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• Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars (48)
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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February

• Feb

  01

  A Reading by Nguyen Qui Duc

  Wed, Feb 01, 2006

  USC Viterbi School of Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Journalist, memoirist and radio-show host Nguyen Qui Duc will read from and discuss his work. Lunch will be provided.

  Location: Troyland Apartments (TAP) - er Hall, Room 420

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Daria Yudacufski

  

• Feb

  01

  The Newtonian Revolution: Interaction of Mathematics with High Technology

  Wed, Feb 01, 2006 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM

  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Centennial Lecture by Rudolf E. Kalman.For more information go to http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars
  

  Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - Auditorium

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Dennis Plocher

  

• Feb

  01

  USC On the Road

  Wed, Feb 01, 2006 @ 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Alumni

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Join the Alumni Association as they hit the road with some of USC's finest. Scheduled to speak are: Major General Charles Bolden, Jr., USMC (Ret.); Mike Zyda, Director of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's GamePipe Laboratory, and Yannis Yortsos, Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who will give a special presentation on "Creating a Science of Games"Join us at The Crescent Club at 200 Crescent Court, 17th FloorDallas, Texas 75201Admission is $20 per person, Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be servedFor more information call the USC Alumni Association at (213) 740-2300 or visit http://alumni.usc.edu/ontheroad/

  Location: Dallas, TX

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Kirstin Strickland

  

• Feb

  02

  The Multiplying Potential of People, Technology, and Resources, Dr. J. Khalaifa, Saudi Aramco

  Thu, Feb 02, 2006 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  The Society of Petroleum Engineers 2007 President Elect Dr. J. Al-Khalaifa will be visiting the USC Campus and will be the speaker at the USC SPE Student Chapter meeting.

  Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - co 116 Petroleum and Chemical Engineering

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: iraj ershaghi

  

• Feb

  02

  CS Colloquium

  Thu, Feb 02, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Speaker: Prof. Adam MeyersonTitle: Randomized Online Matching Abstract:Consider the problem of assigning consultants to projects. Each consultant should be assigned a project, in such a way that the cost of these assignments is minimized. Cost could represent the travel time of the consultant to the project site, or the ability of the consultant to complete the task. This problem is an instance of the minimum-cost matching problem: one of the most important problems in computer science. Substantial previous work has lead to efficient algorithms to compute these matchings.However, the consultant-assignment problem is naturally online, in that we do not know what the list of projects will be in advance. Projects arrive one-by-one, and as each project appears we must assign a consultant. The requirement that we make assignments as we go, without prior knowledge of the list of projects, makes the problem substantially more difficult. Prior work (by Khuller, Mitchell, and Vazirani) has demonstrated that this problem is intractable if the costs are arbitrary. If the costs form a metric (satisfying symmetry and triangle inequality, for example distances along a sphere) then the best possible deterministic guarantee is that the cost of our matching is at most 2K-1 times the optimum, where K is the number of assignments.In this talk, I will describe the first randomized algorithm for the online matching problem. By using a simple randomized greedy technique combined with prior work in metric embeddings (in particular the result of Fakcharoenphol, Rao, and Talwar), I will guarantee that the cost of our matching is at most
  O(log3 K) times the optimum. This talk is based on the paper "Randomized Online Algorithms for Minimum Metric Bipartite Matching" which appeared at SODA 2006, and represents joint work with Akash Nanavati and Laura Poplawski.Bio:Adam Meyerson received his PhD from Stanford University in Fall 2002, with a thesis on approximation algorithms for design of minimum-cost computer networks. He spent the 2002-2003 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow of the Center for Algorithmic Adaptation, Dissemination, and Integration (Aladdin ) at Carnegie-Mellon University. Dr. Meyerson co-organized a series of workshops on integrated logistics ,designed to bring
  together researchers from computer science and operations research to discuss applications of facility location problems ranging from warehouse placement to database analysis to network design. He joined the faculty of UCLA in Fall of 2003.

  Location: TBA

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  02

  USC On The Road

  Thu, Feb 02, 2006 @ 06:00 PM - 08:30 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Alumni

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Join the Alumni Association as they hit the road with some of USC's finest. Scheduled to speak are: Major General Charles Bolden, Jr., USMC (Ret.); Mike Zyda, Director of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's GamePipe
  Laboratory, and Yannis Yortsos, Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who will give a special presentation on "Creating a Science of Games"Join us at the Intercontinental Houston at
  2222 West Loop South
  Houston, TX 7702Admission is $20 per person, Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be servedFor more information call the USC Alumni Association at (213) 740-2300 or visit http://alumni.usc.edu/ontheroad/

  Location: Houston, TX

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Kirstin Strickland

  

• Feb

  03

  The musical engineer -- examples of experiments and explorations

  Fri, Feb 03, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Engineering Honors Colloquium Lecture

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Erika Chua

  

• Feb

  03

  Cortical Reconstruction Using Implicit Surface Evolution (CRUISE) And More

  Fri, Feb 03, 2006 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

  Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIES"Cortical Reconstruction Using Implicit Surface Evolution (CRUISE) … And More"Prof. Jerry L. PrinceDepartment of Electrical & Computer Engineering The Johns Hopkins UniversityAbstract:Knowledge about the position and shape of the human brain cortex can be used for a wide variety of purposes in medicine and science, from learning about the function of the brain, to planning for surgery, to studying how diseases affect the brain. This talk presents CRUISE, an automatic method to find and geometrically represent the cortex of the brain from magnetic resonance images. Tissue classification and segmentation using geometric deformable models are at the core of this approach, and topological correctness is an underlying theme. It is shown how geometric properties of the cortex can be used to match the gyri and sulci (folding patterns) of multiple subjects. The result is an alignment of the cortices, which can then be used to apply a coordinate system to a given subject, to perform population analyses of function in a standardized coordinate system, or to assist in normalizing the whole brain to a standard atlas of the brain. CRUISE has been run on over 1,000 magnetic resonance brain images for testing, validation, and carrying out scientific studies.Bio:Jerry L. Prince received the B.S. degree from the University of Connecticut in 1979 and the S.M., E.E., and Ph.D. degrees in 1982, 1986, and 1988, respectively, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in electrical engineering and computer science. He has worked as an engineer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, MIT Lincoln Laboratories, and The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC). He joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University in 1989, where he is currently William B. Kouwenhoven Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Dr. Prince is a
  Fellow of the IEEE and a member of Sigma Xi. He also holds memberships in Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing from 1992-1995, an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging from 2000-2004 and is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Medical Image Analysis. Dr. Prince received a 1993 National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellows Award and was Maryland's 1997 Outstanding Young Engineer. He is also co-founder of Diagnosoft, Inc., a medical imaging software company. His current research interests are in image processing and computer vision with primary application to medical imaging and has published over 200 articles and abstracts on these subjects.Host: Prof. Richard Leahy, x04659

  Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - ontology Auditorium

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Rosine Sarafian

  

• Feb

  03

  Materials Science Seminar- Protein Dynamics At Atomic Scale

  Fri, Feb 03, 2006 @ 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Joint Seminar between the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials
  Science and the
  Department of Physics and AstronomyDongping ZhongDepartments of Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry,
  Programs of Biophysics, Chemical Physics and Biochemistry,
  The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USAProtein dynamics is a complex process and the current challenge is to break down its complexity into elementary processes which act on different time scales and length scales. We integrate femtosecond spectroscopy, molecular biology techniques, and computational simulations to study functional evolution in real time and thus elucidate the complex dynamics with unprecedented detail. Here, two important biological systems, protein surface hydration and light-driven DNA repair, will be reported. With femtosecond temporal and single-residue spatial resolution, we mapped out the global water motion in the hydration layer using intrinsic tryptophan residue to scan the protein surface with site-directed mutagenesis. The results reveal the ultrafast nature of surface hydration dynamics and provide a molecular basis for protein conformational flexibility, an essential determinant of protein function. For DNA repair, we followed the entire functional evolution through femtosecond synchronization. We resolved a series of ultrafast processes including active-site solvation, energy harvesting and transfer, and electron hopping and tunneling. These results elucidate the crucial role of ultrafast dynamics in control of biological function efficiency and lay bare the molecular mechanism of DNA repair at atomic scale.
  

  Location: Vivian Hall of Engineering (VHE) - 217

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  06

  Analyzing Swarms a Stochastic Systems Approach to Studying Swarm Behavior

  Mon, Feb 06, 2006 @ 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Speaker:
  Kristina Lerman
  Information Science Institute (ISI)
  University of Southern CaliforniaAbstract:Swarms are decentralized systems composed of many simple agents (e.g., robots) with no central controller. Instead, swarms are self-organizing: constructive collective behavior emerges from local interactions among the agents and between agents and their environment. Though the behavior of an individual agent in a swarm can be considered to be stochastic and unpredictable, the collective behavior of many such agents has a simple probabilistic description. We present a formal methodology for studying the behavior of swarms. We derive a class of mathematical models that describe the dynamics of swarms and show how the models can be written down by examining details of the individual agent behavior. This methodology is valid for certain types of agents that can be modeled as Markov processes (of varying complexity). Though at first glance this may appear overly restrictive, most of the currently studied or proposed swarm systems are based on Markovian agents. Like all formal approaches, the stochastic methodology has limitations, but as applications of the approach to the robotics domain illustrate, it can also be quite useful in predicting collective behavior. Bio:
  Kristina Lerman is a research assistant professor in Computer Science at the University of Southern California and a project leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute. She received a Ph.D. in physics from UC Santa Barbara in 1995, where she studied complex behavior of spatially extended non-equilibrium systems. She has received funding from NSF and DARPA to apply physics-based mathematical methods to the study of multi-agent systems, such as distributed robot systems.

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  06

  Molecular Optical Imaging: Engineering Roots, Biomedical Applications - Seminar Series

  Mon, Feb 06, 2006 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 AM

  Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu, PhD
  Faculty Research Scientist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles"Molecular Optical Imaging: Engineering Roots, Biomedical Applications"
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

  Audiences: Graduate

  Contact: Darryl Hwang

  

• Feb

  08

  Thermo-Mechanical Effects in Multi-Component Micro-Systems in Electronic Applications

  Wed, Feb 08, 2006 @ 03:30 AM

  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  seminar by I. DuttaFor more information go to
  http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/2-8-06-dutta.shtml
  

  Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Dennis Plocher

  

• Feb

  09

  Lyman L. Handy Colloquium Series

  Thu, Feb 09, 2006 @ 12:45 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Lyman L. Handy ColloquiumMeasurement of Molecular and Thermal Diffusion Coefficients
  in Multicomponent MixturesDr. Abbas Firoozabadi
  Yale University and RERIAbstract Molecular, pressure, and thermal diffusion processes are important in a variety of disciplines including a vast number of problems related to the exploitation and production of hydrocarbons and improved oil recovery in fractured petroleum reservoirs. The combined effect of these diffusions can result in the unusual floatation of a stable heavy fluid on the top of a light fluid in certain mixtures of interest in hydrocarbon reservoirs.
  The study of diffusion processes in mixtures with three and higher species has been a challenge. Multicomponent diffusion is much more complicated than diffusion in binaries; there are some inherent differences between binary and ternary mixtures. Few measurements of molecular diffusion coefficients for multicomponent mixtures have been reported in the literature, even for ternaries. Current techniques are relatively slow and it takes several days to conduct a single measurement. Since the early twentieth century, a variety of methods have been developed to measure thermal diffusion coefficients. The two main methods are:1) the thermogravitational column technique and 2) the optical methods. There is only one report of measurements in a ternary mixture by a thermogravitational method. All the optical techniques have only been used to determine molecular and thermal diffusion coefficients for binary mixtures.
  In this talk, I will present a theory and derive working equations for determining thermal and molecular diffusion coefficients in multicomponent mixtures. An analytical model will be presented for the unsteady state behavior of multicomponent mixtures in a thermogravitational column and in an optical diffusion cell using laser beams. In the past, a major drawback with the beam deflection technique has been its limitation to binary mixtures. This is because the measured quantity is the components' net effect on the deflection of the beam rather than the concentration of each individual component. The beam deflection technique can only provide 2(n-1) coefficients, while n(n-1) diffusion coefficients define an n-component mixture. We have solved this problem by using beams of different wavelengths and have developed the mathematical solution to the general problem of multiple wavelengths. In order to determine all the diffusion coefficients of an n-component mixture, (n-1) beams of different wavelengths are required. Therefore, we can determine all the diffusion coefficients from the transient beam deflection measurements.Thursday, February 9, 2006
  Seminar at 12:45 p.m.
  OHE 122
  Refreshments will be served after the seminar in HED Lobby
  The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  09

  USC CS Colloquium Series

  Thu, Feb 09, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 AM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Prof. Stefano Soatto, UCLA to lectureSubject TBA

  Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  10

  Automatic Differentiation and its Applications

  Fri, Feb 10, 2006 @ 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Speaker:
  Paul Hovland
  Argonne National LaboratoryAbstractAutomatic differentiation is a technique for computing the derivatives of a function defined by a computer subprogram. We provide an introduction to automatic differentiation tools and theory and describe the role of current and next generation automatic differentiation tools in large-scale optimization, sensitivity analysis, and the solution of nonlinear PDEs. We focus on the computational costs of automatic differentiation and the trend toward tools that are more robust, easier to use, and more powerful. We conclude with a short description of our research agenda, with an emphasis on the motivational role played by current and future applications.

