimately, we will use the probes to image specific chemical processes and biomarkers in the brain/body, in real-time. I will discuss two projects that image real-time signaling in the body. The first is a fluorescent probe to measure acetylcholine in the peripheral nervous system, the second is a red blood cell cloaked sensor for sodium that circulates in the blood stream.
Biography: Heather Clark is the Director of the School for Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and an Associate Editor at ACS Sensors. Previously, she was a Professor at Northeastern University where she was the Founding Director of the Institute for Chemical Imaging of Living Systems. She received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Michigan and completed a postdoc in the Center for Cell Analysis & Modeling at the University of Connecticut Health Center. She is a AIMBE Fellow and has received awards for both research and teaching, including the DARPA Young Faculty Award. Her work has been featured in a live CNN interview, the Wall Street Journal, WIRED magazine and MIT Technology Review.
Host: Maral Mousavi
More Info: zoom link available upon request
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
Event Link: zoom link available upon request
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VLP Fall Vibes Study Sesh
Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 12:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Student Activity
All Viterbi students are welcome! Chill out with autumnal vibes in a quiet and productive study space - WITH FREE FOOD!Join the Viterbi Learning Program at RTH, refuel with tasty treats, and knock out some studying before the weekend!
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r393424
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MHI ISSS Seminar - Dr. Sudipto Chakraborty, Friday, Nov 3rd at 2pm in EEB132
Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sudipto Chakraborty, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Talk Title: Low power cryo-CMOS design for quantum computing applications
Series: Integrated Systems
Abstract: This talk will cover practical challenges for cryogenic CMOS designs for next generation quantum computing. Starting from system level, it will detail the design considerations for a non-multiplexed, semi-autonomous, transmon qubit state controller (QSC) implemented in 14nm CMOS FinFET technology. The QSC includes an augmented general-purpose digital processor that supports waveform generation and phase rotation operations combined with a low power current-mode single sideband upconversion I/Q mixer-based RF arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). Implemented in 14nm CMOS FinFET technology, the QSC generates control signals in its target 4.5GHz to 5.5 GHz frequency range, achieving an SFDR > 50dB for a signal bandwidth of 500MHz. With the controller operating in the 4K stage of a cryostat and connected to a transmon qubit in the cryostat's millikelvin stage, measured transmon T1 and T2 coherence times were 75.5uS and 73 uS, respectively, in each case comparable to results achieved using conventional room temperature controls. In further tests with transmons, a qubit-limited error rate of 7.76x10-4 per Clifford gate is achieved, again comparable to results achieved using room temperature controls. The QSC's maximum RF output power is -18 dBm, and power dissipation per qubit under active control is 23mW.
Biography: Sudipto Chakraborty received his B. Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1998 and Ph.D in EE from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2002. He worked as a researcher in Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) till 2004. From 2004 to 2016, he was a senior member of technical staff at Texas Instruments where he contributed to low power integrated circuit design in more than 10 product families in the areas of automotive, wireless, medical and microcontrollers. Since 2017, he has been working at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where he leads the low power circuit design for next generation quantum computing applications using nano CMOS technology nodes. He has authored or co-authored more than 75 papers, two books and holds 87 US patents. He has served in the technical program committees of various conferences including CICC, RFIC, IMS and has been elected as an IBM master inventor in 2022 for his contributions.
Host: MHI - ISSS, Hashemi, Chen and Sideris
More Information: Chaitali Joshi Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski