Select a calendar:
Filter February Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February
-
CS Colloquium: Jeff Mogul (HP Labs): Corybantic: Towards the Modular Composition of SDN Controllers
Tue, Feb 05, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jeff Mogul, HP Labs
Talk Title: CS Colloquium: Jeff Mogul (HP Labs)
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Software-Defined Networking (SDN) promises to enable vigorous innovation, through separation of the control plane from the data plane, and to enable novel forms of network management, through a controller that uses a global view to make globally-valid decisions. The design of SDN controllers creates novel challenges; much previous work has focused on making them scalable, reliable, and efficient.
We argue that, to control a realistic network, we do not want one monolithic SDN controller. Instead, we want to compose the effects of many controller modules managing different aspects of the network, which may be competing for resources. Each module will try to optimize one or more objectives; we address the challenge of how to coordinate between these modules to optimize an overall objective function. Our framework design, Corybantic, focuses on achieving both modular decomposition and maximizing the overall value delivered by the controller's decisions.
Biography: Jeff Mogul is a Fellow at HP Labs, doing research primarily on computer networks and operating systems issues for enterprise and cloud computer systems; previously, he worked at the DEC/Compaq Western Research Lab. He received his PhD from Stanford in 1979, and is an ACM Fellow. Jeff is the author or co-author of several Internet Standards; he contributed extensively to the HTTP/1.1 specification. He has been the chair or co-chair of a variety of conferences and workshops, including SIGCOMM, OSDI, and ANCS. He is currently co-chairing NSDI 2013.
Host: Ethan Katz-Bassett
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Colloquium: Sham Navathe (Georgia Tech)
Fri, Feb 08, 2013 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sham Navathe, Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Challenges for Developing Practical Applications of Databases in Bioinformatics and Healthcare : Some Case Studies
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: In this talk the speaker will highlight the requirements and challenges of developing applications in bioinformatics and healthcare IT. He will relate his personal experiences in working with genomic and other bioinformatics data from public databases. He was involved in developing a mitochondrial genome database and tools for interpretation of microarray data based on biomedical literature in PubMed as well as a classifier and search engine for Public Health literature. He is presently involved with some healthcare IT projects related to analysis of unstructured clinical data, matching of patients to clinical studies, and integration of clinical and genetic data for certain diseases.
Biography: Navathe holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1976, an M.S.from Ohio State in 1970 and a B.E. from Indian Institute of Science in 1968. He has over 150 refereed publications. He has been the primary advisor of 23 Ph.D. students placed in academia and industry. He has lectured in U.S., Canada, India, U.K., Germany, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. on topics related to data management and information systems.
His current research interests include data and text mining, enterprise information systems, human genome data management, GIS and biological data integration , mobile databases and synchronization, engineering data management, intelligent information retrieval, and web-based database applications.
http: //www.cc.gatech.edu/~sham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamkant_Navathe
Host: Shahram Ghandeharizadeh
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Distinguished Lecture Series: Amin Vahdat: Symbiosis in Scale Out Networking and Data Management
Tue, Feb 12, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Amin Vahdat, UC San Diego
Talk Title: Symbiosis in Scale Out Networking and Data Management
Series: CS Distinguished Lectures
Abstract: This talk highlights the symbiotic relationship between data
management and networking through a study of two seemingly independent trends in traditionally separate communities: large-scale data processing and software defined networking. First, data processing at scale increasingly runs across hundreds or thousands of servers. We show that balancing network performance with computation and storage is a prerequisite to both efficient and scalable data processing. We illustrate the need for scale out networking in support of data management through a case study of TritonSort, currently the record holder for several sorting benchmarks, including GraySort and JouleSort. Our TritonSort experience shows that disk-bound workloads require 10 Gb/s provisioned bandwidth to keep up with modern processors while emerging flash workloads require 40 Gb/s fabrics at scale.