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  10

  The Paleoproterozoic Snowball Earth

  Fri, Feb 10, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Engineering Honors Colloquium Lecture on The Paleoproterozoic Snowball Earth: A Climate Disaster Triggered by the Evolution of Oxygenic Photosynthesis?

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Erika Chua

  

• Feb

  10

  Materials Science Seminar

  Fri, Feb 10, 2006 @ 02:15 PM - 03:30 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Fabrication and Characterization of
  Nanoscale Hybrid Structures and DevicesJia Grace Lu
  Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
  Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  University of California, IrvineIn this talk, I will describe the research on the nano materials and hybrid structures currently undertaking in my group. By integrating bottom-up synthesis technique with top-down lithographic technique, various nanostructures are fabricated, and they are characterized by different methods such as TEM, SEM, XRD, photoluminescence, photoconductance, scanning surface potential microscopy, and electrical transport measurement. These nanostructures are used to build a range of electronic devices including field effect transistors (FET), chemical sensors, and single-electron transistors (SET). For example, individual ZnO nanowire FETs are implemented as highly sensitive chemical sensors for detection of NO2, NH3, CO toxic gases. Due to a Debye screening length comparable to the nanowire diameter, the electric field applied over the back gate electrode can significantly affect the sensitivity. A strong negative gate field is also found to efficiently refresh the sensors via an electrodesorption mechanism. As another example, spin dependent transport is studied in ferromagnetic SET devices with Co/Al2O3/Al nanoscale tunnel junctions. They exhibit typical single electron tunneling behavior including Coulomb blockade and gate modulation. Magnetoconductance measurements show bell-shaped I - H curves as a result of the direct influence of the magnetic field on the superconducting gap. In addition, the magnetic moment switching in the Co electrodes from parallel to antiparallel configurations give rises to a rich phenomenon of spin transport. Different transport mechanisms based on the spin accumulation effect and the Meservey-Tedrow effect will be presented. Brief Bio-Sketch:Dr. Lu received her dual B.S. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Washington University in 1992, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from Harvard University in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Currently she holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at UC Irvine. She had received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2002 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2004.
  

  Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  10

  Viterbi Early Career Chair Lecture Series

  Fri, Feb 10, 2006 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

  Integrated Media Systems Center

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  CHRIS CHAFE: Tapping into the Internet as an Acoustical Medium Duca Family Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford UniversityDirector, Center for Computer Research in Music and AcousticsEvent poster: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mucoaco/events/20060210-chafe.pdfABSTRACT: Recent work in network audio transport transforms advanced networks into a new kind of acoustical medium in which sound waves propagate as if traveling through air, water, or solids. Waves sent through the medium are reflected or altered as they bounce between hosts. Propagation delays are used to create echo chambers and build the resonances for "distributed musical instruments." As a side-effect, tones created by network resonances can be used to monitor the quality of the underlying network.The presentation presents three areas of research:1) auditory methods for monitoring QoS, especially for networks supporting real-time, interactive, bidirectional flows2) remote musical collaboration using professional-quality, low-latency audio3) empirical study of human factors affected by some unique acoustical properties of the mediumNetwork latency, jitter and delay asymmetry affect the speed of sound and are never uniform. By creating distributed virtual sound objects like instruments and rooms and by studying distributed ensembles, we can begin to understand this new sound world. Some effects have been measured empirically and the results contain some surprises. For example, latencies can be low enough that musicians at opposite ends of a path are essentially in the same room, and echo cancellation becomes unnecessary. Multi-channel "echo construction" can be designed to enrich the experience. For audio use, the new territory that is opening is unlike any previous telecommunications medium.BIOSKETCH: Chris Chafe is a composer/ cellist / researcher with an interest in computer music and interactive performance. The Duca Family Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, he has been a long-term denizen of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where he directs the center and teaches computer music courses. His doctorate in music composition was completed at Stanford in 1983 with prior degrees in music from the University of California at San Diego and Antioch College. His areas of research involve methods for computer sound synthesis based on physical models of musical instrument mechanics and "SoundWIRE," which explores musical collaboration and network evaluation using next-generation internets for high-quality sound. He has performed his music in Europe, the Americas and Asia, and composed soundtracks for documentary films. From 2001, numerous collaborations with artist Greg Niemeyer have included "Ping" (SFMOMA, Parc de la Villette, Paris and online via the Walker Art Center), "Oxygen Flute" (San Jose Museum of Art, UC's Kroeber Museum), the disc "Extrasensory Perceptions" with music from both installations, and most recently "Organum" which is a synthetic animation taking place in an invented world of larynx creatures (DVD) and led to the "Organum Play Test" for collaborative game play.Host: Elaine Chew, Viterbi Early Career, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems EngineeringSupported in part by the Viterbi Early Career Chair Funds, the Integrated Media Systems Center, and the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.For other lectures in the series, please see http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mucoaco/events/vecc0506.html
  

  Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Elaine Chew

  

• Feb

  13

  Visual Plasticity - Seminar Series

  Mon, Feb 13, 2006 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 AM

  Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Eunjin Lee, PhD
  Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, USC"Visual Plasticity"
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

  Audiences: Graduate

  Contact: Darryl Hwang

  

• Feb

  13

  Neurobotics: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding and Assisting Humans

