USC - Viterbi School of Engineering

Mar
21

Walk-In Wednesdays: Career Services Advising
Wed, Mar 21, 2007
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
Mar
21

Spring Spotlight
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 11:30 AM - 02:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
University Calendar

Come learn more about engineering! Meet faculty, staff and students from different majors as well as student groups and organizations.Free food will be served!
Location: E Quad
Audiences: Freshmen & Sophomore Students

Contact: Viterbi Student Affairs
Mar
21

Freshmen and Sophomores: Its Never Too Early!
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions

Are you a 1st or 2nd year undergraduate student and want to ensure you are on the right track for future career success? Check out this workshop for a timeline that will surely keep you on the professional path for your career.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
Mar
21

Use of a Mobile Instrument Platform to Measure On-Road Concentrations...
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Use of a Mobile Instrument Platform to Measure On-Road Concentrations of Ultrafine Particles and Other Air Pollutants in Los Angeles Speaker:
Scott Fruin,
Environmental Health Division
Keck School of Medicine ,USCAbstract:Motor vehicles are the dominant source of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and many air toxics (e.g., benzene, 1,3-butadiene) in most urban areas. On roadways, motor vehicle-related pollutant concentrations are typically many times higher than ambient concentrations. Due to high air exchange rates typical of moving vehicles, this makes time spent in vehicles on roadways a major source of exposure. This talk presents on-road measurements for Los Angeles freeways and arterial roads taken from a zero-emission electric vehicle outfitted with real-time instruments. The objective was to characterize air pollutant concentrations on roadways and identify the factors associated with the highest concentrations. Our analysis demonstrated that on freeways, concentrations of ultrafine particles (UFP), black carbon, nitric oxide, and PM-bound PAH are generated primarily by diesel-powered vehicles, despite the relatively low average fraction (~6%) of diesel-powered vehicles on Los Angeles freeways. However, UFP concentrations on arterial roads appeared to be driven primarily by proximity to gasoline-powered vehicles undergoing hard accelerations from stops, and were roughly one-third the concentrations of freeways. By using a multiple regression model for the freeway measurements, we were able to explain 60 to 70% of the variability in concentrations of UFP, black carbon, nitric oxide, and PM-bound PAH using measures of diesel truck density and time of day. Freeway concentrations of these pollutants were also well correlated with readily-available annual average daily truck counts from CalTrans, potentially allowing improved population exposure estimates for epidemiology studies. Based on these roadway measurements and average driving time, it appears that about 40 to 50% of total UFP exposure for Los Angeles residents occurs due to time in vehicles.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes
Mar
21

Fulbright Grants for Graduate Study & Research Abroad
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions

The Fulbright information session presents details about this fantastic grant opportunity that supports study/research in over 140 countries worldwide. Examples of successful Fulbright proposals from previous applicants will be discussed, along with advice regarding various elements of the application process (foreign language proficiency, letters of recommendation, host country affiliations, etc.) Students at all academic levels (freshman through senior, plus all graduate students) are welcome and encouraged to attend the information sessions. Most of the fellowships described here require applicants to hold U.S. citizenship. For more information:
USC Office of Academic Recognition Programs
Division of Student Affairs
213-740-9116
arpstaff@usc.edu
www.usc.edu/arp/fellowships
Location: Leavey Library Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Julie Phaneuf
Mar
21

Anatomy of Complex Reaction Systems. Combustion Reaction Mechanisms from Ignition Delay Times
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Assa Lifshitz Emeritus Faculty Member Department of Physical Chemistry The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel One of the very useful approaches to the understanding of the kinetics and mechanism of complex combustion systems is the measurement and modeling of the induction period that precedes the ignition of a fuel in a shock tube. When a mixture of a fuel and oxidant is subjected to shock heating, it ignites, following an induction period known as the ignition delay time. This delay is the outcome of the exponential character of the overall reaction rate resulting from various chain branching reactions and adiabatic temperature rise during the course of the reaction. The delay time which is a readily measurable quantity is a function of the initial temperature, pressure and composition of the reaction mixture. The measurement of its dependence on the reactant concentrations and temperature provides a very powerful basis for modeling and understanding the oxidation mechanism. The high potential of this methods was recognized by many combustion kineticists and a very large volume of experimental results and kinetics modeling have been published. The following picture is a typical pressure record showing the reflected shock heating and the ignition process. It is useful to summarize the dependence of the ignition delay times on the composition of the system and on the temperature in a simple parametric relation that can later serve as a basis for computer modeling. It has been shown in the past in numerous ignition studies behind shock waves that the general relation between the induction times and the concentrations is very similar to the relation between a rate of a chemical reaction and the concentrations, that is, tignition = A Ði Ci âi where tignition is the ignition delay time, Ci is a concentration of a component i, and âi is a parameter somewhat similar to an empirical reaction order. It has also been shown that the concentration independent parameter can be presented as, A = 10á exp [E/RT] an expression very similar to a rate constant (except that A decreases with temperature). The parameters E and âi are determined by a complex kinetic scheme. They are experimentally determined quantities and provide a very useful means to summarize the experimental results in a quantitative manner. After establishing an empirical relation as above and determining the parameters, one can perform computer experiments under conditions similar to the laboratory experiments and try, for a given reaction scheme to reproduce these parameters. One then arbitrarily varies the magnitude of the various rate constants in the kinetic scheme and examines the influence of such variations on the magnitude of the ignition delay time and its dependence on the concentrations and on the temperature. From the results of this type of experiments, the role of each reaction in the overall mechanism can be elucidated. By employing such methods, many interesting combustion schemes were analyzed in the past and details of the kinetics and an understanding of the oxidation mechanisms were achieved. We will present and discuss several such systems.
Location: Seaver Science Library, (SSL) Rm 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: April Mundy
Mar
21

AIAA: Vintage Aerospace Movie Night
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 05:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity

AIAA will be enjoying some pizza and watching the vintage aerospace cult classic movie Destination: Moon.
Location: Laufer Library
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: AIAA
Mar
21

Time Warner Cable Information Session
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions

Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Current Engineering Undergraduate/Graduate Students

Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
Mar
21

The Conservatory as Exploratory
Wed, Mar 21, 2007 @ 07:30 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Visions and Voices brings you a concert event featuring several world-class, conservatory-trained musicians from around the world including Sicily's Francesco Buzurro, Argentina's Daniel Corzo and USC's Richard Smith. They will participate in real-time musical risk-taking through their collaborative performance. Parallels will be drawn and discussed from business, leadership and mathematics to teambuilding, globalization, the importance of creativity and USC's core values.An after-concert panel of USC music-school graduates will discuss their post-USC success strategies in the context of the turbulence of the information revolution. Panel members have worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in major television and film productions and with recording artists including Snoop Dogg, Johnny Lang, Josh Groban, Mark Anthony and the Backstreet Boys.for more information, please visit: http://www.usc.edu/webapps/events_calendar/custom/113/index.php?category=Item&item=0.861449&active_category=Day
Location: Alfred Newman Recital Hall
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski