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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for the 2nd week of February
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Viterbi Career & Internship Expo: Trojan Talks and Demos
Mon, Feb 05, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Receptions & Special Events
What is a Trojan Talk?
-1-hour-long company information sessions (on-campus or virtual)
-Great way to explore an organization or an industry.
-Gain insight into open positions and the history, culture, and values of the organization.
What is a Product Demo?
-1-hour-long company information sessions.
-Employers demonstrate a company product or service showcase.
Experience a unique opportunity to witness the product in action and gain comprehensive insights into the organization. Pre-registration required on Viterbi Career Gateway: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/students/gateway/ > Events > Information Sessions For the most up-to-date information, visit the Career & Internship Expo Website: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In HoursMon, Feb 05, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to stop by the EiS Communications Hub for one-on-one instruction for their academic and professional communications tasks. All instruction is provided by Viterbi faculty at the Engineering in Society Program.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home?authuser=0
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PhD Thesis Proposal - Ayush Jain
Mon, Feb 05, 2024 @ 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Thesis Proposal: Ayush Jain
Date: February 5, 2024 (Monday), 4 pm - 6 pm
Location: TBD
Committee: Erdem Biyik, Joseph J Lim, Gaurav Sukhatme, Stefanos Nikolaidis, Fefei Qian
Title: Enabling Robust Reinforcement Learning in Challenging Action Spaces
Abstract: The action space of an agent defines its interface to interact with the world. It can take two forms: discrete, as in recommender systems making decisions from millions of choices, or continuous, as in robots actuating control movements. While humans excel at a vast range of action spaces, from deciding between potentially unseen choices to making precise dexterous control like in surgery, conventional reinforcement learning (RL) is limited to simple action spaces beyond which agents fail entirely. Concretely, discrete RL typically assumes a "static" action space that never changes, while continuous RL assumes a "smooth" action space such that nearby actions have similar consequences. My goal is to alleviate these assumptions to broaden the applicability of RL agents to tasks with challenging action spaces. Thus, I build discrete RL algorithms that can adapt to any available action set and even choose from actions never seen before, such as recommending new items and choosing from unseen toolsets. In continuous action space tasks like robotics, I show how conventional agents get stuck on suboptimal actions due to a challenging action space. To address this, I propose a novel actor-critic algorithm enabling actors to search for more optimal actions.
Location: TBD
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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Viterbi Career & Internship Expo: Trojan Talks and Demos
Tue, Feb 06, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Receptions & Special Events
What is a Trojan Talk?
· 1-hour-long company information sessions (on-campus or virtual)
· Great way to explore an organization or an industry.
· Gain insight into open positions and the history, culture, and values of the organization.
What is a Product Demo?
· 1-hour-long company information sessions.
· Employers demonstrate a company product or service showcase.
· Experience a unique opportunity to witness the product in action and gain comprehensive insights into the organization.
Pre-registration required on Viterbi Career Gateway: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/students/gateway/ > Events > Information Sessions
For the most up-to-date information, visit the Career & Internship Expo Website: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 06, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - SOS Building, B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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CS Colloquium - Nathan Sturtevant (University of Alberta / Amii) - Researching the foundations of heuristic search
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nathan Sturtevant, University of Alberta / Amii
Talk Title: Researching the foundations of heuristic search
Abstract: Although the field of heuristic search is over 50 years old, the last 6-7 years have seen numerous revisions to the foundational algorithms in the field. These include the theories for bidirectional search, for suboptimal search, and for improving the worst-case performance of fundamental algorithms such as A* and IDA*. This talk will give an overview of these new results, demonstrating the changes and their impact, many of which center around the notion of whether re-expansions are allowed during search.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.
Biography: Nathan is a Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii and a Professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. His research looks broadly at heuristic and combinatorial search problems, including both theoretical and applied approaches, with many applications in games. His work on pathfinding was used in the game Dragon Age: Origins, and will appear in the upcoming Nightingale. Nathan’s work has won the best paper awards at the AAAI, and SoCS conferences, as well as the AI Journal Prominent Paper Award.
