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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 04, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Xiao Zang, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Policy and Management, at University of Minnesota
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 11, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jun Zhuang, Associate Dean for Research at the School of Engineering and Morton C. Frank Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Department Industrial and Systems Engineering at University of New York at Buffalo
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 18, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Peter Frazier, Professor & UBER Scientist at the Department of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
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CS Colloquium: Amit Sheth (University of South Carolina) - Intelligent, Robust and Trustworthy AI: Managing GenAI Challenges, Next Phase of Hybrid AI Models and Enterprise AI for Mission-Critical Applications
Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Amit Sheth, University of South Carolina
Talk Title: Intelligent, Robust and Trustworthy AI: Managing GenAI Challenges, Next Phase of Hybrid AI Models and Enterprise AI for Mission-Critical Applications
Abstract: This talk will present my team's current and future research themes. The first theme is the development of Civilized and Human-inspired AI. This encompasses addressing challenges associated with Generative AI (GenAI) and finding ways to mitigate its limitations, such as detecting AI-generated content, combating hallucinations, misinformation, and toxicity, and exploring methods for their reduction. The second theme involves the next phase of post-GenAI strategies aimed at creating robust and trustworthy AI solutions. This includes the development of a new generation of custom, compact, agile and neurosymbolic (CCAN) AI models for a more intelligent, robust and trustworthy AI with support for grounding, alignment, instructability, user-level explainability, attribution, safety, reasoning, planning, analogy and abstraction. Lastly, I will provide a brief demonstration of how these AI models, along with AI copilots and agents, are utilized for complex, enterprise-class, mission-critical decision-making applications in diverse fields such as behavioral and mental health, personalized nutrition, autonomous vehicles and smart manufacturing. This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Prof. Amit Sheth (Home Page, LinkedIn, GScholar) is an Educator, Researcher, and Entrepreneur. He is the NCR Chair & Professor of Computer Sc & Engg. He founded the university-wide AI Institute at the University of South Carolina in 2019 which now has ~50 researchers. Earlier, he was the Ohio Eminent Scholar and Exec. Director of Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing and BioHealth Innovation at Wright State University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and AAIA. His major awards include IEEE CS W. Wallace McDowell and IEEE TVSVC Research Innovation awards. He has (co-)founded four companies based on his university research, including the first Semantic Search company in 1999 that pioneered technology similar to what is found today in Google Semantic Search and Knowledge Graph, ezDI, which developed knowledge-infused clinical NLP/NLU, and Cognovi Labs at the intersection of emotion and AI. He is particularly proud of the success of his >>45 Ph.D. advisees and postdocs in academia, industry research, and entrepreneurship.
Host: Emilio Ferrara
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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WIE Leadership Conference - Waves of Change
Sat, Feb 22, 2025 @ 09:00 AM - 03:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
You don't want to miss out; register today! Women in Engineering Leadership Conference will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at USC Hotel from 10 am - 3 pm. We have an outstanding lineup of women leaders who will be sharing valuable insights into overcoming imposter syndrome, how to build a strong network, and how to step into leadership roles even when you're the only or one of the few women or non-binary individuals. Excited to have Malia Lym, PE, as our keynote speaker, CAREER STRATEGIST FOR WOMEN IN STEM-Empowering Women in STEM to Lead with Confidence using the F.A.N.C.Y. FRAMEWORKâ¢
Location: Sign into EngageSC to View Location
Audiences:
Contact: Thelma Federico Zaragoza
Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/WIE/rsvp?id=401633
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CS Colloquium: Angela Zhou (USC / Marshall School of Business) - Robust Fitted-Q-Evaluation and Iteration under Sequentially Exogenous Unobserved Confounders
Mon, Feb 24, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Angela Zhou, USC / Marshall School of Business
Talk Title: Robust Fitted-Q-Evaluation and Iteration under Sequentially Exogenous Unobserved Confounders
Abstract: Offline causal decision making and reinforcement learning is important in domains such as medicine, economics, and e-commerce where online experimentation is costly, dangerous or unethical, and where the true model is unknown. However, most methods assume all covariates used in the behavior policy's action decisions are observed. Though this assumption, sequential ignorability/unconfoundedness, likely does not hold in observational data, most of the data that accounts for selection into treatment may be observed, motivating sensitivity analysis. We study robust policy evaluation and policy optimization in the presence of sequentially-exogenous unobserved confounders under a sensitivity model. We consider the single-timestep and the sequential setting. For the sequential setting, we propose and analyze orthogonalized robust fitted-Q-iteration that uses closed-form solutions of the robust Bellman operator to derive a loss minimization problem for the robust Q function, and adds a bias-correction to quantile estimation. Our algorithm enjoys the computational ease of fitted-Q-iteration and statistical improvements (reduced dependence on quantile estimation error) from orthogonalization. We provide sample complexity bounds, insights, and show effectiveness both in simulations and on real-world longitudinal healthcare data of treating sepsis. In particular, our model of sequential unobserved confounders yields an online Markov decision process, rather than partially observed Markov decision process: we illustrate how this can enable warm-starting optimistic reinforcement learning algorithms with valid robust bounds from observational data.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Angela Zhou is an Assistant Professor in Data Sciences and Operations at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. She received her PhD from Cornell ORIE and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley / the Simons Institute. She works on data-driven decision making, including the interface of causal inference and machine learning, (offline) reinforcement learning, and equitable social prediction in consequential domains. She was a program co-chair for ACM EAAMO 2022 (a new conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms and Optimization). Her research interests are in statistical machine learning for data-driven sequential decision making under uncertainty, causal inference, and the interplay of statistics and optimization. Her work has received oral-equivalent or featured designations at machine learning venues (Neurips, TMLR) and has won the INFORMS Data Mining Best Student Paper award, while she has received various designations as a Rising Star in AI, Data Science, and AI Fairness.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 25, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Julia Yan, Assistant Professor of Operations and Logistics at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
Location: Social Sciences Building (SOS) - B2
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
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AI Seminar-Can We Blame the Chatbot if it Goes Wrong?
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sun-Gyoo Kang, National Bank of Canada
Talk Title: Can We Blame the Chatbot if it Goes Wrong?
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: Zoom Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93148797047?pwd=ebx0kDpoHqrXACc24lWM1Y8fZw89qO.1 Webinar ID: 931 4879 7047 Passcode: 621721 Reg Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CE_lGmAHQ7SVwxK9PBwJ0Q This presentation examines the complex issue of accountability for AI chatbots, particularly in light of recent tragic incidents where chatbots contributed to suicides. The presentation will be mainly on the Air Canada case, which established corporate responsibility for chatbot errors. It will then define key concepts like accountability, responsibility, and liability, and then explores the importance of transparency and explainability in achieving accountability and identifies various actors—developers, data providers, deployers, and even users—who might share responsibility. Finally, it will compare the EU's AI Act and Canada's AIDA, highlighting their shared responsibility models and the ongoing challenges of assigning liability in the rapidly evolving field of generative AI.
Biography: Sun Gyoo Kang is a lawyer and compliance officer in the financial industry, specializing in the banking sector. He is currently the Chief Compliance Advisor at National Bank of Canada. Sun Gyoo is also the founder of Law and Ethics in Tech, a private research lab focusing on AI and FinTech law and regulations, as well as ethical considerations surrounding these technologies. His research on AI ethics is demonstrated through publication such as the “Analysis of artificial intelligence and data act based on ethical frameworks" in the International Journal of Law, Ethics, and Technology. He often writes columns for the Montreal AI Ethics Institute talking about different ethical issues with artificial intelligence.
Host: Abel Salinas and Pete Zamar
More Info: Thttps://www.isi.edu/events/5349/ai-seminar-can-we-blame-the-chatbot-if-it-goes-wrong/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93148797047?pwd=ebx0kDpoHqrXACc24lWM1Y8fZw89qO.1Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93148797047?pwd=ebx0kDpoHqrXACc24lWM1Y8fZw89qO.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: Thttps://www.isi.edu/events/5349/ai-seminar-can-we-blame-the-chatbot-if-it-goes-wrong/
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CA DREAMS - Technical Seminar Series
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gabriel M. Rebeiz, Professor, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Silicon-Based Phased-Arrays for SATCOM and 5G/6G: Lessons Learned from a Life in Microwaves
Abstract: Affordable phased-arrays, built using low-cost silicon chips, have become an essential technology for high data-rate terrestrial (5G) systems to their high gain, electronically steerable patterns, narrow beamwidths, high tolerance to interference and adaptive nulling capabilities. These advances are reshaping our communication and sensor systems, as we work to change our world from the Marconi-Era driven by low-gain antenna systems to the Directive Communications era where every antenna, every beam, every sensor is electronically steered. This talk summarizes our work in this area and concludes with future 5G-Advanced and 6G systems with wideband frequency coverage and where every device will be connected at Gbps speeds. The talk will also present life-long lessons that Professor Rebeiz learned from his work in microwaves.
Biography: Professor Gabriel M. Rebeiz is Member of the National Academy (elected for his work on phased-arrays) and is a Distinguished Professor and the Wireless Communications Industry Endowed Chair at the University of California, San Diego. He is an IEEE Fellow and is the recipient of the IEEE MTT Microwave Prize (2000, 2014, 2020) all for phased-arrays. His 2x2 and 4x4 RF-beamforming architectures are now used by most companies developing communication and radar systems. All SATCOM affordable phased-arrays are based on his work. He has published 900 IEEE papers with an H-index of 102 and has graduated 124 PhD students including the former CEO of Qualcomm and several VPs in the communications and defense industry.
Host: Dr. Steve Crago
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5339/silicon-based-phased-arrays-for-satcom-and-5g-6g-lessons-learned-from-a-life-in-microwaves/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addonWebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addon
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amy Kasmir