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Events for January 11, 2007
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L. L. Handy Colloquium Seminar
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 12:45 AM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Smart Surfactants and Ligands in Pharmaceutical,
Environmental, and Energy Applications Professor Keith P. JohnstonDepartment of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at AustinABSTRACT Smart surfactants and ligands are being designed to (1) perform multiple functions, (2) achieve targeted activity at particular interfaces, and (3) be active at unusual interfaces, for example, in CO2. In pharmaceutical science, one of the key challenges is particle engineering of poorly water soluble drugs to achieve high bioavailability for oral and pulmonary administration. Increasingly, two goals are being pursued simultaneously: (1) control of particle nucleation and growth to achieve the desired particle morphology and (2) rapid wetting and dissolution, and in some cases high levels of supersaturation. Studies of fundamental thermodynamic, transport and interfacial mechanisms are leading to improvements in bioavailability in vivo.
Environmentally benign carbon dioxide-based emulsions may replace toxic organic solvents for pharmaceutical, chemical, materials, and microelectronics processing applications. Surfactants stabilize CO2-in-water emulsions or foams needed to control mobility in CO2-enhanced oil recovery, for producing 60 billion barrels of oil (approximately $6 trillion value). Nonionic methylated branched hydrocarbon surfactants emulsify up to 90% CO2 in water with polyhedral cells smaller than 10 microns, with the potential for excellent mobility control.
An emerging understanding of the role of surfactants in charging and stabilization mechanisms for colloids in low-permittivity solvents (dielect. const. < 5) will help advance a variety of applications including electrophoretic displays and electrophoretic deposition of nanocrystals to form superlattices. On the basis of novel experimental measurements for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic TiO2, a general mechanism is presented to describe particle charging in terms of preferential partitioning of cations and surfactant anions between the particle surface and reverse micelles in the bulk solvent. The design of smart surfactants and ligands for nano- and micron-sized emulsions and particle dispersions is in its infancy, and many new concepts will be developed for pharmaceutical, environmental, and energy applications.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
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Jianbai Wang
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
"An Integrated Position-Sensing System for a MEMS-based Cochlear Implant"Nearly 100,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants to date, where a bundle of wire electrodes (16-22) is inserted into the cochlea to electrically stimulate receptors in the auditory nerve, restoring hearing to the profoundly deaf. Replacing the traditional wire electrodes with MEMS-based higher-density thin-film arrays may not only allow significantly higher frequency discrimination but can also permit the inclusion of additional features such as position sensing (and eventually control).
A thin-film electrode array integrated with position sensors has been developed for a cochlear prosthesis. The array was fabricated using bulk micromachining technology, and it contains embedded poly-silicon piezoresistive sensors for wall contact and position in order to minimize tissue damage during array insertion and achieve deep implants after insertion. Nine position sensors are distributed at the tip and along the 8mm-long electrode array, and these sensors correspond to approximate gauge factors of 10-20, permitting array tip position to be determined within 50µm and providing wall contact output signals of more than 50mV at the tip. Moreover, parylene-silicon-dielectric electrodes were developed, improving the flexibility and maintaining enough robustness to facilitate the modiolus-hugging shape definition by a polymeric backing device.
The WIMS ERC is developing an implantable MEMS-based cochlear prosthesis using a hybrid electrode array. A custom integrated circuit (ASIC) mounts on the rear of a 32-site thin-film electrode array, interfacing with a hermetically-packaged WIMS microcontroller and wireless chip over an 8-lead polymeric cable. The 2.4mm x 2.4mm ASIC chip operates from 5V and performs command validation, stimulus generation, sensor selection, 5b offset compensation, and signal conditioning (amplification and band-limiting).
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ericka Lieberknecht
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Story Telling Alice: Presenting Programming as a Means to the End of Storytelling
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Caitlin KelleherPost-doctoral Researcher Carnegie Mellon UniversityAbstract:
The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) estimates that the number of incoming college students intending to major in computer science has dropped by 70% since 2000, despite the fact that the projected need for computer scientists continues to grow. Increasing the numbers of female students who pursue computer science has the potential both to help fill projected computing jobs and improve the technology we create by diversifying the viewpoints that influence technology design. Numerous studies have found that girls begin to turn away from math and science related disciplines, including computer science, during middle school. By the end of eighth grade, twice as many boys as girls are interested in pursuing science, engineering, or technology based careers.In this talk, I will describe the development of Storytelling Alice, a programming environment that gives middle school girls a positive first experience with computer programming. Rather than presenting programming as an end in itself, Storytelling Alice presents programming as a means to the end of storytelling, a motivating activity for a broad spectrum of middle school girls. More than 250 girls participated in the formative user testing of Storytelling Alice. To determine girls' storytelling needs, I observed girls interacting with successive versions of Storytelling Alice and analyzed their storyboards and the programs they developed. To enable and encourage middle school girls to create the kinds of stories they envision, Storytelling Alice includes high-level animations that enable users to program social interaction between characters, a gallery of 3D objects designed to spark story ideas, and a story-based tutorial presented using Stencils, a novel tutorial interaction technique.To determine the impact of the storytelling focus on girls' interest in and success at learning to program, I conducted a study comparing the experiences of girls introduced to programming using Storytelling Alice with those of girls introduced to programming using a version of Alice without storytelling features (Generic Alice). Participants who used Storytelling Alice and Generic Alice were equally successful at learning basic programming concepts. However, I found that users of Storytelling Alice show more evidence of engagement with programming. Storytelling Alice users spent 42% more time programming and were more than three times as likely to sneak extra time to continue working on their programs (51% of Storytelling Alice users vs. 16% of Generic Alice users snuck extra time). I will conclude by discussing future directions for introducing programming through storytelling as well as other potential contexts for storytelling.Bio:
Caitlin Kelleher is currently a post-doctoral researcher in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Randy Pausch. Caitlin was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Nancy Levien
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Understanding the Financial Aid Process
Thu, Jan 11, 2007 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
The Viterbi Admission & Student Affairs Division will be holding two more Financial Aid workshops to discuss the details of the upcoming financial aid application process. A representative from the Financial Aid Office will come and discuss the Financial Aid application process, the importance of deadlines and other issues that students should be aware of. Please come with questions you have about the process. If you would like to attend this event, please RSVP to viterbi.studentservices@usc.edu and indicate the date of the session you would like to attend.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Undergrad - Freshmen & New Transfer Students
Contact: Julie Phaneuf
