Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for March
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A new kind of knowledge discovery for societal priorities:
Wed, Mar 03, 2010 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Case study on climate extremes, uncertainy, and impactsSpeaker: Auroop R. Ganguly, Senior R&D Staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)Abstract:
A new kind of knowledge discovery from data (KDD) is needed across multiple science and engineering disciplines to provide actionable predictive insights on urgent societal priorities. The new KDD is motivated from three considerations: (a) availability of massive data from remote or in-situ sensors and models, (b) enhanced understanding of nonlinear and non-stationary processes with feedback and noise, and (c) criticality of risk-informed decisions under uncertainty. The three pillars of the new KDD are (a) interdisciplinary data sciences blending disciplines ranging from statistics and computer science to nonlinear dynamics and information theory, (b) physics-based or process-oriented computational simulations along with their evaluations and combinations, and (c) decision sciences which include uncertainty quantification and reduction, risk assessments, attributions, and optimization. The first part of the presentation describes the new KDD with applications to societal priorities ranging from transportation security, remote sensing, population mapping, infrastructure risks, social theories, and climate change. The second part of the presentation focuses on climate extremes, defined as regional shifts in the statistics of weather patterns or changes in the intensity-duration-frequency of severe events, which in turn may be caused or exacerbated by natural climate cycles or climate change. First, the science of climate extremes is discussed, with an emphasis on how the new kind of KDD can address acknowledged gaps in the science. A comprehensive characterization of uncertainty from greenhouse gas emissions and climate models to regional assessments of hydrology and societal impacts is motivated. New science insights as well as the implications for preparedness decisions and mitigation policies are discussed with specific examples. Bio-Sketch
Auroop R. Ganguly is a Senior R&D Staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he has been employed for more than five years. He has published more than fifty peer-reviewed and more than hundred articles in multidisciplinary journals ranging from PNAS and Physical Review E to domain journals in water resources, hydrometeorology, transportation, and operations research, as well as conferences and book chapters. He has published an edited book entitled Knowledge Discovery from Sensor Data by CRC Press, co-organized multiple ACM and IEEE workshops on sensor-based knowledge discovery and climate change, as well as sessions on nonlinear dynamics and climate impacts at AGU and AMS meetings. His research has been funded by US federal agencies like DOE, DHS, DOD / DARPA, besides the private sector. He led the ORNL team which provided science support for a climate change war game reported in the journal Nature as well as climate support for the US DOD's Quadrennial Defense Review. He has received two significant event awards from ORNL for a DARPA-funded project on evaluation of complex models and for the climate change war game. He is a member of the invited reader panel for the journal Nature and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. He has held visiting and adjunct appointments at the University of South Florida and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he taught courses in hydrology as well as applied time series, spatial statistics and knowledge discovery. He has advised PhD students as supervisor and co-supervisor, in addition to post-masters and post-doctoral associates, as well as undergraduate and high-school students. His students have won two best student or runner-up paper awards and one best doctoral poster award. He has received two Outstanding Mentor awards from US DOE and ORNL, as well as two certificates of appreciation for mentorship. He has been invited to multiple NSF panels and workshops as well as DOE and DHS workshops. He has about five years experience at Oracle Corporation and a best-of-breed company eventually acquired by Oracle, where he developed time series and forecasting algorithms besides managing analytical products for demand planning, marketing, and supply chain. He has a PhD from the Civil and Environmental Engineering department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Technology (Honors) in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Embedded Algorithms within an FPGA-based Design ...
Fri, Mar 05, 2010 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
...to Classify Types of Nonlinear SDOF SystemsSpeakers: Jonathan D. Jones & Jin-Song Pei, University of OklahomaAbstract:
This study investigates the use of a Field-Programmable Gate Array (an FPGA) as a primary processing core for complex nonlinear system identification within a wireless structural health monitoring system. Compared with traditional microprocessor-based systems, FPGA technology offers a more powerful, efficient, and flexible embedded platform. Depending on the application, a more robust and optimized processing core can be created when an FPGA and a microprocessor are used together. This situation requires careful consideration of the algorithms to be embedded and the environments in which they are implemented to yield optimal systems for wireless structural health monitoring where capable yet low-cost products are often preferred.
A series of efforts are made to embed a pattern classifier for three basic types of single-degree-of-freedom systems, i.e., linear, hardening and softening. The classification is achieved by embedding two algorithms empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and backbone curve technique within an FPGA and microprocessor platform. An off-the-shelf high-level abstraction tool along with the MATLAB/Simulink environment is utilized to manage the overall design. Numerous design considerations to embed the EMD and backbone curve technique are presented. In particular, the implementation of cubic spline fitting and the encountered challenges using both FPGA hardware and software environments are discussed. Additionally, the backbone curve technique and its complete realization within the FPGA hardware to extract instantaneous characteristics from the uniformly distributed data sets produced by the EMD algorithm are presented.
Given the limited computational resources within a practical embedded system, we strive for a balance between the maximization of computational efficiency and minimization of resource utilization. The beauty of this study lies far beyond merely programming existing algorithms to hardware and software. Among others, extensive and intensive judgment is exercised involving experiences and insights with these algorithms, which renders processed instantaneous characteristics of the signals that are well-suited for wireless transmission.BIOSKETCHES OF SPEAKERS:Mr. Jonathan D. Jones received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. He is employed by the United States Air Force at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, OK, as a civilian Electronics Engineer. His research interests include field-programmable gate array (FPGA) programming, embedded systems, phased-array radar applications, and nonlinear dynamical systems. Dr. Jin-Song Pei received her B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in Structural Engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University, New York, NY. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and a graduate faculty member at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering both at the University of Oklahoma. She was an assistant engineer at the Real Estate Division of Construction & Development Corporation, Xiaman, China, worked as an engineer at Indeco Consultants, Singapore and also practiced at Weidlinger Associates, Inc., Cambridge, MA before joining the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 2002. Her main research interests are system identification, simulation and control of nonlinear dynamical systems.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Validation of TES Ozone Satellite Data: ....
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
...Implications for regional air qualitymodeling and weather forecasting Speaker: Dr. Christopher Boxe, Research Scientist, JPL Pasadena, CA Absract: The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) is one of four science instruments onboard NASA's Aura satellite. Aura is one of a series of satellites in NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), which supports understanding of the Earth as an integrated system by observing its land surfaces, biosphere, atmosphere and oceans. EOS, in turn, is the principal element of Earth Science Enterprise, an international effort to understand Earth's climate system. TES versions 3 and 4 nadir-stare ozone profiles are compared with ozonesonde profiles from the Arctic Intensive Ozonesonde Network Study (ARCIONS) during the Arctic Research on the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) field mission. The ozonesonde data are from launches timed to match Aura's overpass, where 11 coincidences spanned 44o N to 71o N from April to July, 2008. Using the TES "stare" observation mode, 32 observations are taken in a distance less than ~ 1 km, over each coincident ozonesonde launch. By effectively sampling the same air mass 32 times, comparisons are made between the empiricallycalculated random errors to the expected random errors from measurement noise, temperature, and interfering species, such as water. This study represents the first validation of high latitude (> 60o) TES ozone. We find that the calculated errors are consistent with the actual errors with a similar vertical distribution that varies between 5% and 20%. In general, TES ozone profiles are positively biased (by less than 15%) from the surface to the upper-troposphere (~ 1000 to 100 hPa) and negatively biased (by less than 20%) from the upper-troposphere to the lower-stratosphere (100 to 30 hPa) when compared to the ozone-sonde data. The implications of this study are discussed within the context of modeling and forecasting with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with coupled chemistry (WRF-Chem).
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209 (Webex is available upon request)
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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REGENERATION OF USED PETROLEUM-BASED LUBRICANTS AND ....
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 @ 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
...BIOLUBRICANTS BY A NOVEL GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGYBy: Willian Fan, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental EngineeringCommittee Chair, Professor Massoud PirbazariAbstract:Lubricants, either mineral-based or synthetic made, are the products derived from petroleum and developed through tribological research. Lubricants are also the essential elements for almost all modern industries.However, lubricants require change after long service because the various impurities generated from the operation may degrade the efficiency of lubricants and significantly contaminate lubricants.Many studies have confirmed that used petroleum-based lubricants collected from oil-exchange are slow in degradation and highly toxic to human health, fauna, and flora. However, hydrocarbon compounds in used lubricants can be regenerated into either lubricant base materials or an energy source. The regeneration of used lubricants has enormous benefits, including minimizing hazards, reducing waste, protecting the environment, and conserving enegy resources.The potential of the newly developed binary solvent process in used lubricants regeneration is discussed and reviewed. The binary solvent process has been demonstrated to be a promising green technology capable of removing up to 93% of impurities while recovering up to 99 % of hydrocarbon compounds from various types of used lubricants under atmospheric pressure and at a relatively low temperature. The Cold-Stage Energy Conversion (CSEC) system is built based on the concept of the binary solvent process and capable of regenerating used lubricants in a continuous-flow fashion at relatively low temperature and pressure.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Fri, Mar 26, 2010 @ 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: SUPEROXIDE RADICAL AND UV IRRADIATION IN ULTRASOUND ASSISTED OXIDATIVE DESULFURIZATION (UAOD):
A POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE FOR GREENER FUELSBy: Ngo Yeung Chan, Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Engineering, USC ABSTRACT
This study is aimed at improving the current ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization (UAOD) process, developed in University of Southern California by Professor Yen's research group, by utilizing superoxide radical as oxidant. Research was also conducted to investigate the feasibility of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation-assisted desulfurization. These modifications can enhance the process with the following achievements: Meet the upcoming sulfur standards on various fuels including diesel fuel oils and residual oils
More efficient oxidant with significantly lower consumption in accordance with stoichiometry
Energy saving by 90%
Greater selectivity in petroleum compositionThe new system demonstrated over 98% desulfurization efficiency on diesel oils and more than 75% on residual oils with significantly less oxidant and energy consumption. The new process development has been supported by Eco Energy Solutions Inc., Reno, Nevada and Intelligent Energy Inc., Long Beach, California. The feasible applications of superoxide and UV irradiation in the UAOD process could provide deep-desulfurization on various fuels with practical cost.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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System of Systems:What They Are and How to Engineer Them
Wed, Mar 31, 2010 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jo Ann Lane, Research Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, USCAbstract:
To quickly respond to changing business and mission needs, many organizations are integrating new and existing systems with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products into network-centric, knowledge-based, interoperable, software-intensive systems of systems (SoS). Regional Area Crisis Response System Sample SoSWith this approach, system development processes to define the new architecture, identify sources to either supply or develop the required components, and eventually integrate and test these high level components are evolving and are being referred to as SoS Engineering (SoSE). This presentation describes the results of SoS and SoSE investigations that explore the characteristics of SoSs, the corresponding SoSE challenges, and how engineering teams are addressing these challenges. In particular, it discusses: Types of SoS Incremental commitment and evolution Application of lean principles Engineering cost estimation Engineering and management artifacts SoS models to support SoSE SoS test and evaluation approachesBio:
Dr. Jo Ann Lane recently completed her PhD in the USC ISE department under the guidance of Professors Barry Boehm and Stan Settles in the area of system of systems (SoS) engineering and cost modeling. As a PhD candidate, she was awarded the 2007 International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Foundation/Stevens Doctoral Award for promising research in Systems Engineering and Integration. She is currently a principal at the DoD-Stevens-USC Systems Engineering Research Center, conducting research in the area of systems engineering and system of systems engineering. In this capacity, she is working on SoS engineering cost models, SoS engineering process models, SoS test and evaluation, and innovation in systems engineering. She has published over 20 papers in the systems of systems area, several of which are widely referenced in the systems of systems literature. She is currently a member of the INCOSE and IEEE professional organizations. Prior to her current work, she was a key technical member of Science Applications International Corporation's Software and Systems Integration Group for over 20 years, responsible for the development and integration of software-intensive systems and systems of systems.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209 (Webex information is available upon request).
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes