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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for the 1st week of April
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In HoursMon, Apr 01, 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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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Mon, Apr 01, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Engineering in Society Program
Student Activity
Drop-in hours for writing and speaking support for Viterbi Ph.D. students
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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ECE Seminar: Ultra-High-Throughput Computational Imaging: Towards A Trillion Voxels Per Second
Mon, Apr 01, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Kevin C. Zhou, Postdoctoral Scholar | Schmidt Science Fellow | Department of EECS | UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Ultra-High-Throughput Computational Imaging: Towards A Trillion Voxels Per Second
Abstract: Traditional biomedical imaging techniques face throughput bottlenecks that limit our ability to study complex dynamic samples like cells, organoids, tissues, and organisms. In particular, hardware-only systems have inherent physical limitations preventing the simultaneous improvement of resolution, field of view, and frame rate. In this seminar, I propose that large-scale, machine learning-accelerated computational imaging will be the key to overcoming these throughput bottlenecks. I demonstrate a variety of examples from my research, ranging from resolution-enhanced, speckle-free tissue imaging with optical coherence refraction tomography, to camera array-based gigapixel microscopy and 4D fluorescence tomography of freely-behaving zebrafish and fruit flies. Critical to the computational scalability is the integration of physics-supervised deep learning into my reconstruction algorithms. Combined with scalable hardware designs, these high-performance computational imaging systems will continue the trend of my research towards ultra-high imaging throughputs, even approaching 1 trillion voxels per second, which will accelerate scientific discovery, big data generation, and tool development across a broad range of biomedical applications.
Biography: Kevin C. Zhou is a Schmidt Science Fellow and postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley, developing high-throughput computational imaging systems with Laura Waller and Hillel Adesnik. Before that, he received his PhD in biomedical engineering at Duke University, where he worked with Joseph Izatt, Warren Warren, Sina Farsiu, and Roarke Horstmeyer, and was supported by the NSF GRFP. He received his BS in biomedical engineering at Yale University, where he was supported by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Kevin's interdisciplinary research focuses on developing both the optical instrumentation and machine learning-driven algorithms for scalable, high-throughput computational optical imaging systems to advance discovery in biology and medicine.
Host: Dr. Justin Haldar, jhaldar@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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DREAM Industry Mentorship speaker series- Danny Stedman
Mon, Apr 01, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
DREAM Industry Mentorship speaker series 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 Danny Stedman, founder and CEO at Pressto, on why writing matters and how AI as an intentional learning tool can empower young people to master the writing process.
Location: Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience (MCB) - 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elisabeth Arnold Weiss
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r394800
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CSC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar: Prashant Mehta
Mon, Apr 01, 2024 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Prashant Mehta, Professor, Coordinated Science Laboratory | Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: Variational principles in control and the arrow of time
Series: CSC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Abstract: There is a certain magic in writing the variational form of the equations in physics and engineering. The most magical of these is Lagrange’s formulation of the Newtonian mechanics. An accessible modern take on this and more appears in the Feb 2019 Issue of The New YorkerI describe a new variational (optimal control-type) formulation of the nonlinear filtering problem, an important feature of which is that the arrow of time reverses. The reversal of time brings about all sorts of paradoxes involving causality. Scenes from Christopher Nolan's sci-fi movie Tenet may be shown for entertainment and educational purposes.
Apart from movie snippets, the talk will also include technical content. Specifically, I argue that certain foundational aspects of Control Theory – duality between estimation and control – are less than well- understood for nonlinear stochastic systems (hidden Markov models), in part because of the issue of time reversal. Based on the optimal control formulation, I will also discuss some new results on the asymptotic stability of the nonlinear filter.
Biography:
Prashant Mehta is a Professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) and the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University in 2004. He was the co-founder and the Chief Science Officer of the startup Rithmio whose gesture recognition technology was acquired by Bosch Sensortec in 2017. Prior to his academic appointment at UIUC in 2005, he worked at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) where he co-invented the symmetry-breaking solution to
suppress combustion instabilities. This solution — which helped solve a sixty-year old open problem — has since become an industry standard and is widely deployed in jet engines and afterburners sold by Pratt and Whitney.Prashant Mehta received the Outstanding Achievement Award at UTRC for his contributions to modeling and control of combustion instabilities in jet-engines. His students have received the Best Student Paper Awards at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in 2007, 2009, and most recently in 2019; and have been finalists for these awards in 2010 and 2012. He serves as a member of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Awards Board and as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2019-present). He is a Fellow of IEEE.