We next argue for the need to apply data management techniques to
enable Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Scale Out Networking. SDN promises the abstraction of a single logical
network fabric rather than a collection of thousands of individual boxes. In turn, scale out networking allows network capacity (ports, bandwidth) to be expanded incrementally, rather than by wholesale fabric replacement. However, SDN requires an extensible model of both static and dynamic network properties and the ability to deliver dynamic updates to a range of network applications in a fault tolerant and low latency manner. Doing so in networking environments where updates are typically performed by timer-based broadcasts and models are specified as comma-separated text files processed by one-off scripts presents interesting challenges. For example, consider an environment where applications from routing to traffic engineering to monitoring to intrusion/anomaly detection all essentially boil down to inserting, triggering and retrieving updates to/from a shared, extensible data store.
Biography: Amin Vahdat is a Distinguished Engineer at Google working on data center and wide-area networking. He is also a Professor and holds the Science Applications International Corporation Chair in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California San Diego. Vahdat's research focuses broadly on computer systems, including distributed systems, networks, and operating systems. He received a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley under the supervision of Thomas Anderson after spending the last year and a half as a Research Associate at the University of Washington. Vahdat is an ACM Fellow and a past recipient of the the NSF CAREER award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Duke University David and Janet Vaughn Teaching Award.
Host: Ethan Katz-Bassett
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
Mark Riedl (Georgia Tech): Intelligent Narrative Generation: Creativity, Engagement, and Cognition
Tue, Feb 19, 2013 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Mark Riedl , Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Intelligent Narrative Generation: Creativity, Engagement, and Cognition
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Storytelling is a pervasive part of the human experience--we as humans tell stories to communicate, inform, entertain, and educate. Indeed there is evidence to suggest that narrative is a fundamental means by which we organize, understand, and explain the world. In this talk, I present research on artificial intelligence approaches to the generation of narrative structures using planning and case-based reasoning. I discuss how computational story generation capabilities facilitate the creation of engaging, interactive user experiences in virtual worlds, computer games, and training simulations. I conclude with an ongoing research effort toward generalized computational narrative intelligence in which a system learns from experiences mediated through crowdsourcing platforms.
Biography: Mark Riedl is an Assistant Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and director of the Entertainment Intelligence Lab. Dr. Riedl's research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, virtual worlds, and storytelling. The principle research question Dr. Riedl addresses through his research is: how can intelligent computational systems reason about and autonomously create engaging experiences for users of virtual worlds and computer games. Dr. Riedl earned a PhD degree in 2004 from North Carolina State University, where he developed intelligent systems for generating stories and managing interactive user experiences in computer games. From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Riedl was a Research Scientist at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies where he researched and developed interactive, narrative-based training systems. Dr. Riedl joined the Georgia Tech College of Computing in 2007 and in 2011 he received a DARPA Young Faculty Award for his work on artificial intelligence, narrative, and virtual worlds. His research is supported by the NSF, DARPA, the U.S. Army, and Disney.
Host: Dr. Michael Zyda
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 321
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
Dr. Vangelis Lympouridis: Design and prototyping in Whole Body Interaction
Tue, Feb 19, 2013 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Vangelis Lympouridis, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Talk Title: Design and prototyping in Whole Body Interaction
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The increasing interest in Whole Body Interaction (WBI) emerges in parallel with the development of new technologies for motion tracking, such as Microsoft's Kinect and a wide range of miniature inertial sensors, as well as a broader discussion on the design methodologies and the application of interactive systems in various contexts. WBI systems are expected to deliver meaningful digital responses based on the tracking and analysis of human actions. Body controlled applications need to be realized within a multidimensional design space and must operate through a wide spectrum of contexts. Artistic applications require a different design approach and an open ended collaboration schema for their realization. This presentation discusses various approaches and technologies for WBI design and prototyping in artistic, interactive entertainment and health application contexts.