Host: Sven Koenig
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6192383533
Location: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6192383533
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6192383533
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Viterbi Career & Internship Expo: Career Fair (On-Campus)
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Receptions & Special Events
Connect with employers on-campus, hiring for full-time, part-time, and paid internships at this Viterbi-specific recruitment fair!
Location: Trousdale Parkway and Alumni Park. Join additional activities such as Trojan Talks and Product Demos on February 5th and 6th. The Viterbi Career & Internship Expo is free and open to all students in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Don’t forget to bring tailored copies of your resume!
For more information about the Expo: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://viterbicareers.usc.edu/careerexpo/
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to stop by the EiS Communications Hub for one-on-one instruction for their academic and professional communications tasks. All instruction is provided by Viterbi faculty at the Engineering in Society Program.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home?authuser=0
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CS Colloquium - Chien-Ming Huang (Johns Hopkins University) - Becoming Teammates: Designing Assistive, Collaborative Machines
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chien-Ming Huang , Johns Hopkins University
Talk Title: Becoming Teammates: Designing Assistive, Collaborative Machines
Abstract: The growing power in computing and AI promises a near-term future of human-machine teamwork. In this talk, I will present my research group’s efforts in understanding the complex dynamics of human-machine interaction and designing intelligent machines aimed to assist and collaborate with people. I will focus on 1) tools for onboarding machine teammates and authoring machine assistance, 2) methods for detecting, and broadly managing, errors in collaboration, and 3) building blocks of knowledge needed to enable ad hoc human-machine teamwork. I will also highlight our recent work on designing assistive, collaborative machines to support older adults aging in place.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Chien-Ming Huang is the John C. Malone Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on designing interactive AI aimed to assist and collaborate with people. He publishes in top-tier venues in HRI, HCI, and robotics including Science Robotics, HRI, CHI, and CSCW. His research has received media coverage from MIT Technology Review, Tech Insider, and Science Nation. Huang completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award. https://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cmhuang/
Host: Stefanos Nikolaidis
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: X.Edward Guo, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York
Talk Title: Bone Bioengineering: Microstructure, Mechanics, Mechanobiology, and Beyond
Abstract: Bone bioengineering is a basic science of clinical significance in many medical fields, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or intervertebral disc degeneration. I will highlight our development of three-dimensional imaging analysis and modeling techniques for trabecular bone microstructure, its applications in basic science research of bone mechanics, and clinical applications in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. We will discuss bone microstructural phenotypes in different races and their implications in genetic and precision medicine, anthropology, evolution, and mechanobiology of the skeletons. In parallel to these developments, we will also showcase how mechanobiology links to bone microstructure and mechanics
Biography: Dr. Guo was born and grew up in China. He received his B.S. in applied mechanics from Peking University. He continued his graduate studies in the US and received his M.S. in 1990 and Ph.D. in 1994 in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from Harvard University-MIT. From 1994 to 1996, Professor Guo did his postdoctoral fellowship in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1996, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2003, Professor in 2007, and named Stanley Dicker Professor in 2018. He directs the Bone Bioengineering Laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia, focusing his research interests on micromechanics of bone tissue, computational biomechanics, and mechanobiology of bone. His past honors include the Young Investigator Recognition Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society, the National Research Service Award from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a CAREER award from the US National Foundation of Science (NSF), Funds for Talented Professionals (Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Young Scholars) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Christopher R Jacobs Award from Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). He is elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, BMES, American Society of Bone and Mineral Research, International Combined Orthopaedic Research Societies, and International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. He was one of the founders and co-editor-in-chief of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE), an international journal of BMES. He has served on many NIH, NSF, and NASA review panels. The Whitaker Foundation, the NSF, and the NIH have supported his research. He served as President of the International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society, the Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Orthopaedic Research Society, and a Member of the Board of Directors of AIMBE. He founded the Special Interest Group (SIG) in CMBE at the BMES and served as its founding Chair. He served as the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University from 2017 to 2023, and he founded the Northeast BME League and served as its inaugural President.