  Mon, Feb 13, 2006 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

  Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Dr. Yoky Matsuoka,
  Anna Loomis McCandless Assistant Professor,
  Carnegie Mellon UniversityHost: Petros IoannouAbstract:
  Neurobotics is a new field that lies at the intersection of Robotics and Neuroscience. Neurobotics is currently a small community but is growing rapidly in both engineering and science. In the Neurobotics Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, robotic models and environments are used to understand the biomechanics and neuromuscular control of human limbs. In parallel, robotic systems are developed to augment, replace and rehabilitate damaged sensorimotor functions. In this talk, an overview of the Neurobotics Lab is presented and two example projects are addressed in more detail. First, the Anatomically Correct Testbed (ACT) Hand, a prototype of a seamlessly integrated prosthetic hand, is introduced. A description of how the ACT Hand is used to understand the neural control strategy of the high-degree-of-freedom redundant human hand will follow. As a second example, a robotic rehabilitation environment with distorted feedback is presented. To enrich this therapeutic environment, a patient's adaptation and other neuromuscular states are monitored using a dynamic system identification technique, and a safe whole-body interaction environment is constructed. Finally, there will be a brief description of the Neurobotics Lab outreach and educational programs for minority and disabled students.Biography:
  Professor Yoky Matsuoka is an Anna Loomis McCandless Assistant Professor in the Robotics Institute, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Ph.D. at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Neuroscience in 1998. She received an M.S. from MIT in 1995 and a B.S. from UC Berkeley in 1993, both in EECS. Prior to joining CMU, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT and in Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Her work at CMU earned a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2004, Anna Loomis McCandless Chair in 2004, and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award in 2005.

  Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Alma Hernandez

  

• Feb

  14

  USC CS Colloquium Series

  Tue, Feb 14, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Coordinating Autonomous AgentsProf. Pragnesh Jay Modi of Drexel

  Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  15

  The many faces of electromagnetic brain imaging: from the localization of neural activations

  Wed, Feb 15, 2006 @ 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

  Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Dr. Sylvain Baillet, PhD
  CNRS, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière,
  Paris, FranceHost: Dr. Richard LeahyAbstract:Among the many possible ways to explore brain functions, electromagnetic brain mapping has unique time resolution at the millisecond scale. Measures consist of electric and magnetic signatures of neural activations picked at the scalp level using the techniques of electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) respectively. The inverse route from surface data to estimates of neural activity can take many paths that draw on a large variety of signal and image processing approaches and statistical analysis tools. Given the excellent time resolution of the resulting image sequences, another important aspect concerns multidimensional data mining issues in space, time, frequency and coupling indices of neural assemblies.This talk is a brief introduction to the potentials of electromagnetic brain mapping from the electrical engineering and integrative neuroscience point of views. Examples will be discussed essentially from sensori-motor studies and clinical applications such as epilepsy.Biography:Sylvain Baillet graduated in Applied Physics from the Ecole Normale Supêrieure, Cachan and in Electrical Engineering from the University of Paris, in 1998. From 1998 to 2000 he was a Research Associate with the NeuroImaging Group at the Signal and Image Processing Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles with Prof. Richard M. Leahy. He is now the head of the Brain Imaging group at the Cognitive Neuroscience & Brain Imaging Laboratory, with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and La Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris.His research interests focus on confronting methods and models to experimental challenges in Neuroscience (visuo-motor coordination) and Neurology (epilepsy & stroke).
  

  Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Regina Morton

  

• Feb

  15

  The Civil Engineering Profession - Year 2025

  Wed, Feb 15, 2006 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Presented by:Albert A. Dorman MS CE '62
  Research Professor
  USC Viterbi School of Engineering
  Founding Chairman of AECOMProfessor Dorman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA). He also serves as a member of the Viterbi School's Board of Councilors.AECOM is ranked as one of the five largest engineering,
  project management, and consulting firms in the United States.

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  16

  Chemical Engineering Seminar

  Thu, Feb 16, 2006 @ 12:45 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Cellular Membrane Materials as Motors: Optical Methods to Characterize Nanoelectromechanical PropertiesProfessor Bahman Anvari
  Department of Bioengineering
  Rice UniversityThe ability of cellular membranes to perform useful work is often ignored because they are relatively delicate and under many conditions deform easily. Yet, the membranes of living cells are poised to utilize the intense electric fields (> 10 MV/m) generated by the electrochemical gradients across them. For example, the ability of membranes to generate electrically-induced force is demonstrated in cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) that are capable of producing rapid (> 50 kHz) movements, known as electromotility, a process required for normal hearing.
  Using a novel experimental approach that combines optical trapping with voltage-clamping and fluorescence imaging, we have demonstrated that native biological membranes are capable of electrically-induced pico-Newton level force generation over a broad range of electrical excitation frequency (> 3 kHz). This electromechanical force is: (1) enhanced in presence of a specialized transmembrane protein, prestin, found in the OHCs; (2) affected by the amplitude and polarity of the transmembrane electrical potential; and (3) diminished in the presence of a specific anionic amphipathic agent, salicylate.
  Our long-term objectives are to understand the molecular basis of electromotility, and investigate how membrane-based electromechanical coupling can be modulated in a controlled manner through changes in membrane physical properties and membrane-protein interactions. Characterizing the nanoelectromechanical properties of plasma membranes has the potential to not only lead to a better understanding of the hearing process and development of therapeutics for specific types of hearing loss, but also has relevance to a broad range of biological processes where membranes harness the energy in the transmembrane electric field, and to the development of biological nano-electromechanical systems with diagnostics and therapeutic applications.Thursday, February 16, 2006
  Seminar at 12:45 p.m.
  OHE 122
  Refreshments will be served after the seminar in HED Lobby
  The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  16

  Viterbi Early Career Chair Lecture Series

  Thu, Feb 16, 2006 @ 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

  Integrated Media Systems Center

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  JEANNE BAMBERGER: Expressing the Difference - comparing great performancesProfessor Emeritus of Music and Urban Education, MITVisiting Professor, UC Berkeley School of EducationEvent poster: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mucoaco/events/20060216-bamberger.pdfABSTRACT: The presentation will begin with a comparison of three performances of the first movement (beginning) of the Moonlight Sonata -- one each by Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Schnabel, and Alfred Brendel. The three recordings are remarkably different, especially with respect to expression, and the means by which each performer creates that expression. In that context, I shall also talk a little about Schnabel and the kinds of things he had to say -- not specifically about the Moonlight Sonata, but principles that would apply to it and other pieces.Then, I shall play the Schubert, E-flat minor March for piano 4-hands with Elaine Chew. We will then discuss how we would make a performance of the piece, the decisions we make, and what makes a difference in expression. Moving on to the Trio, the second part of the same piece, which has a completely different mood, we shall talk about what makes it so different, and how we would project that difference. The difference goes beyond the fact that one is in a major and the other in a minor key, and stems from many other factors.BIOSKETCH: Jeanne Bamberger is Professor Emeritus of Music and Urban Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she taught music theory and music cognition. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Education in UC Berkeley. Her interests include musical development and learning, in particular, aspects of representations among both children and adults. She was a student of Artur Schnabel, Roger Sessions, Olivier Messiaen, and Ernst Krenek, and has performed extensively as piano soloist and in chamber music ensembles. She attended Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley, receiving degrees in philosophy and music theory. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a San Francisco Exploratorium Residence Fellowship, and the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities Fellowship. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Spencer Foundation, an Eisenhower Grant, and the Palo Alto Institute for Research on Learning. Her most recent books include (1995) The Mind Behind the Musical Ear (Harvard University Press), and (2000) Developing Musical Intuitions: a project based introduction to making and understanding music. (Oxford University Press)Prof. Bamberger is also giving a guest lecture in MUED520, in ASI on WED, Feb 15, 7:00PM-8:30PM on Situated Inquiry: Moving between Action and Representation.Host: Elaine Chew, Viterbi Early Career, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems EngineeringSupported in part by the Viterbi Early Career Chair Funds, the Integrated Media Systems Center, and the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.For other lectures in the series, please see http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mucoaco/events/vecc0506.html
  

  Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Elaine Chew

  

• Feb

  17

  Entrepreneurial Space: An Insiders Observations

  Fri, Feb 17, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Engineering Honors Colloquium Lecture

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Erika Chua

  

• Feb

  17

  Solid phase microextraction (SPME): a multipurpose in situ ...

  Fri, Feb 17, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Solid phase microextraction (SPME): a multipurpose in situ sampling technology for organic pollutants in coastal systemsSpeaker:Dr. Keith A. Maruya
  Principal Scientist
  Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
  Westminster, California 92683AbstractThe passive sampling technology known as solid phase microextraction (SPME) allows for cost-effective, trace measurement of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the aquatic environment. A recent large-scale survey on the areal and depth stratified distribution of DDT contamination in the coastal waters of the Southern California Bight (SCB) using a SPME-based sampler and thermal desorption GC-MS revealed dissolved phase p,p'-DDE concentrations ranging between

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall 156

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  17

  Materials Science Seminar

  Fri, Feb 17, 2006 @ 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Phase transitions in polyelectrolytes, polyampholytes and charged colloidsProf. A.Z. Panagiotopoulos
  Dept. of Chemical Engineering
  Princeton UniversityThis seminar starts with a brief historical overview of simulation studies of phase transitions in fluids dominated by coulombic interactions. It then summarizes recent work on modeling phase transitions in asymmetric ionic and charged polymer systems. The unifying characteristic of these fluids is the close interplay between microstructure and macroscopic properties and the existence of strong interactions or multiple relevant length scales. A fine-lattice discretization approach is used for the computations, combined with multihistogram reweighting. The fine-lattice approach allows close approximation of continuum systems with significant computational savings. For the size- and charge-asymmetric ionic systems we find that the critical parameters scale in a way contrary to the predictions of most integral equation theories. Systems with additional short-range interactions show a wealth of behavior including tricriticality, ionic criticality and conventional (non-ionic) criticality. Polyelectrolyte phase diagrams indicate that the existence of two separate length scales results in a finite critical density extrapolated to infinite chain length. Finally, mixtures of charged colloids and salts show non-monotonic dependence of the critical parameters on salt content and an interplay between the critical lines of the pure salt and colloid that can lead to discontinuous critical lines.

  Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 116

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  17

  Centennial Lectures

  Fri, Feb 17, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  The Future of Microprocessor ArchitectureJohn Hennessy,Ph.D. President, Stanford UniversityAbstract:From the mid-1980s until just recently, microprocessor performance grew at an amazing rate of over 50% a year. This growth was driven by basic improvements in the speed of integrated circuits and by a 20-year process of exploiting increasing levels of instruction level parallelism. A set of interrelated road blocks, including limits on available instruction level parallelism and increasing inefficiency in power and transistor use arising from attempts to exploit further instruction level parallelism, are bringing this road to an end. We document these limitations and the difficulty of overcoming them. We argue that the path ahead must rely on explicit, thread-level parallelism and demonstrate the performance advantages of that approach for server applications using data from the Sun Microsystems Niagara processor.Biography:John L. Hennessy joined Stanford's faculty in 1977. He was named the Willard and Inez Kerr Bell Endowed Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1987. From 1983 to 1993, Dr. Hennessy was director of the Computer System Laboratory, a research and teaching center operated by the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science that fosters research in computer systems design. He served as chair of computer science from 1994 to 1996 and, in 1996, was named dean of the School of Engineering. As dean, he launched a five-year plan that laid the groundwork for new activities in bioengineering and biomedical engineering. In 1999, he was named provost, the university's chief academic and financial officer. As provost, he continued his efforts to foster interdisciplinary activities in the biosciences and bioengineering and oversaw improvements in faculty and staff compensation.A pioneer in computer architecture, in 1981 Dr. Hennessy drew together researchers to focus on a computer architecture known as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), a technology that has revolutionized the computer industry by increasing performance while reducing costs. In addition to his role in the basic research, Dr. Hennessy helped transfer this technology to industry. In 1984, he cofounded MIPS Computer Systems, now MIPS Technologies, which designs microprocessors. In recent years, his research has focused on the architecture of high-performance computers.Dr. Hennessy is a recipient of the 2000 John Von Neumann Medal, the 2000 ASEE R. Lamme Medal, the 2001 Eckert Mauchly Award and the 2001 Seymour Cray Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.He has lectured and published widely and is the co-author of two internationally used undergraduate and graduate textbooks on computer architecture design.
  Dr. Hennessy earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and his master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.Refreshments will be served.
  

  Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - Auditorium

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  21

  USC AGC Student Chapter 13th Annual Symposium — L.A. Live

  Tue, Feb 21, 2006

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  The 13th annual USC AGC Symposium is an opportunity to unite Professionals and USC students and explore the construction industry and its dynamic trends! http://www.usc.edu/dept/civil_eng/dept/students/student-organizations/13th-annual-agc-symposium-2-27-07.htm

  Location: Tower Hall (TOW) - n & Gown

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Linda Mizushima

  

• Feb

  21

  Sequential Data Assimilation for Stochastic Models

  Tue, Feb 21, 2006 @ 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Speaker:George SaadCE Graduate Student

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  21

  USC CS Colloquium Series

  Tue, Feb 21, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Smart Cameras: From Systems-on-Chips to Peer-to-Peer NetworksProf.Wayne Wolf PrincetonAbstract:
  Smart cameras perform real-time analysis of video: gesture analysis, tracking, etc. Smart cameras must execute supercomputer-class algorithms while satisfying embedded system constraints on real time and power. The Embedded Systems Group at Princeton has studied algorithms and architectures for smart cameras. WE will start with a brief introduction to smart cameras. We will then look at system-on-chip architectures that allow us to perform real-time video analysis on consumer electronics-class platforms. We will then see how single-camera systems can be generalized to multiple cameras. Building a large multi-camera system requires a distributed computing platform that satisfies real-time constraints. We will show how image analysis algorithms and distributed computing algorithms must be balanced to design a robust, scalable system. Bio:
  Wayne Wolf is Professor of Electrical Engineering and affiliated faculty in Computer Science at Princeton University. Before joining Princeton, he was with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. He received the BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Stanford University, finishing in 1984. His research interests include VLSI systems, embedded computing, and multimedia information systems. He is the author of several textbooks. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and ACM and received the ASEE Terman Award.

  Location: TBD

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  22

  Robust Stochastic Predictive Analysis and Bayesian Updating

  Wed, Feb 22, 2006 @ 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Speaker:
  Jim Beck, Ph.D.
  Engineering and Applied ScienceCaltechAbstractA general framework and some corresponding computational tools will be described for stochastic predictive analysis of a system that treats modeling uncertainties in the input-output relationship as well as input uncertainty. The essential modeling ingredient is a Bayesian model class, which consists of a set of stochastic predictive models (e.g. stochastic state-space models) and a prior probability distribution over this set of models that gives a measure of the relative plausibility of each of the models. Here, we utilize the Cox-Jaynes derivation of the probability axioms based on an interpreting probability P(b|c) as a quantification of the plausibility of statement b given the conditioning information in statement c. Prior robust predictive analysis for a given model class involves using the prior-weighted predictions of all the stochastic predictive models, as prescribed by the theorem of total probability. If system data is available to provide additional information, Bayes' Theorem can be used to update the probability distribution over the set of predictive models and then a posterior robust predictive analysis can be performed. To evaluate the multi-dimensional integrals involved in the robust analysis, analytical approximations and stochastic simulation methods, such as Gibbs Sampler and Metropolis-Hastings algorithms, will be described, along with their strengths and limitations. Illustrative examples will be given. If a set of candidate Bayesian model classes is prescribed, then a "super-robust" posterior predictive analysis can be performed (i.e. model class averaging) where Bayes' Theorem is used at the level of all the model classes rather than within a specific model class. This leads to a rigorous approach to model class selection where only the more probable (i.e. plausible) model classes are used to perform the predictive analysis. Illustrative examples will be given, including the problem of the best selection of possible terms in a regression equation for earthquake ground-motion attenuation; the best model class in a set of possible probabilistic Support Vector Machines, which leads to the Relevance Vector Machine; and the optimal number of modes for a linear model of a dynamic system based on dynamic test data.

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rialian Hall, Room 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  22

  New Findings on Utralight Technologies

  Wed, Feb 22, 2006 @ 03:30 PM

  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Seminar by Dr. Mulalo DoyoyoFor more information, go to
  http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming
  

  Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: April Mundy

  

• Feb

  23

  ISMRM Workshop on Real-Time MRI

  Thu, Feb 23, 2006 @ 08:00 AM - 06:00 PM

  Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  With the advent of high-speed gradients, coil arrays, novel pulse sequence designs and reconstruction techniques, modern MR systems are capable of interactively acquiring and reconstructing images in real-time which has led to major advances in cardiac imaging, imaging during interventions, and imaging of dynamic processes such as joint motion and functional activation. Real-time imaging has unique needs in terms of system infrastructure, pulse sequence design, reconstruction, and careful examination of applications. The planned sessions will cover the latest clinical and research applications of real-time MRI, along with the latest technical developments including new system infrastructures, contrast mechanisms, artifact avoidance and correction, and methods for extending the limits of spatial resolution, temporal resolution and SNR. This format naturally includes educational presentations and presentations describing the current state-of-the-art. Submitted papers will be considered for presentation as short talks or posters. In addition, we will have a session showcasing hot topics and future trends. Invited presenters will include young scientists and scientists from inside and outside North America. This will also be the first multi-vendor workshop on real-time MRI.In this workshop, "real-time" MRI is defined as having an end-to-end system latency of less than 1 second (which includes acquisition, reconstruction, and display).http://www.ismrm.org/workshops/RealTime_MRI/

  Location: Doubletree Guest Suites, Santa Monica

  Audiences: Medical Imaging Researchers

  Contact: Krishna Nayak

  

• Feb

  23

  Biomolecular Engineering for Fun and Profit

  Thu, Feb 23, 2006 @ 12:45 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Graduate SeminarBiomolecular Engineering for Fun
  and ProfitDr. Huimin Zhao
  Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
  Chemistry, and Bioengineering,
  Institute for Genomic Biology, and Center for Biophysics
  and Computational Biology,
  University of Illinois, Urbana ABSTRACTBiomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins have been increasingly exploited for applications in medical, chemical, agricultural, and food industries. However, a major limitation in the applications of biomolecules is the existence of a functional gap between naturally occurring biomolecules and those required by specific practical settings. Thus, how to close this functional gap has become a première intellectual and engineering challenge. In this talk, I will discuss our recent work on the development of new biomolecular engineering tools and their applications. Specifically, I will discuss: (1) developing estrogen receptor based genetic switches for human gene therapy; (2) engineering a novel phosphite-dehydrogenase based NAD(P)H cofactor regeneration system, and (3) designing new biosynthetic pathways for synthesis of thermally stable energetic compounds. Thursday, February 23, 2006
  Seminar at 12:45 p.m.
  OHE 122
  The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  23

  Distinguished Lecture Series

  Thu, Feb 23, 2006 @ 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Interfaces for Controlling Human CharactersProf. Jessica HodginsSchool of Computer Science
  Carnegie Mellon UniversityABSTRACTComputer animations and virtual environments both require a controllable source of motion for their characters. Most of the currently available technologies require significant training and are not useful tools for casual users. Over the past few years, we have explored several different approaches to this problem. Each solution relies on the information about natural human motion inherent in a motion capture database. For example, the user can sketch an approximate path for an animated character which is then refined by searching a graph constructed from a motion database. We can also find a natural looking motion for a particular behavior based on sparse constraints from the user (foot contact locations and timing, for example) by optimizing in a low-dimensional, behavior-specific space found from motion capture. And finally, we have developed performance animation systems that use video input of the user to build a local model of the user's motion and reproduce it on an animated character. BIOGRAPHY Jessica Hodgins is a Professor in the Robotics Institute and Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to moving to CMU in 2000, she was an an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1989.
  Her research focuses on computer graphics, animation, and robotics.
  She has received a NSF Young Investigator Award, a Packard Fellowship, and a Sloan Fellowship. She was editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Graphics from 2000-2002 and SIGGRAPH Papers Chair in 2003.
  

  Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien

  

• Feb

  24

  ISMRM Workshop on Real-Time MRI

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 08:00 AM - 06:00 PM

  Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  With the advent of high-speed gradients, coil arrays, novel pulse sequence designs and reconstruction techniques, modern MR systems are capable of interactively acquiring and reconstructing images in real-time which has led to major advances in cardiac imaging, imaging during interventions, and imaging of dynamic processes such as joint motion and functional activation. Real-time imaging has unique needs in terms of system infrastructure, pulse sequence design, reconstruction, and careful examination of applications. The planned sessions will cover the latest clinical and research applications of real-time MRI, along with the latest technical developments including new system infrastructures, contrast mechanisms, artifact avoidance and correction, and methods for extending the limits of spatial resolution, temporal resolution and SNR. This format naturally includes educational presentations and presentations describing the current state-of-the-art. Submitted papers will be considered for presentation as short talks or posters. In addition, we will have a session showcasing hot topics and future trends. Invited presenters will include young scientists and scientists from inside and outside North America. This will also be the first multi-vendor workshop on real-time MRI.In this workshop, "real-time" MRI is defined as having an end-to-end system latency of less than 1 second (which includes acquisition, reconstruction, and display).http://www.ismrm.org/workshops/RealTime_MRI/

  Location: Doubletree Guest Suites, Santa Monica

  Audiences: Medical Imaging Researchers

  Contact: Krishna Nayak

  

• Feb

  24

  Rapid Development of Efficient Codes for PDE Simulation and PDE-Constrained Optimization

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  http://venus.usc.edu/seminars/CAM/Long.html High-performance algorithms for PDE-constrained optimization have been adopted slowly in practice because of the need to make intrusive changes to existing simulation codes. To overcome this barrier to entry, we have developed Sundance, a set of symbolic software tools enabling rapid development of efficient, differentiable, parallel simulation codes. Despite the high level of abstraction and generality, and the convenience of the user interface, simulators developed with Sundance prove to outperform special-purpose hand-tuned codes (even for forward problems, before we see the additional gains enabled through superior optimization algorithms). In this talk we will describe the design of Sundance and its software interface for interoperability with other codes, and discuss how, far from seeing an "abstraction penalty", we exploit abstraction and generality to achieve very high performance.

  Location: 203 KAP

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Roger Ghanem

  

• Feb

  24

  Oceans---Todays View From Space with Supercomputers

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Engineering Honors Colloquium Lecture

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Erika Chua

  

• Feb

  24

  Oceans---Todays View From Space with Supercomputers

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM

  Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Engineering Honors Colloquium Lecture

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Erika Chua

  

• Feb

  24

  Regulatory Remediation Program at the Los Angeles Regional Board

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  
  Speaker:Yue Rong, Ph. D.
  Manager, Underground Storage Tank Program
  California Regional Water Quality Control Board
  Los Angeles Region
  California Environmental Protection AgencyAbstractCalifornia Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region has a Underground Storage Tanks Program that primarily oversees groundwater remediation at leaking underground storage tank sites. The presentation will provide information on the program regulatory framework, board function, and requirements on site assessment, laboratory testing, and modeling. Water Board programs such as NPDES, TMDL, superfund sites, etc.will be introduced. A case study for environmental liability issue will be discussed. At leaking underground storage tank sites, the primary contaminant now is methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Santa Monica Charnock and Arcadia wellfields MTBE contamination problem will be discussed as a case study.

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  24

  Rapid Development of Efficient Codes for PDE Simulation and PDE-Constrained

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM

  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  http://venus.usc.edu/seminars/CAM/Long.html
  

  Location: 203 KAP

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Roger Ghanem

  

• Feb

  24

  Carbon Nanotubes: The Tall Order

  Fri, Feb 24, 2006 @ 02:45 PM - 04:00 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  A JOINT SEMINAR
  DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
  AND
  MORK FAMILY DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE PRESENTS
  Professor P. M. Ajayan
  Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, N.Y.Carbon Nanotubes: The Tall Order
  Carbon nanotubes are fascinating materials from the point of view of structure, form, growth and properties. The biggest challenge however is to assemble nanotubes into various architectures useful for specific applications. The talk will focus on the recent developments in our laboratory on the fabrication of carbon nanotube based architectures tailored for various applications. Various organized architectures of multiwalled and singlewalled carbon nanotubes can be fabricated using relatively simple vapor deposition techniques. The work in attaining control on the directed assembly of nanotubes on various platforms will be highlighted. Our efforts on the strategies of growth and manipulation of nanotube-based structures and in controllably fabricating hierarchically branched nanotube and nanotube-hybrid structures will be discussed. We have pursued several novel applications for these structures, for example, as nanostructured electrodes for sensors, electrical interconnects, unique filters for separation technologies, thermal management systems, multifunctional brushes, and polymer infiltrated thin film and bulk composites. A perspective of the field based on the work done by the author over a period of more than decade will be presented here with highlights from recent work and thoughts on future implications of the field.Friday, February 24, 2006, 3:00-4:00 PM
  (Refreshments will be served at 2:45)
  Location: SSL 150
  **All first year materials science majors are required to attend**
  

  Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  27

  The Upcoming Revolution in Construction

  Mon, Feb 27, 2006 @ 01:00 AM - 02:00 PM

  Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  Speaker:Behrokh Khoshnevis
  Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
  University of Southern CaliforniaThe nature of construction has remained intensely manual throughout recorded history. Unlike in manufacturing, the growth of automation in construction has been slow. A promising new automation approach is Contour Crafting (CC). Invented by Behrokh Khoshnevis, Contour Crafting is a mega-scale fabrication process aiming at automated construction of whole structures as well as subcomponents. The potential of CC became evident from investigations and experiments with materials and geometries. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses may be constructed automatically in a single run with all plumbing and electrical utilities imbedded in each house; yet each could be a different design. The implication is especially profound for emergency shelter construction and low income housing. NASA is exploring possible application of CC in building on other planets. This new mode of construction will be one of the very few feasible approaches for building on planets such as Moon and Mars, which are being targeted for human colonization before the end of the century. CC has received international attention and may soon revolutionize the construction industry. For more information please visit http://www.ContourCrafting.org
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bio: Behrokh Khoshnevis is a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and is the Director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT) and the Director of Manufacturing Engineering Program. He is active in CAD/CAM, robotics, and mechatronics related research and development projects that include the development of two novel Solid Free Form (Rapid Prototyping) processes called Contour Crafting and SIS, a technology for automated construction of housing structures, development of mechatronics systems for biomedical applications (e.g., restorative dentistry, rehabilitation engineering, and tactile sensing devices), autonomous mobile and modular robots for assembly applications on earth and in space, and automated equipment for oil (petroleum) and gas industries. He has several major inventions which have been either commercialized or are in the commercialization process. He has also been closely involved in several product development processes. His educational activity at USC includes the teaching of a graduate course on Invention and Technology Development and he routinely conducts lectures and seminars on the subject of invention. He is a senior member of the Society for Computer Simulation and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and is a Fellow member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Dr. Khoshnevis' inventions have received extensive worldwide publicity in acclaimed media such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Business Week, Der Spiegel, New Scientist, The Age and national and international television and radio networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Discovery channels of US, Canada, Germany and BBC World

  Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 203

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Evangeline Reyes

  

• Feb

  27

  Optical Coherence Tomography of the Eye - Seminar Series

  Mon, Feb 27, 2006 @ 12:30 PM - 01:30 AM

  Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  David Huang, PhD
  Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, USC"Optical Coherence Tomography of the Eye"
  

  Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132

  Audiences: Graduate

  Contact: Darryl Hwang

  

• Feb

  27

  High-Resolution Compositional Simulation of Multicontact Miscible Displacements

  Mon, Feb 27, 2006 @ 01:00 PM

  Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  GRADUATE SEMINARHigh-Resolution Compositional Simulation of Multicontact Miscible DisplacementsDr. Kristian Jessen
  Stanford UniversityAbstract A significant portion of the existing hydrocarbon reserves are candidates for enhanced recovery processes. Miscible/near-miscible gas injection or water alternating gas injection processes hold the potential for significant improvement of recoveries relative to primary production and water flooding. The ultimate recovery of a miscible and near-miscible gas injection scheme is a complex function of the local displacement efficiency and global sweep efficiency. Successful performance evaluation of recovery processes based on numerical calculations requires, in part, high resolution in permeability heterogeneity and appropriate representation of the phase behavior and transport properties of the fluid system. Numerical simulation of these processes is challenging because the predicted displacement efficiency is very sensitive to numerical diffusion.
  In this talk, I address the challenges related to compositional simulation of multicomponent multiphase flows. First, I demonstrate the shortcomings of conventional finite difference/volume (FD) simulation approaches in one dimension (1D), using a mix of analytical solutions, standard FD calculations and high order accurate FD calculations. I show that numerical artifacts have a fluid system specific impact on the prediction of the local displacement efficiency. This behavior is a direct result of the strong nonlinear coupling between flow and phase behavior. Next, I extend the analysis to 2D and 3D displacement processes. Physical dispersion is included in the model to delineate the grid resolution required to resolve the physics at a given simulation length scale. I present calculation examples for multicontact miscible gas/oil displacements and enhanced condensate recovery processes by gas injection/cycling. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the future challenges and research directions in the field of compositional simulation.Monday, February 27, 2006
  VKC 207
  1:00 p.m.The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
  

  Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - 207

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Petra Pearce

  

• Feb

  27

  Computer Vision for HCI and RTC Applications

  Mon, Feb 27, 2006 @ 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM

  Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

  Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

  
  

  SPEAKER: Dr. Zhengyou ZhangTitle:
  Computer Vision for HCI and RTC ApplicationsAbstract:
  We strive to advance the state of the art of computer vision, and develop flexible and robust techniques for human-computer interaction and real-time communication and collaboration. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the research projects I have been working with my colleagues in these areas. I will cover the following topics:
  * Face modeling with a webcam. We have developed a model-based face modeling system. A 3D face model is built in a few minutes, and the model can be animated immediately. We have successfully built 3D face models for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and many others.
  * Eye-gaze correction for video conferencing: The lack of eye contact in desktop video teleconferencing substantially reduces the effectiveness of video contents. We describe a novel approach: Based on stereo analysis combined with rich domain knowledge (a personalized face model), we synthesize, using graphics hardware, a virtual video that maintains eye contact.
  * Whiteboard Technology: While physical whiteboards are frequently used by knowledge workers, they are not perfect. The content on the board is hard to archive or share with others who are not present in the session. We have developed a set of technologies which include automatic whiteboard note taking by scanning with a web cam and by enhancing the images, automatic audio and whiteboard meeting archiving and indexing, and live meetings with enhanced whiteboard streaming.
  If time allows, I will also show two more prototype systems. The first converts an ordinary screen into a touch screen. The second converts a rectangular panel (e.g., an ordinary piece of paper) into a virtual mouse, keyboard and joystick.Bio:
  Zhengyou Zhang is a Senior Researcher with Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA. He is an IEEE Fellow, an Associate Editor of the "IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence" (PAMI), an Associate Editor of the "IEEE Transactions on Multimedia", an Associate Editor of the "International Journal of Computer Vision" (IJCV) and an Associate Editor of the "International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence" (IJPRAI). He received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Zhejiang, China, in 1985, the M.S. in computer science from the University of Nancy, France, in 1987, the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Paris XI, France, in 1990, and the Doctor of Science (Habilitation à diriger des recherches) diploma from the University of Paris XI, in 1994. He has been with INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) for 11 years and was a Senior Research Scientist from 1991 until he joined Microsoft Research in March 1998. In 1996-1997, he spent one-year sabbatical as an Invited Researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Kyoto, Japan. He holds guest or adjunct faculty positions at University of Southern California, Zhejiang University (China) and Institute of Automation (Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published over 100 papers in refereed international journals and conferences, and has co-authored the following books: 3D Dynamic Scene Analysis: A Stereo Based Approach (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1992); Epipolar Geometry in Stereo, Motion and Object Recognition (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); Computer Vision (textbook in Chinese, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1998). He has been a member, an area chair or a program chair of the program committees for numerous international conferences. More information is available at http://research.microsoft.com/~zhang/.

  Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

  Contact: Nancy Levien