Host: Dr. Ketan Savla
More Info: https://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2024Spring/mehta.html
More Information: 2024.04.01 CSC Seminar - Prashant Mehta.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - EEB 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Miki Arlen
Event Link: https://csc.usc.edu/seminars/2024Spring/mehta.html
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The Bekey Distinguished Lecture & Munushian Distinguished Lecture Present: Gordon Bell, Microsoft Researcher Emeritus
Mon, Apr 01, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gordon Bell, Microsoft Researcher Emeritus
Talk Title: Bell's Law of Computer Classes. Why We Have All Kinds of Computers
Abstract: In 1951, a person could walk inside a computer and by 2010 a single computer (or “cluster’) with millions of processors has expanded to building size. Alternatively, computers are “walking” inside of us. These ends illustrate the vast dynamic range in computing power, size, cost, etc. for early 21st century computer classes. A computer class is a set of computers in a particular price range with unique or similar programming environments (e.g. Linux, OS/360, Palm, Symbian, Windows) that support a variety of applications that communicate with people and/or other systems. A new computer class forms roughly each decade establishing a new industry. A class may be the consequence and combination of a new platform with a new programming environment, a new network, and new interface with people and/or other information processing systems. Bell’s Law accounts for the formation, evolution, and death of computer classes based on logic technology evolution beginning with the invention of the computer and the computer industry in the first generation, vacuum tube computers (1950-1960), second generation, transistor computers (1958-1970), through the invention and evolutions of the third generation TTL and ECL bipolar Integrated Circuits (1965-1985), and the fourth generation bipolar, MOS and CMOS ICs enabling the microprocessor, (1971) represents a “break point” in the theory because it eliminated the other early, more slowly evolving technologies. Moore’s Law (Moore 1965, revised in 1975) is an observation about integrated circuit evolution. In summary, Moore’s Law and Bell’s effectively predict the ensuing fifty years of the computer. This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. To register visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6If3BkOATE8onTmrYZNSr0pzWF47TedNKMrwnukr0Ue_k8w/viewform
Biography: Gordon Bell is a Microsoft Researcher Emeritus He spent 23 years at Digital Equipment Corporation as Vice President of R&D, responsible for the first mini- and time-sharing computers and DEC's VAX, with a 6 year sabbatical at Carnegie Mellon. In 1987, as NSF's first, Ass't Director for Computing (CISE), he led the National Research and Education Network panel that became the Internet. In 1987 he established the Gordon Bell Prize to recognize the extraordinary efforts to exploit modern highly parallel computers. Bell maintains three interests: computers: their evolution and use, technology-based startup companies, and lifelogging. He is a member or Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association of Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science, the Australia Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and received The 1991 National Medal of Technology. He is a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA. and lives in San Francisco. http://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net
Host: Cyrus Shahabi
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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The Good Life Discussion Series
Tue, Apr 02, 2024
Engineering in Society Program
Receptions & Special Events
The new Good Life Discussion Series allows USC Viterbi students to ask such big questions in a safe, supportive setting. This is an invitation-only event.
Audiences: This event is invitation only
Contact: Martha Townsend
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CS Colloquium: Jane E. - Artistic Vision: Interactive Computational Guidance for Developing Expertise
Tue, Apr 02, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jane E., UC San Diego
Talk Title: Artistic Vision: Interactive Computational Guidance for Developing Expertise
Series: Computer Science Colloquium
Abstract: Computer scientists have long worked towards the vision of human-AI collaboration for augmenting human capabilities and intellect. My work contributes to this vision by asking: How can computational tools not only help a user complete a task, but also help them develop their own domain expertise while doing so?
I investigate this question by designing new interactive tools for domains of artistic creativity. My work is inspired by the fact that expert artists have trained their eyes to “see” in ways that embed their expert domain knowledge—in this case, core artistic concepts. As instructors, experts have also designed approaches to intentionally communicate their vision to their students. My work designs creativity tools that leverage these expert structures to help novices develop this expert-like "artistic vision"—specifically through providing guidance to scaffold their design processes. In this talk, I will demonstrate my approach for designing tools that embed such guidance for photography and visual design that embed the underlying design principles. I will show that these tools are able to scaffold novices’ to be more aware of these artistic concepts during their creative process.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Jane E is Postdoctoral Fellow at The Design Lab at UCSD under the guidance of mentors Steven Dow and Haijun Xia. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, where she was co-advised by James Landay and Pat Hanrahan. Her research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and computer graphics with a focus on designing computational guidance to support novices in developing their own creative expertise. Her work takes inspiration from cognitive science and education theory to design computational tools that scaffold novices’ creative processes. Jane is grateful to have been selected as a Rising Star in EECS and to have been supported by a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, Hasso Plattner Institute’s Design Thinking Research Program, Brown Institute for Media Innovation, and UCSD CSE’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. She previously worked on the Microsoft Photos app as a software engineer after receiving her BSE from Princeton University. For more information, see her website: ejane.me
Host: Souti Chattopadhyay
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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ECE-S Seminar - Francisco Romero
Tue, Apr 02, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Francisco Romero, PhD, Electrical Engineering | Stanford University
Talk Title: General Purpose and Interactive Video Analytics
Abstract: The availability of vast video datasets and the increasing accuracy of machine learning models have made exploration of video data an exciting opportunity. Asking complex questions like “Find cases where a car takes a left turn while a pedestrian is crossing the road on a rainy night” over terabytes of videos should be possible. Recent video analytics research expects users will manually reason about their query, combine optimizations, and occasionally train models to meet their performance and accuracy goals. This is a long way from the experience users have when exploring structured data. In this talk, I will present the design of a general purpose and interactive video analytics system. First, I will present how to automatically optimize multi-model, multi-predicate video queries with the VIVA video analytics system. VIVA allows users to express domain knowledge about model relationships. VIVA uses this knowledge to automate complex query optimization by deciding how and when it should be applied. Second, I will present how to efficiently execute video queries across heterogeneous hardware resources with INFaaS. INFaaS exposes a "model-less" interface that enables users to simply specify the performance and accuracy requirements for their applications without needing to specify a specific model-variant for each query. INFaaS efficiently navigates the large trade-off space of model-variants on behalf of users to meet application-specific objectives: (a) for each query, it selects a model, hardware architecture, and model optimizations, (b) it combines VM-level horizontal autoscaling with model-level autoscaling to reduce cost as query load varies. I will also briefly discuss how I extended INFaaS across DAGs of machine learning models with Llama: a serverless video processing framework. I will close by outlining future directions in multi-modal data analysis across heterogeneous hardware resources.
Biography: Francisco Romero works at the intersection of computer systems and architecture, databases, and machine learning, where his goal is to design systems that automatically make decisions on users’ behalf to optimize for their goals like cost, performance, accuracy, and resource efficiency. He recently received his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where his research spanned general machine learning inference, serverless computing, data systems, and datacenter scheduling. He has several publications in top-tier conferences, including a best paper at USENIX ATC 2021. His work has been deployed in production Microsoft Azure Functions and is being used for automated video analysis at a stealth company.
Host: Dr. Murali Annavaram, annavara@usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92881411147?pwd=SXNBdm9oa3ljYi9sdTNsR2puWmRrQT09More Information: 2024.04.02 ECE Seminar - Francisco Romero.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - EEB 248
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92881411147?pwd=SXNBdm9oa3ljYi9sdTNsR2puWmRrQT09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Miki Arlen
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Increase Your Salary: Negotiating Your Job/Internship Offer
Tue, Apr 02, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY
Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctc-ivqTMuE9xJ_E6gU4YU9ZrGjVYGixoc
Increase your knowledge on the job/internship search by attending this professional development Q&A moderated by Viterbi Career Connections staff or Viterbi employer partners.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctc-ivqTMuE9xJ_E6gU4YU9ZrGjVYGixoc
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Photonics Seminar - A. Douglas Stone, Tuesday, April 2nd at 2pm in EEB 248
Tue, Apr 02, 2024 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: A. Douglas Stone, Yale University
Talk Title: Time-reversing a laser: What it means and why it's important.
Series: Photonics Seminar Series
Abstract: Over a decade ago an overlooked symmetry of Maxwell's equations coupled to matter was recognized, a relationship between a laser at threshold and a perfectly absorbing resonator. The threshold condition for lasing is the point at which gain balances loss, and the system self-organizes to oscillate coherently at a specific frequency in the highest Q electromagnetic mode. At this special point the system supports a purely outgoing solution of the Maxwell wave equation at a real frequency but with negligible amplitude, heralding the turn-on of a steady-state source of coherent radiation. Time-reversing this threshold lasing equation maps the laser system to another physical realizable electromagnetic system, one in which the time-reflected lasing mode is incident on an identical resonator, except that absorption loss replaces gain, and the purely incoming wave is perfectly trapped by interference and eventually absorbed without scattering. This mapping implies that under very general conditions, any complex structure can be made to absorb perfectly at a specific frequency, if a specific adapted input wavefront is imposed and the loss is appropriately tuned, a phenomenon now known as Coherent Perfect Absorption (CPA). While CPA was proposed for classical electromagnetic waves, the effect occurs for all of the linear classical wave equations of physics, and has nonlinear generalizations as well. Moreover, while CPA describes perfect capture and transduction of waves, the theory pointed the way to an even more general theory of reflectionless scattering of appropriate adapted wavefronts ("reflectionless scattering modes", RSMs). This theory applies to quantum waves as well, and provides a new framework to explore the control and routing of waves via interference in guided and even open geometries. I will review a few dramatic experimental and technologically interesting applications of CPA and RSM.
Biography: A. Douglas Stone is Carl A. Morse Professor of Applied Physics, and Professor of Physics at Yale University, where he joined the faculty in 1986. Since becoming a full professor in 1990, he has served as Chair of Applied Physics (1997-2003, 2009-2015), Director of Yale's Division of Physical Sciences (2004-2009), and Deputy Director of the Yale Quantum Institute (2015-present).Stone is a theoretical physicist with research interests in condensed matter and optical physics. He has co-authored over 165 research publications, which have been cited over 28,000 times, with an h-index of 74 and holds four patents for optical devices. He was a pioneer in the field of mesoscopic physics, describing systems intermediate between bulk solids and individual atoms or molecules, where novel quantum effects appear. Subsequently he worked on problems relating to the effects of chaos in quantum and electromagnetic systems, and was the first to introduce and study lasers with ray-chaotic resonators. His current work continues to focus on lasers, and other photonic systems with complex geometry and gain and loss. He is a recipient of the McMillan Award of the University of Illinois at Urbana for "outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics" for his research demonstrating "universal conductance fluctuations" in mesoscopic conductors. He was awarded the 2015 Willis Lamb Medal for Laser Science for his work on random and chaotic lasers, in collaboration with his colleague Hui Cao. His group developed Steady-state Ab initio Laser Theory (SALT), which is the first general formulation of laser theory set up to deal with arbitrary spatial complexity in a lasing structure efficiently, assuming steady-state operation. In 2010 he pioneered the concept of the Coherent Perfect Absorber (the time-reversed or "anti-laser"), and has recently generalized this framework to encompass a general theory reflectionless scattering of all linear waves. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society of America, and is an Honorary General Member of the Aspen Center for Physics. Stone earned his BA from Harvard in 1976, an MA from Balliol College, Oxford in 1978 (where he was a Rhodes Scholar), and a PhD from MIT in 1983 under the supervision of John Joannopoulos. He was a postdoc at IBM before coming to Yale.
Host: Mercedeh Khajavikhan, Michelle Povinelli, Constantine Sideris; Hossein Hashemi; Wade Hsu; Mengjie Yu; Wei Wu; Tony Levi; Alan E. Willner; Andrea Martin Armani
More Information: Douglas Stone Seminar Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Apr 02, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Reha Uzsoy, Program Director, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation, National Science Foundation
Talk Title: Funding Perspectives from the National Science Foundation
Host: Prof. Qiang Huang
More Information: April 2, 2024.pdf
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - SOS Building, B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Grace Owh
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Wed, Apr 03, 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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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Wed, Apr 03, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Engineering in Society Program
Student Activity
Drop-in hours for writing and speaking support for Viterbi Ph.D. students
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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CS Colloquium: Sai Praneeth Karimireddy - Building Planetary-Scale Collaborative Intelligence
Wed, Apr 03, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sai Praneeth Karimireddy, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Building Planetary-Scale Collaborative Intelligence
Abstract: Today, access to high-quality data has become the key bottleneck to deploying machine learning. Often, the data that is most valuable is locked away in inaccessible silos due to unfavorable incentives and ethical or legal restrictions. This is starkly evident in health care, where such barriers have led to highly biased and underperforming tools. Using my collaborations with Doctors Without Borders and the Cancer Registry of Norway as case studies, I will describe how collaborative learning systems, such as federated learning, provide a natural solution; they can remove barriers to data sharing by respecting the privacy and interests of the data providers. Yet for these systems to truly succeed, three fundamental challenges must be confronted: These systems need to 1) be efficient and scale to massive networks, 2) manage the divergent goals of the participants, and 3) provide resilient training and trustworthy predictions. I will discuss how tools from optimization, statistics, and economics can be leveraged to address these challenges. This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Sai Praneeth Karimireddy is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley with Mike I. Jordan. Karimireddy obtained his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) with Martin Jaggi. His research builds large-scale machine learning systems for equitable and collaborative intelligence and designs novel algorithms that can robustly and privately learn over distributed data (i.e., edge, federated, and decentralized learning). His work has seen widespread real-world adoption through close collaborations with public health organizations (e.g., Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, the Cancer Registry of Norway) and with industries such as Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Owkin. Karimireddy's research has been recognized by the EPFL Patrick Denantes Memorial Prize for the best computer science thesis, the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award for exceptional applied research, an EPFL thesis distinction award, a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship, and best paper awards at the International Workshop on Federated Learning for User Privacy and Data Confidentiality at ICML 2021 and the International Workshop on Federated Learning: Recent Advances and New Challenges at NeurIPS 2022.
Host: Jiapeng Zhang / Mahdi Soltanolkotabi
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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AME Seminar
Wed, Apr 03, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Julio Chirinos, University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Role of Arterial Stiffness and Pulsatile Hemodynamics in Target Organ Damage: Implications for Human Health
Abstract: The normal aorta exerts a powerful cushioning function, which limits arterial pulsatility and protects the microvasculature from excessive fluctuations in pressure and blood flow. Large-artery stiffening, which occurs with aging and various pathologic states, impairs this cushioning function, and has important consequences on target organs, including the brain, the heart, the kidneys and the placenta. Arterial stiffness also appears to be implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic disease. Large-artery stiffness represents a high-priority therapeutic target to ameliorate the global burden of cardiovascular disease in the next several decades. We will discuss key physiologic and biophysical principles related to arterial stiffness and the impact of aortic stiffening on target organs and associated disease states.
Biography: Julio A. Chirinos, MD, PhD is a Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division, Co-Director of the Clinical Research T32 Training Program in Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, and Adjunct Faculty at the Center for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging, at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He is a specialist in cardiac imaging (echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging). He is also adjunct Faculty at the University of Ghent in Belgium, where he maintains an active collaboration with the Asklepios Investigators. His PhD was focused on the non-invasive assessment of arterial hemodynamics. He is the President of the North American Artery Society. He directs an NIH-funded research program focused on the role of arterial stiffness and pulsatile hemodynamics in cardiovascular disease, mechanisms of human heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and the use of proteomics to discern mechanisms of human heart failure. He currently leads clinical studies designed to therapeutically target the arterial tree in order to reduce maladaptive cardiac remodeling, diastolic dysfunction, and to treat patients with HFpEF, an epidemic condition for which limited effective proven pharmacologic therapies are currently available. He also leads various cohort studies with deep cardiovascular phenotyping aimed at characterizing phenotypic profiles in humans. He co-leads a Global Heart Failure biomarker consortium, an industry-academic collaboration investigating proteomics and genomics in human heart failure. He is the University of Pennsylvania Principal Investigator and a Steering Committee member of Heart Share, a multicenter research consortium funded by the NHLBI aimed at discerning mechanisms of disease in human Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction. Dr. Chirinos has published >250 papers in high-impact journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine Evidence, The Lancet, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Circulation, Hypertension, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). He has received awards or honorary fellowships from the American Heart Association, the Inter-American Society of Cardiology, the American Society of Hypertension and the European Society of Cardiology. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and an honorary member of the Korean Society of Cardiology. He has also received multiple research grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institutes for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), the American College of Radiology (ACR), and the American Heart Association (AHA), among others. He was one of 20 global members of the Lancet Commission for Hypertension, in charge of developing strategies and recommendations to reduce the global burden of hypertension. He has participated in various clinical expert committees for the American Heart Association, American Society of Echocardiography, European Society of Cardiology, American Society of Hypertension and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Chirinos led 2 international multicenter trials testing therapeutic strategies related to the intersection of COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease. He is also the co-PI of ongoing cohort studies to study the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19, co-chair of the Global Heart Failure Biomarker Consortium, and a Steering Committee Member of HeartShare. Both of these multicenter consortia are focused on the study of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). He is currently the President of the North American Artery society, which promotes the study of arterial function as a determinant of cardiovascular disease. He was also an Associate Editor of the American Heart Association Journal Circulation: Heart Failure, The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, Editor of the Cochrane Group (Cochrane Collaboration), Senior Consulting Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Heart Association, Pulse and the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology. He is the editor of a textbook on Arterial Stiffness and Pulsatile Hemodynamics (Arterial Stiffness and Pulsatile Hemodynamics in Health and Disease; Elsevier, 2022). Dr. Chirinos also directs a core analysis laboratory for assessments of cardiac and arterial structure and function with non-invasive imaging, which has served as the core lab for various multicenter studies, including population studies, American College of Radiology Network studies and industry-funded studies. He has been an invited speaker in >160 scientific sessions.
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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USC SleepHuB Special Seminar
Wed, Apr 03, 2024 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jerone A. Dempsey, Ph.D., Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison
Talk Title: Sleep Apnea Pathogenesis and Cardiovascular Consequences
Abstract: Sleep apnea prevalence continues to expand throughout the world, even within general, non-clinical populations. We will examine two aspects of the problem. First we will present evidence to support the concept that obstructive sleep apnea is as much attributable to neurochemical control of the stability of central respiratory motor output as it is to upper airway collapsibility. Secondly we will explore the complex, controversial question of the cardiovascular sequelae of sleep apnea through examination of evidence in both humans and animal models supporting the sustained “after-effects” of chronic , intermittent hypoxemia on both sympathetic, vasoconstrictor activity and on the vascular endothelium.
Biography: Jerry Dempsey, Ph.D., is a world-renowned respiratory physiologist, who is currently Professor Emeritus of Population Health Sciences, Physiology and Kinesiology, and previously, Director of the John Rankin Laboratory of Pulmonary Medicine, at University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison. He has made many invaluable contributions towards unraveling the biological mechanisms underlying a diverse set of problems in respiratory physiology. These include: the time-dependent sensitization of carotid chemoreceptors in acclimatization to altitude; the limits of the healthy and diseased human pulmonary system for gas transport, respiratory muscle function and ventilatory output during exercise; and the role of chemical and non-chemical influences on the regulation of breathing and autonomic cardiovascular function during sleep, particularly in the pathogenesis of sleep apnea and the effects of novel treatments on these factors. His research has been funded continuously for over 45 years with grants from NIH, AHA, VA, DOD and UW. Dr. Dempsey was past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Physiology and Cross Talk Editor for the Journal of Physiology.
Host: BME Professor Michael Khoo, Co-Host CHLA Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine
More Info: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/363758496 (passcode: learn)
Location: Childrens Hospital (CHL) - Stauffer Conference Room A
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
Event Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/363758496 (passcode: learn)
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ECE-S Seminar - Dr. Stuart Oberman
Wed, Apr 03, 2024 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Stuart Oberman, Vice President, GPU ASIC Engineering | NVIDIA
Talk Title: GPU Computing and the Rise of Generative AI
Abstract:
Generative AI is transforming industries, with its powerful ability to create text, images, videos, computer code, and more. The advent and growth of GenAI have been driven by the evolution of GPU computing. Innovations in NVIDIA's GPU architectures over the last two decades have transformed GPUs from 3D graphics accelerators to also powerful AI accelerators. This talk will present this GPU computing journey of hardware and architectural advances, and it will discuss current and future technology challenges and opportunities. It will also discuss strategies for deploying GenAI networks in large GPU datacenters, where hardware and software advancements are combined to meet the real-time requirements of various industries.
Biography:
Stuart Oberman is Vice President of GPU ASIC Engineering at NVIDIA. Since 2002, he has contributed to the design and verification of 12 GPU architectures. He currently directs multiple GPU design and verification teams. Stuart earned the BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Iowa, and the MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he performed research in the Stanford Architecture and Arithmetic Group. He has coauthored one book and more than 20 technical papers. He holds more than 55 granted US patents.
Zoom Meeting ID: 955 2860 0978
Passcode: 988471
Host: Dr. Arash Saifhashemi
More Information: 2024.04.03 ECE Seminar - Stuart Oberman.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - EEB 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Miki Arlen
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CS Colloquium: Jason Wu - Computational Understanding of User Interfaces
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jason Wu, CMU
Talk Title: Computational Understanding of User Interfaces
Series: Computer Science Colloquium
Abstract: A grand challenge in human-computer interaction (HCI) is constructing user interfaces (UIs) that make computers useful for all users across all contexts. Today, most UIs are manually designed for a rigid set of assumptions and are unable to dynamically accommodate the diversity of user abilities, usage contexts, or computing technologies. The goal of my research is to build a machine that can understand and operate any UI then dynamically convert it into a new personalized, context-dependent representation. In this talk, I focus on three areas that define this approach for enhancing human-computer interaction. First, I describe approaches for understanding user ability and context embodied by a recommendation system that recommends device settings (e.g., accessibility features) based on sensed usage behaviors and user interaction logs. Next, I introduce several machine learning models that reliably understand the semantics (content and functionality) of any graphical UI from its visual appearance, unlocking new possibilities for many existing systems such as assistive technology, software testing, and UI automation. Finally, I present systems that incorporate both user and UI understanding to synthesize improved interfaces using a novel fine-tuned large language model (LLM) for UI generation. Improved machine understanding of UIs has the potential to redefine how we use computers in the future and drive advances in many fields such as HCI, machine learning and software engineering.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Jason Wu is a PhD candidate in the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University advised by Jeffrey Bigham. In his research, Jason builds data-driven and computational systems that understand, manipulate, and synthesize user interfaces to maximize the usability and accessibility of computers . His research has been published in top venues for human-computer interaction, user interface technology, accessibility, and machine learning, where he has received several best paper awards (CHI 2021, W4A 2021) and honorable mention awards (CHI 2020, CHI 2023). His work has also been recognized outside of academic conferences by a Fast Company Innovation by Design Student Finalist Award, press coverage in major outlets such as TechCrunch and AppleInsider, and by the FCC Chair Awards for Advancements in Accessibility. Jason is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and selected as a Heidelberg Laureate Forum Young Researcher.
Host: Souti Chattopadhyay
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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PhD Defense - Jared Coleman
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
PhD Defense: Jared Coleman
Title: Dispersed Computing for Dynamic Environments Committee: Bhaskar Krishnamachari (Chair), Konstantinos Psounis, Jyotirmoy Deshmukh
Abstract: Scheduling a distributed application modeled as a directed acyclic task graph over a set of networked compute nodes is a fundamental problem in distributed computing and thus has received substantial scholarly attention. Most existing solutions, however, fall short of accommodating the dynamic and stochastic nature of modern dispersed computing systems (e.g., IoT, edge, and robotic systems) where applications and compute networks have stricter and less stable resource constraints. In this dissertation, we identify problems and propose solutions that address this gap and advance the current state-of-the-art in task scheduling.Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Asiroh Cham
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NL Seminar - 30 Years of Perplexity
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kevin Knight, Threeven Labs
Talk Title: 30 Years of Perplexity
Abstract: REMINDER: If you’re an outside visitor who wishes to attend in person, kindly send a message to nlg DASH seminar DASH host AT isi.edu at least 1 business day prior with your full name, job title and professional affiliation. Please arrive to ISI at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the seminar. If you do not have access to the 11th Floor, please check in at the 10th floor main reception desk to register as a visitor and someone will escort you to the conference room location. For more information on the NL Seminar series and upcoming talks, please visit: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/ NLP scientists have been trying for decades to accurately predict the next word in running text. Why were we so determined to succeed at this strange task? How did we track our successes (and failures)? Why was word prediction at the center of early statistical work in text compression, machine translation, and speech recognition? Will it lead to artificial general intelligence (AGI) in the 2020s? I’ll attempt to answer these questions with anecdotes drawn from three decades of research in NLP, text compression, and code-breaking.