Host: Peter Wang
Location: Corwin D. Denney Research Center (DRB) - 145
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
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PhD Thesis Defense - Sepanta Zeighami
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Committee members: Cyrus Shahabi (chair), Keith Chugg, Vatsal Sharan, Haipeng Luo
Title: A Function Approximation View of Database Operations for Efficient, Accurate, Privacy-Preserving & Robust Query Answering with Theoretical Guarantees
Abstract: Machine learning models have been recently used to replace various database components (e.g., index, cardinality estimator) and provide substantial performance enhancements over their non-learned alternatives. Such approaches take a function approximation view of the database operations. They consider the database operation as a function that can be approximated (e.g., an index is a function that maps items to their location in a sorted array) and learn a model to approximate the operation's output. In this thesis, we first develop the Neural Database (NeuroDB) framework which extends this function approximation view by considering the entire database system as a function that can be approximated. We show, utilizing this framework, that training neural networks that take queries as input and are trained to output query answer estimates provide substantial performance benefits in various important database problems including approximate query processing, privacy-preserving query answering, and query answering on incomplete datasets. Moreover, we present the first theoretical study of this function approximation view of database operations, providing the first-ever theoretical analysis of various learned database operations. Our analysis provides theoretical guarantees on the performance of the learned models, showing why and when they perform well. Furthermore, we theoretically study the model size requirements, showing how model size needs to change as the dataset changes to ensure a desired accuracy level. Our results enhance our understanding of learned database operations and provide the much-needed theoretical guarantees on their performance for robust practical deployment.
Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91683810479?pwd=VXBmblhDdzZCZU1Oc05jRFV2dzI2dz09
Meeting ID: 916 8381 0479
Passcode: 250069Location: Charles Lee Powell Hall (PHE) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91683810479?pwd=VXBmblhDdzZCZU1Oc05jRFV2dzI2dz09
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AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 07, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Negar Nazari, Harvard
Talk Title: Microfluidics with Macro-Impact: Advancing Sustainability through Nanoparticle - Enhanced Foams for Optimized CO2 Sequestration
Abstract: The contemporary global challenge centers on ensuring water and energy access for a growing population while minimizing environmental impacts and promoting sustainability. Porous media play a crucial role in this, facilitating processes like carbon sequestration, hydrogen storage, and geothermal energy extraction within geological formations. The Paris Climate Accord emphasizes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with carbon sequestration in geological formations being a potential solution. However, challenges like ensuring safe storage and preventing leaks remain. Utilizing a foaming solution alongside CO2 injection emerges as a promising method to reduce the mobility of CO2, enhancing the blockage of CO2 in more permeable areas and thus bolstering storage safety. A significant hurdle in this technique is the thermodynamic instability of the bubble interface in the high salinity brines found in host formations. The introduction of nanoparticles enhances the interface's stability, counteracting the capillary forces that destabilize the foam's lamellae. The dynamics of gas-liquid interfaces differ between aqueous surfactants and nanoparticles. Nanoparticles impact the drag on elongated bubbles at low capillary numbers by establishing monolayer formations at the fluid interface, which in turn increases the interfacial dilatational viscoelasticity. This enhancement in viscoelasticity strengthens the interface's dynamic resistance to changes in surface area, whether through stretching or compressing, thereby improving the stability of the interface.
Biography: Negar Nazari is a Postdoctoral fellow at the school of engineering and applied sciences at Harvard University. Her research focuses on understanding complex fluid flow and transport in porous media with particular emphasis on topics relevant to energy and sustainability including but not limited to carbon and hydrogen storage. Prior to her postdoc, she completed her PhD at the energy science and engineering department at Stanford University. Her PhD research focused on microscale analysis of fluid-fluid interactions and complex multiphase flow in fractured systems and channels. Her research interests lie in energy and sustainability, microfluidics, and data-driven and programming techniques to upscale flow studies. Negar received the Trailblazing Researcher Award from the California Institute of Technology for exceptional contributions and frontier research in Energy and Sustainability.