Biography: Dr. Vangelis Lympouridis is a visiting scholar at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and works for the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center within the Interactive Media Division. He was awarded his PhD on "Design Strategies for Whole Body Interactive Performance Systems" from the University of Edinburgh and holds an MSc in Sound Design from the same university and a BFA(Hons) in Sculpture and Environmental Art from the Glasgow School of Art. He is interested in technologies for body tracking and the design of whole body interactions primarily for music, dance, theater, interactive entertainment and rehabilitation applications. He has published and participated to various conferences such as NIME, SMC, ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE VR, The Bodycomputing conference and selected papers and his academic profile can be found at his academia.edu page. Vangelis has presented and exhibited personal and site-specific work during workshops and residencies in the UK, US, Canada, Greece, Portugal and Italy, and was a member of the team representing Greece at the 11th Venice Biennial of Architecture in 2008,with the interactive installation ââ¬ÅAthens by Soundââ¬Â.
A copy of his PhD thesis can be downloaded here.
Host: Gerard Medioni
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 107
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Colloquium: Michael Kaess (CSAIL, MIT)
Tue, Feb 19, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael Kaess, CSAIL, MIT
Talk Title: Robust and Efficient Real-time Mapping for Autonomous Robots
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: We are starting to see the emergence of autonomous robots that operate outside of controlled factory environments in various applications ranging from driverless cars, space and underwater exploration to service robots for businesses and homes. One of the very first challenges encountered on the way to autonomy is perception: obtaining information about the environment that allows the robot to efficiently navigate through, interact with and manipulate it. Moreover, in many such applications, models of the environment are either unavailable or outdated, thus necessitating real-time robotic mapping using onboard sensors.
In this talk I will present my recent research on efficient optimization techniques for robotic mapping, and in particular focus on the recently developed incremental nonlinear least-squares solver, termed incremental smoothing and mapping (iSAM2). Based on our new probabilistic model called the Bayes tree, iSAM2 efficiently updates an existing solution to a least-squares problem after new measurements are added. I will describe some of the key aspects of my work and also address robustness in optimization. Lastly, I will present applications enabled by iSAM2 including our long-term visual mapping and Kintinuous -- our recent work on dense mapping with RGB-D cameras.
Biography: Michael Kaess is a Research Scientist in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he previously also was a Postdoctoral Associate. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and 2002, respectively. His research focuses on probabilistic methods for robot perception. He was one of the two runner-ups for the 2012 Volz dissertation award for the best U.S. Ph.D. thesis in robotics and automation that takes into account impact four years after publication.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Colloquium: Christoph Dorn (TU Vienna)
Thu, Feb 21, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Christoph Dorn, Technical University of Vienna
Talk Title: Models and Techniques for the Design and Self-Adaptation of Socio-Technical Systems
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: The emergence of socio-technical systems characterized by significant user collaboration poses a new challenge for system adaptation. People are no longer just the óusersò of a system but an integral part. Traditional self-adaptation mechanisms, however, consider only the software system and remain unaware of the ramifications arising from collaboration interdependencies. By neglecting collective user behavior, an adaptation mechanism is unfit to appropriately adapt to evolution of user activities, consider side-effects on collaborations during the adaptation process, or anticipate negative consequence upon reconfiguration completion. Inspired by existing architecture-centric system adaptation approaches, I will make the case for a human architecture model and linking it to the runtime software architecture.
I will introduce a mapping mechanism and corresponding framework that enables a system adaptation manager to reason upon the effect of software-level changes on human interactions and vice versa.
Biography: Christoph Dorn, PhD, worked since 2006 as a research assistant at the Technical University of Vienna. He received his Degree in Business Informatic MSocEcSc in 2004 and his PhD in Computer Science in 2009. His research interest is focused on Collaborative Working Environments, Adaptive Collaboration Patterns, Software Architecture, Team formation heuristics, and Self-adaptive Ad-hoc Workflows. Recently awarded an Austrian Science Fond Schroedinger Mobility Fellowship (Marie Curie Co-funded), Christoph was a visiting researcher with Prof. Richard Taylor at U.C. Irvine from March 2011 to August 2012. He is currently spending his fellowship return phase at the Distributed Systems Group (TU Vienna).
Host: Nenad Medvidovic
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Colloquium: Michael Carey (UCI)
Mon, Feb 25, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael Carey, University of California, Irvine
Talk Title: One Size Fits A Bunch: The ASTERIX Approach to Big Data Management
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Like most fields, the database field has gone through various eras - a.k.a. pendulum swings - and we are currently in the era of "One Size Fits All: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone". This is great news for industry sectors such as the Bubble Gum industry and the international consortium of Baling Wire manufacturers, and it is also very good news for Information Integration enthusiasts. Why? Because the current state of practice related to "Big Data" involves somehow piecing together many systems whose target sizes fit different use cases. This talk will provide an overview of the ASTERIX project at UC Irvine, a counter-cultural systems project in SoCal in which we are building a new, coherent, scalable, open-source "Big Data" software stack that we hope will solve a range of problems that today require too many piece parts to solve.
Biography: Michael J. Carey is an ex-long-time member of the NorCal database community. Carey defected to SoCal in 2008, where he is currently a Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine. Prior to his defection, he worked at BEA Systems in NorCal as the chief architect of (and an engineering director for) BEA's AquaLogic Data Services Platform. Carey also did time as a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at IBM Almaden as a database researcher/manager, and as a Fellow (and briefly VP of Software) at e-commerce software startup Propel Software during the 2000-2001 Internet bubble. He is an ACM Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of the ACM SIGMOD E. F. Codd Innovations Award. His current research interests are centered around data-intensive computing and scalable data management.
Host: Shahram Ghandeharizadeh
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
-
CS Colloquium: Alberto Rodriguez: Contacting the World with Mechanical and Data-Driven Intelligence
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alberto Rodriguez, Carnegie Mellon
Talk Title: Contacting the World with Mechanical and Data-Driven Intelligence
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: In the next 10 to 20 years, society will look towards robotics to solve some of its biggest challenges: from improving the self-sufficiency of an aging population, to enabling more efficient and intelligent manufacturing processes; from assisting in dangerous environmental cleanup operations, to providing immediate support in search and rescue emergencies. Reliable physical interaction is central to all these challenges, and robots must master it to become part of the solution.
End effectors such as robotic hands play a privileged role in the manipulation chain. They contact the world, and both their designs and their actions can contribute to more intelligent and reliable physical interaction. In my research I explore both. The central idea is to combine the simplicity and reliability of end effectors and control strategies designed to exhibit mechanical intelligence with the realism of data-driven models to give robots the necessary skills to expect, understand, and control contact.
In the first part of the talk I will discuss the role of the design of a mechanism in producing intelligent behavior. I will show how mechanical attributes such as shape, actuation, or compliance, can be instrumental in the design of effectors that are simpler, cheaper, lighter, and more reliable, and how exploring their design tradeoffs has the potential to impact a very broad set of applications, from automating the design of specialized grippers to the design of feet and locomotion gaits that take into consideration the statistics of the terrain.
In the second part of the talk I will address the problem of getting robots to control physical interaction through their actions. Contact leaves a trace of sensor readings that a skilled manipulator should be able to understand to direct its actions. I will show how we can build accurate probabilistic data-driven models for perception, planning, prediction, and failure detection, to direct and monitor the execution of manipulation tasks, with example applications to general-purpose in-hand manipulation and automated assembly.
Biography: Alberto Rodriguez is a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His main research interests are in robotic manipulation, including mechanical design, data-driven manipulation, grasping, caging, and automated assembly. His long-term research goal is to provide robots with enough sensing, reasoning and acting capabilities to reliably manipulate the environment. Alberto Rodriguez received the degrees of Mathematics ('05) and Telecommunication Engineering ('06 with honors) from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. He is the recipient of "La Caixa" and "Caja Madrid" fellowships for graduate studies in the US, and the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the conference Robotics: Science and Systems 2011.
Host: Fei Sha
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
