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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for January 31, 2007
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South by Southeast: Indian and Vietnamese Artists
Wed, Jan 31, 2007
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Join us for a panel featuring sociologist and filmmaker Kum-Kum Bhavnani, journalist, memoirist, radio-show host Nguyen Qui Duc and artist Dinh Q. Le. The panel will be moderated by USC critical studies professor Priya Jaikumar.
Location: Parkside Room 1016
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Co-Ops and Internships: The Gateway to Industry Experience
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Are you interested in participating in a Co-op Program or obtaining an internship? Attend this workshop and learn the benefits of each program and how you can begin your quest for engineering industry experience.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Importance of biofilms in environmental mercury methylation and persistence of enteric bacteria ...
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Importance of biofilms in environmental mercury methylation and
persistence of enteric bacteria in beach sandSpeaker:
Dr. Jennifer Jay,
UCLAAbstract:Microbial research has undergone a significant shift over the last decade, as we now recognize that the majority of bacteria in the environment live in attached communities, or biofilms. This talk concerns the role of biofilms in two research areas relevant to public health: I. The cycling of mercury (Hg) in the environment. In aquatic systems, inorganic Hg is microbially transformed to methylmercury, a very toxic form of Hg(II) that is readily biomagnified through food webs. While it is known that microbial uptake of Hg by planktonic cultures is influenced by the extracellular speciation of Hg in aquatic systems, Hg uptake in biofilm cultures is understudied. Working first with Escherichia coli O55 as a model gram-negative biofilm-forming organism, and then with two coastal wetland isolates of Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, we found that the presence of a biofilm does not alter the relative availability of the dominant Hg species in both sulfidic and oxic conditions. Interestingly, we observed much higher Hg methylation rates in biofilm cultures compared to planktonic cultures. Results on the geochemical controls on Hg methylation at our coastal wetland field site and in wetland mesocosms will also be presented. II. The persistence of enteric bacteria in sediments. Biofilms also play an important role in the survival of enteric bacteria in beach environments. We observed very high levels of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in sediments at enclosed beaches, and both field and laboratory microcosm results support the hypothesis that the quiescent environment rather than sediment characteristics can explain the elevated sediment FIB levels observed at enclosed beaches.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Walk-In Wednesdays: Career Services Advising
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Student Activity
Please feel free to come in during these walk-in hours! No appointment is necessary. Come in for resume reviews, internship information, or general engineering career advice.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 218
Audiences: Current Engineering Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Optimization in Complex Fluid Mechanics Problems Using the Surrogate Management Framework
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Alison Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow Stanford University Stanford, CA As computational tools mature in accuracy and ability to handle complex phenomena, their impact on solving significant engineering problems will grow. Along with the increase in fidelity of numerical simulations comes a need for development of optimization tools. Optimization applied to fluid mechanics encompasses some of the most challenging aspects of both sub jects, often requir-ing advanced numerical methods for fluid mechanics simulations, combined with non-traditional optimization methods. This talk will focus on new methodologies for optimization of airfoil shapes to reduce trailing-edge noise in turbulent flow. We will then briefly discuss how these optimization tools are being transferred to the field of cardiovascular bioengineering, where they have potential to impact surgical design for both congenital and acquired cardiovascular disease. In optimization for aeroacoustics, or flow generated noise, time accurate computations such as large-eddy simulation (LES) are required to resolve the range of spatial and temporal flow scales relevant to noise generation. The large computational cost coupled with the difficulty in computing gradients of cost functions makes optimization using traditional methods particularly challenging. In this work, we have developed a methodology to optimize the shape of a hydrofoil trailing-edge in order to minimize the aerodynamic noise propagated to the far field. The optimization method applied in this problem is a tailored version of the surrogate management framework (SMF) (Booker et al., 1999). Several novel adaptations to this method have made it more suitable for the trailing- edge problem, particularly for constrained optimization. Optimization has been performed to suppress the laminar vortex-shedding noise from acous-tically compact airfoils as well as the broadband noise from turbulent flow over an acoustically non-compact airfoil. For optimization in turbulent flow, LES is used for source field computations. Several optimal shapes have been identified, which result in significant reduction of trailing-edge noise in both laminar and turbulent flow with reasonable computational cost. The results of this study demonstrate the successful coupling of shape optimization to a time-accurate turbulent flow calculation, and validate the use of a novel methods for constrained optimization. The SMF optimization method is currently being applied to optimize cardiovascular geometries that are representative of surgeries and diseased states. These problems share several challenges in common with the trailing-edge noise problem, particularly the importance of computing the unsteady flow field and a large computational cost. We will discuss how the tools that were developed for the trailing-edge problem can be effectively coupled to blood flow simulations in order to impact surgery design and improve understanding of cardiovascular disease. Finally, we will discuss future work in the area of optimization and simulation in cardiovascular medicine, including coronary artery bypass grafting, peripheral vascular disease, and the identification of principles of optimality in vessel branching patterns.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) Rm 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
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Meet the Chair-Masters
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Student Activity
If you are a new masters CSCI or CECS student, please join us for spring semester's Meet the Chair – an hour of discussion with Dr. Gerard Medioni, the Chairman of the Computer Science Department. Shirley Chan and Jeanne Herman, the two Master's Advisors will also be present.Meet the Chair is an open forum for asking questions, expressing concerns, and making suggestions. Come speak your mind over pizza and drinks with your Chairman, Dr. Gerard Medioni. This is a great opportunity to help shape the future of our program!Hope to see you all there.PLEASE RSVP by Wednesday, 11:00 am, January 31 at
http://www.cs.usc.edu/meetchair.htmPizza and drinks will be served!
Location: Charles Lee Powell Hall (PHE) - 223
Audiences: New Masters in Computer Science
Contact: Nancy Levien
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Ernst & Young Meeting / Information Session
Wed, Jan 31, 2007 @ 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University Calendar
Information Systems Association (ISA) will be hosting Ernst & Young at our next meeting!WHAT: Ernst & Young Meeting/Information SessionWHEN: Wednesday, January 31, 2007TIME: 6:30 PMWHERE: HOH 305You do not need to be a member to attend. This meeting is FREE and open to all USC students and majors. Don't forget: Free Catered Food!Don't miss this chance to network with professionals. Ernst & Young will be presenting on the topic of interviews. With the summer approaching, they are looking to hire summer interns. Don't forget your resume.It's not too late to become a member! Come to this week's meeting for more information or visit the ISA website at www.uscisa.net. Please contact Ariel at saldin@usc.edu with any questions or for more information.Ariel Saldin,
VP of Membership,
Information Systems Association,
http://www.uscisa.netLocation: H. Leslie Hoffman Hall Of Business Administration (HOH) - 305
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