Host: AME Department
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95892885119?pwd=QXZOZUhrcTJRYk5qZzZwVThrTytVZz09Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 252
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95892885119?pwd=QXZOZUhrcTJRYk5qZzZwVThrTytVZz09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
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DEN@Viterbi - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session
Thu, Feb 08, 2024 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Join USC Viterbi School of Engineering for a virtual information session via WebEx, providing an introduction to DEN@Viterbi, our top-ranked online delivery system. Discover the 40+ graduate engineering and computer science programs available entirely online. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives during the session to discuss the admission process, program details, and the benefits of online delivery.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r746d85a9b25930630a066e528c4b0a98
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r746d85a9b25930630a066e528c4b0a98
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Fri, Feb 09, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to stop by the EiS Communications Hub for one-on-one instruction for their academic and professional communications tasks. All instruction is provided by Viterbi faculty at the Engineering in Society Program.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home?authuser=0
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I ♡ Studying - VLP Study & Social
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Fri, Feb 09, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Student Activity
Whether you're celebrating Palentines, Galentines, or Valentines, stop by the VLP for a LOVEly study & social event! Enjoy snacks, study spaces, and time to socialize with your fellow Viterbi students.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r395433
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DREAM Industry Mentorship speaker series
Fri, Feb 09, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
DREAM connects students with experienced industry professionals from a variety of tech and destination companies who help them create a vision for their futures, align their careers around purpose, and build character in the context of growth, reinvention, and constant change. Industry mentors discuss how professional challenges present opportunities for character and leadership development. This event features a talk with Alex Kruglov, tech entrepreneur and former Hulu executive, on the evolving media landscape, games, and sustaining the human connection. Co-sponsored with Annenberg.
Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elisabeth Arnold Weiss
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r394797
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Semiconductors & Microelectronics Technology Seminar - Tingyi Gu, Friday, Feb. 9th at 2pm in EEB 248
Fri, Feb 09, 2024 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Tingyi Gu, ECE- University of Delaware
Talk Title: On-chip wavefront shaping and image classification on silicon photonics
Series: Semiconductors & Microelectronics Technology
Abstract: The advancement of nanotechnologies enables powerful control of photons by subwavelength structures. In recent years, rapid advancement of metasurface and metamaterials reveal the potential of nanophotonics in the applications across disciplines, from image processing/conversion to controlled light-matter interactions. In this talk, I will progressively illustrate the powerful role of the meta-atoms, meta-surface, and meta-system in integrated photonic platform, which enabled the control of nonHermicity, perform mathematical conversion to machine learning, respectively. 0D: Embedding individual symmetric or asymmetric meta-atoms in silicon micro- resonators provide the full control of non-Hermicity, which has been proved to coherently suppress the nanofabrication resulted backscattering [1]. 1D: The integrated metasystem performs analogue optical computing tasks, from simple Fourier transformation to spatial differentiations (1D+) [2]. Also, we have shown that asymmetric subwavelength design engineers the wave momentum space for broadband and power independent back reflection suppression. 2D: With lithographically defined inter-layer alignment, we demonstrate diffractive deep optical network on silicon photonic platform, towards broadband spatial pattern classification and hyperspectral imaging [3]. In addition to materials offered by the foundry, I will try to extend the scope of 'heterogeneous integration' for layered phase change materials for integrated photonic memory devices [4], and potential integration scheme with silicon photonics.
Biography: Tingyi Gu is an associate professor in the electrical engineering of University of Delaware. Her group works on foundry compatible silicon photonic meta-components for optical communication and sensing, with the focus on optoelectronic reconfigurability and high-speed operation. She served on 19 committees for optics and optoelectronics societies, including SPIE, CLEO, FiO and IPC. She received a B.S. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, all in EE. She has held positions at Bell Labs, Princeton University and Hewlett Packard Labs.
Host: J Yang, H Wang, C Zhou, S Cronin, W Wu
More Information: Tingyi Gu_2024-02-09.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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