Biography: Dr. Kevin Knight served on the faculty of the University of Southern California (26 years), as Chief Scientist at Language Weaver, Inc. (9 years), and as Chief Scientist for Natural Language Processing at Didi Global (4 years). He received a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree from Harvard University. Dr. Knight's research interests include machine translation, natural language generation, automata theory, decipherment of historical documents, and number theory. He has co-authored over 150 research papers on natural language processing, as well as the widely adopted textbook "Artificial Intelligence" (McGraw-Hill). Dr. Knight served as President of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) in 2011, as General Chair for ACL in 2005, as General Chair for the North American ACL (NAACL) in 2016, and as co-program chair for the inaugural Asia-Pacific ACL (2020). He received an Outstanding Paper Award at NAACL 2018, and Test-of-Time awards at ACL 2022 and ACL 2023. He is a Fellow of the ACL, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI). Subscribe here to learn more about upcoming seminars: https://www.isi.edu/events/
Host: Jonathan May and Justin Cho
More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Live Only at ISI-Conf Rms #1135-37
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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DEN@Viterbi - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 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/r481684fe5df8fc8033cfaf3f6d498dd0
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r481684fe5df8fc8033cfaf3f6d498dd0
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ECE-EP Faculty Candidate - Liran Zheng, Thursday, April 4th at 3pm in EEB 248
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Liran Zheng, Tesla
Talk Title: Power Electronics for a Net-Zero Energy Future
Series: ECE-EP Seminar
Abstract: One of the most significant challenges that human society faces is producing and distributing clean and affordable energy. Electricity and transportation sectors are dominant sectors for US greenhouse gas emissions and account for 25% and 28% of total emissions in 2021, respectively. To enable a net-zero energy future, renewable energy and energy storage need to be integrated into smart power grids. A paradigm shift from fossil fuel to clean electricity as the energy source of land, sea, and air transportation is also necessary. Power electronics serve as the electronic interfaces between the smart power grids and resources including but not limited to renewable energy, energy storage, and electrified transportation. Recently, the advancement in wide-bandgap semiconductors ignited significant interests in emerging medium-voltage (MV) power electronics, especially solid-state transformers (SSTs). I will discuss my Ph.D. work on new current-source single-stage SST circuits and model-predictive priority-shifting control methods for new stacked low-inertia SSTs. The advantages include significantly reduced size, improved efficiency and reliability, and universality for different net-zero applications. Based on the proposed concepts and customized 3.3 kV silicon carbide reverse-blocking MOSFET modules, a 5 kV DC SST and a 7.2 kV AC SST have been built and tested for MV DC renewable-energy collector and MV AC electric vehicle fast-charging applications, respectively. It is the first time that current-source MV SSTs have been demonstrated and reported, which led to an IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics First Prize Paper Award. My patents from this work have been licensed under the GridBlock startup company for grid-connected transportation electrification and renewable energy products. Finally, I will discuss future research directions for a net-zero energy future.
Biography: Liran Zheng received the B.S. degree in control engineering from Tsinghua University in 2016, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees with the Center for Distributed Energy in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2018 and 2022, respectively.Liran is currently a Senior Engineer with Tesla. He previously held visiting positions with The University of Texas at Austin, the NSF ERC Center for Power Electronics Systems at Virginia Tech, the General Electric Global Research Center, and the Electric Power Research Institute. His research interests include power electronics and energy systems. Liran is the recipient of 4 IEEE Prize Paper Awards including an IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics First Prize Paper Award and Georgia Tech Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. He holds patents commercialized by GridBlock, a startup company out of Georgia Tech, for grid-connected transportation electrification and renewable energy products. He serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.
Host: ECE-EP
More Information: Liran Zheng Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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Lockheed Martin Trojan Talk
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Connect with Lockheed Martin: Engineer Panel
Thursday, April 4th
RTH 211
5-6:30 pm
Go to Viterbi Career Gateway > Events for event details and to signup
Meet LM Engineers! Two early career engineers will talk about their career path, how to connect with employers, and answer your questions.
Food and drinks will be served!
This event is for 1st and 2nd year Viterbi students to better acquaint you with Lockheed Martin and prepare you for fall recruitment.
Target Audience: 1st and 2nd-year students, all engineering majors
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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WIE Diamond Social
Thu, Apr 04, 2024 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Student Activity
Join WIE for a fun social evening. We will be be having some social games and conversations! We will also be providing some diamond painting supplies! Boba will be provided! All student are all welcome!
Location: Sign into EngageSC to View Location
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Thelma Federico Zaragoza
Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/WIE/rsvp?id=396434
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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Fri, Apr 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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EiS Communications Hub Drop-In Hours
Fri, Apr 05, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Engineering in Society Program
Student Activity
Drop-in hours for writing and speaking support for Viterbi Ph.D. students
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
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VLP Spring Study Sesh
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Fri, Apr 05, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Student Activity
Spring into finals season with the VLP! Join us in RTH 222 for quiet study spaces, plenty of FREE snacks, and spring vibes to keep you going strong!
