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Events for March 27, 2019
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Meet USC: Admission Presentation, Campus Tour, and Engineering TalkWed, Mar 27, 2019
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
This half day program is designed for prospective freshmen (HS juniors and younger) and family members. Meet USC includes an information session on the University and the Admission process, a student led walking tour of campus, and a meeting with us in the Viterbi School. During the engineering session we will discuss the curriculum, research opportunities, hands-on projects, entrepreneurial support programs, and other aspects of the engineering school. Meet USC is designed to answer all of your questions about USC, the application process, and financial aid.
Reservations are required for Meet USC. This program occurs twice, once at 8:30 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.
Please make sure to check availability and register online for the session you wish to attend. Also, remember to list an Engineering major as your "intended major" on the webform!
RSVPLocation: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - USC Admission Office
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Viterbi Admission
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Computer Science General Faculty Meeting
Wed, Mar 27, 2019 @ 12:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Receptions & Special Events
Bi-Weekly regular faculty meeting for invited full-time Computer Science faculty only. Event details emailed directly to attendees.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Invited Faculty Only
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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ECE Seminar: Exploiting Terrain Responses for Effective Locomotion in Complex Environments
Wed, Mar 27, 2019 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Feifei Qian, Postdoctoral Researcher, GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Exploiting Terrain Responses for Effective Locomotion in Complex Environments
Abstract: Today, robots are expected to take on increasingly important roles in human society. However, state-of-the-art robots still struggle to move on natural terrain, due to the lack of understanding of the interactions between robots and non-flat, non-rigid surfaces. My research aims to generate simplified models and representations of locomotor-terrain interactions, and improve robot mobility in complex environments.
In this talk, I will demonstrate how I integrate granular physics, bio-inspired robotics, and locomotion biomechanics to create interaction models that can guide design and control of bio-inspired robots to produce effective movement on challenging terrains. First, I will briefly review my previous work of animal and robot locomotion on granular terrain such as sand, debris, and gravel, and discuss how locomotors can manipulate granular responses and achieve effective locomotion on sand through adjustments in morphological parameters or contact strategy. Then I will present my recent work on creating simplified representations of robot interaction with perturbation-rich environments such as cluttered rubble or fallen tree trunks, and discuss how a multi-legged robot can adjust its gait patterns to exploit obstacle disturbances and generate different dynamics from the same physical environment. I will conclude with a vision of how these models and representations can lead to innovative strategies for obstacle-aided locomotion, better understanding of animal gait transition behaviors, and embodied sensing of environment properties.
Biography: Feifei Qian is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the GRASP lab at University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2015. She is interested in understanding interactions between legged robots and complex terrains, and creating solutions for robots to exploit obstacles and disturbances to improve mobility. Her work was awarded the best student paper at Robotics: Science and Systems, and has been covered by media press including BBC, R&D Magazine, Phys.org, and PennCurrent.
Host: Professor Paul Bogdan, pbogdan@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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Mathematical Foundations of Learning from Signals and Data (Math-FLDS)
Wed, Mar 27, 2019 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alex Cloninger, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Crafting Laplacian Eigenfunctions to the Data Science Task
Series: MHI
Abstract: We will discuss two topics related to the importance of selecting particular eigenfunctions of the graph Laplacian. First, we discuss the geometry of Laplacian eigenfunctions on compact manifolds and combinatorial graphs. We will use a notion of similarity between eigenfunctions that allows to reconstruct a dual geometry, which recovers classical duals in particular cases. We will focus on the applications of discovering such a dual geometry, namely in constructing anisotropic graph wavelet packets and anisotropic graph cuts. A second topic will be the relevance of selecting import eigenfunctions for two sample testing, namely kernel Maximum Mean Discrepancy. This creates a more powerful test than the classical MMD while still maintaining sensitivity to common departures. We examine this two-sample testing in several medical examples.
Biography: Alex Cloninger is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UCSD. He received his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation from the University of Maryland in 2014 and was then an NSF Postdoc and Gibbs Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Yale University until 2017, when he joined UCSD. Alex researches problems around the analysis of high dimensional data. He focuses on approaches that model the data as being locally lower dimensional, including data concentrated near manifolds or subspaces. These types of problems arise in a number of scientific disciplines, including imaging, medicine, and artificial intelligence, and the techniques developed relate to a number of machine learning and statistical algorithms, including deep learning, network analysis, and measuring distances between probability distributions
Host: Mahdi Soltanolkotabi and Paul Bogdan
More Information: Cloninger, Alex Seminar.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gloria Halfacre
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AME Seminar
Wed, Mar 27, 2019 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Hangbo Zhao, Northwestern University
Talk Title: Advanced Manufacturing of Unconventional 3D Micro- and Meso-Structures: From Strain-Engineered Growth to Mechanically Guided Assembly
Abstract: The growing availability of methods for three-dimensional (3D) manufacturing methods has implications across diverse areas ranging from energy systems to microelectronics, yet few techniques offer the necessary capabilities in geometric complexity, materials compatibility and design versatility. In this talk, I will discuss two novel manufacturing approaches to creating 3D functional material systems that are not feasible by conventional manufacturing methods: 1) strain-engineered growth of complex 3D carbon nanotube microarchitectures, and 2) mechanically guided 3D assembly of a broad range of functional materials and electronics. I will show how strain-engineered growth of carbon nanotubes, in combination with conformal coatings, enables direct formation of hierarchically structured surfaces with tailorable mechanical and interfacial properties for controlling liquid wetting and adhesion. Next, I will describe novel manufacturing technologies that exploit structural buckling and local twisting to create morphable 3D mesoscale structures in diverse advanced materials, and show how these can be used to make tunable optical metamaterials. I will also outline a microphysiological platform fabricated by mechanically guide assembly for tissue engineering and biomedical research. I will conclude by discussing new opportunities in designing and manufacturing multifunctional, adaptive material systems.
Hangbo Zhao is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics in Prof. John Rogers group at Northwestern University, where he works on multifunctional 3D materials systems and bio-integrated electronics for applications in tissue engineering and healthcare. He received his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 2017, supervised by Prof. A. John Hart. His Ph.D. thesis focused on developing engineered, hierarchical surfaces for controlling liquid wetting and adhesion. He received his masters degree also in mechanical engineering at MIT in 2014, supervised by Prof. Carl V. Thompson. He received his bachelors degree in precision instruments at Tsinghua University in China in 2011.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
3:30 PM
Seaver Science Library, Room 150 (SSL 150)
Refreshments will be served at 3:15 pm.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