All Viterbi students are welcome. RSVP: https://cglink.me/2nB/r396472Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Alex Bronz
Event Link: https://cglink.me/2nB/r396472
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Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Fri, Apr 05, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Huimin Zhao, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Biophysics and computational Biology, University of Illinois, IL
Talk Title: Synthetic Biology 2.0: the Dawn of a New Era
Abstract: Synthetic biology aims to design novel or improved biological systems using engineering principles, which has broad applications in medical, chemical, food, and agricultural industries. Thanks to the rapid advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis, genome editing, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and laboratory automation in the past two decades, synthetic biology has entered a new phase of exponential growth. In this talk, I will highlight our recent work on the development of a self-driving biofoundry and AI/ML tools for synthetic biology applications and next-generation genome editing tools. Examples include but are not limited to: (1) BioAutomata: a self-driving biofoundry for pathway engineering and protein engineering, (2) ECNet: an AI tool for enzyme engineering, (3) CLEAN: an AI tool for enzyme function prediction, (4) FAST-RiPP & FAST-NPS: an automated and scalable platform for rapid discovery of bioactive natural products, and (5) zCRISPR-Cas12: a new tool for precise gene knock-in and highly efficient multiplex genome editing.
Biography: Dr. Huimin Zhao is the Steven L. Miller Chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), director of NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis (moleculemaker.org), and Editor in Chief of ACS Synthetic Biology. He received his B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1992 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Dr. Frances Arnold. Prior to joining UIUC in 2000, he was a project leader at the Industrial Biotechnology Laboratory of the Dow Chemical Company. He was promoted to full professor in 2008. Dr. Zhao has authored and co-authored over 430 research articles and over 30 issued and pending patent applications. In addition, he has given over 490 plenary, keynote, or invited lectures. Thirty-seven (37) of his former graduate students and postdocs became professors or principal investigators around the world. Dr. Zhao received numerous research and teaching awards and honors such as AIChE Daniel I.C. Wang Award, AIChE FP&B Division Award, ECI Enzyme Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, and SIMB Charles Thom Award. His primary research interests are in the development and applications of synthetic biology, machine learning, and laboratory automation tools to address society’s most daunting challenges in health, energy, and sustainability.
Host: Peter Wang
Location: Corwin D. Denney Research Center (DRB) - DRB 146
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
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Munushian Seminar - Kwabena Boahen, Friday, April 5th at 3:30pm in EEB 132
Fri, Apr 05, 2024 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Kwabena Boahen, Stanford University
Talk Title: Scaling Knowledge Processing: 2D Chips versus 3D Brains
Series: Munushian Visiting Seminar Series
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) now advances by performing twice as many multiplications every two months, but the semiconductor industry tiles twice as many multipliers on a chip every two years. Moreover, the returns from tiling these multipliers ever more densely in two dimensions (2D) now diminish because signals must travel relatively farther and farther. Although travel can be shortened by stacking multipliers to process knowledge in three dimensions (3D), such a solution acutely reduces the available surface area for dissipating heat. My recent dendrocentric reconception of the biological brain's fundamental units of computation and communication removes this 3D thermal roadblock. Current AI uses dot-products to emulate synaptic weighting. This six-decade-old synaptocentric conception posits that the brain weights inputs across an entire dendrite to detect a spatial pattern of activations. The dendrocentric conception posits that the brain orders inputs meticulously along a short stretch of dendrite to detect a spatiotemporal pattern of spikes. My group has now realized this dendrocentric conception of the learning brain with a string of ferroelectric transistors. Moving away from synaptocentric to dendrocentric learning would enable AI to run not with megawatts in the cloud but rather with watts on a phone.
Biography: Kwabena Boahen is a Professor of Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering, and by courtesy Computer Science at Stanford University; an investigator in Stanford's Bio-X Institute, System X Alliance, and Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute; and the founding director of Stanford's Brains in Silicon Lab. His group models the nervous system computationally to elucidate principles of neural design at the cellular, circuit, and systems levels; and synthesizes neuromorphic electronic systems that scale energy-use with size as efficiently as the brain does. His interest in neural networks developed soon after he left his native Ghana to pursue undergraduate studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in 1985. He went on to earn a doctorate in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology in 1997. From 1997 to 2005 he was on the faculty of University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, where he was the inaugural holder of the Skirkanich Term Junior Chair. His research has resulted in over a hundred publications, including a cover story in Scientific American featuring his lab's work on a silicon retina and a silicon tectum that "wire together" automatically (May 2005). He has been invited to give over a hundred seminar, plenary, and keynote talks, including a 2007 TED talk, "A computer that works like the brain", with over seven hundred thousand views. He has received several distinguished honors, including a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (1999) and a National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award (2006). He was elected a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2016) and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (2016) in recognition of his lab's work on Neurogrid, an iPad-size platform that emulates the cerebral cortex in biophysical detail and at functional scale, a combination that hitherto required a supercomputer. He has led several multi-university, multi-investigator research efforts, including one that raised the level of abstraction at which neuromorphic chips are 'programmed' by co-designing hardware and software (Brainstorm Project). A spin-out from his Stanford lab, Femtosense Inc (2018), is commercializing this breakthrough. He teaches graduate courses in computational neuroscience and neuromorphic computing, has trained over twenty graduate students, and mentored four postdoctoral researchers, including the designer of NeuraLink's first implantable chip.
Host: J Yang, H Wang, C Zhou, S Cronin, W Wu
More Information: Kwabena Boahen Flyer.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
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