USC - Viterbi School of Engineering

Apr
16

Explore USC - Admitted Students Only
Thu, Apr 16, 2009
Viterbi School of Engineering Undergraduate Admission
Receptions & Special Events

Explore USC is the most extensive campus visit program. Even if you have already visited USC, these sessions are a great way to get an even more in-depth look at USC. This daylong program includes Campus Tours, Neighborhood Bus Tours, Presentations on Financial Aid and Housing, Curricular overview, meetings with Engineering faculty & students as well as facility lab tours. Lunch and Dinner is included as part of the program.These sessions are very popular and have limited space available, so be sure to reserve a space as soon as possible! To RSVP visit: http://usc.edu/experienceusc/

Location: USC Main Campus
Audiences: Admitted Freshmen and Family Members Only

Contact: Viterbi Admission
Apr
16

Photography For Aircraft Accident Investigation - Apr.16-17, 2009
Thu, Apr 16, 2009
Aviation Safety and Security Program
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

PHOTO 09-2
For more information and to register for Aviation Safety and Security Program courses, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/aviation.
Audiences: Registered Audiences Only

Contact: Viterbi Professional Programs
Apr
16

Structure and Structure-related Chemistry of Boron Rich Carbon
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Linda E. Jones, Ph.D.,
Smith CollegeAbstract: Highly boron rich carbon nanofibers have been synthesized via
the CVD reaction of benzene and boron trichloride. The interest is to
synthesize oxidation resistant carbons that are electronically tunable
and maintain mechanical integrity. Auger and XPS analysis identified
boron concentrations of 18.4 and 14.8 atomic % B, respectively when
depositing at 800 °C for 30 minutes at a total flow rate of 65 cc/min. A
TEM investigation along with EELS was undertaken to assess the location
of the boron in the deposited structures. The nanostructure of the
deposited nanofibers and tubes is inhomogeneous yet; these deposited
materials are well ordered and graphite-like. The d-spacings range from
0.3343 to 0.3397 nm and crystallite sizes are 5 to 20 nm. EELS analysis
revealed that the boron concentrations through the tube diameter are
structure related. The details of the development of structure in these
unique boron rich carbon solids will be given in context with a
discussion of the various structures, chemistry and properties
associated with the many allotropes of carbon.Biography: Linda E. Jones is the Hewlett Professor of Engineering and
Director of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College. Linda is
deeply committed to the advancement of women and underrepresented
individuals in science, technology and engineering. Her expertise is in
the synthesis, structure and degradation of structural carbon and
carbides used in aerospace and other severe environment applications.
The work in her laboratory on high temperature oxidation and corrosion
of structural ceramics has been extended to the study of volatile
emissions produced during the manufacturing of glass. Dr. Jones has 81
publications in these areas and has given over 100 national and
international presentations. She has been named the American Carbon
Society's Graffin Lecturer. Dr. Jones serves on the American Carbon
Society's executive board. She is actively involved in the European and
Asian Carbon Society. She a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society. She
has edited one book and received 9 Teaching Awards including the State
University of New York's Chancellors Award for Teaching Excellence.
Since 2005, Dr. Jones has been the President, Ceramic Education Council,
American Ceramic Society. In addition, Dr. Jones was also recognized by
the State of New York as a SUNY Research Scholar for her work on high
temperature materials.Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu, EEB 540, x04667
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
Apr
16

BME 533 Seminar Series
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Hengchu Cao, PhD, Edwards Distinguished Engineer, Heart Valve Research, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine:
"A principled approach to the development of life sustaining medical devices"
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
Apr
16

A Robust Control Approach to Optimizing Production, Inventory and Transportation
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University Calendar

Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Seminar - ISE 650Guest Speaker: Thomas Marlin - Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster UniversityABSTRACT: Recently, advances in computing and optimization algorithms have lead to a renewed interest in analyzing logistics systems with the recognition that (1) substantial uncertainties exist in their dynamic behavior and (2) periodic re-optimization (rolling horizon optimization) affects the future behavior. The Model-Predictive Control (MPC) structure is ideal for modeling these closed-loop logistics systems. This talk will introduce the concept of robust model-predictive control of uncertain systems and how it can be implemented in real-time. Challenges in formulation and computation will be introduced, and proposals for a computationally tractable approach presented. Application to a simple (but real) industrial logistics problem will be presented. The problem has several manufacturing steps with intermediate inventory and transportation to regional distribution outlets. Uncertainty occurs in manufacturing times, transportation times, and customer demands. The goal is to reduce holding (inventory) costs while preventing backorders, where possible. The behavior of the system under various control approaches will be compared, and the advantages of a robust approach quantified.This work has been performed in conjunction with Adam Warren and Xiang Li at McMaster University.THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009, GERONTOLOGY BUILDING (GER) ROOM 309, 1:00 – 2:00 PM----------------BIO: Tom Marlin joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, as NSERC Research Professor in Industrial Process Control in 1988. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1972; then, he practiced engineering for 15 years in the chemical and petroleum industries. In 1987, he served as the Visiting Fellow, for the Warren Centre Study located at the University of Sydney, Australia. During the one-year project, a team of over 40 academics and practitioners investigated methods for quantifying benefits from automation; the results of this project were published in a manuscript. From 1988 until 2007, Dr. Marlin served as the Director of the McMaster Advanced Control Consortium (MACC), which develops relevant research through collaboration among university researchers and numerous companies. MACC consists of five professors, 12 industrial members and 25 university researchers, principally graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He teaches university courses in process control, process analysis, problem solving, and optimization and has published a textbook in process control (Process Control, Designing Process and Control Systems for Dynamic Performance 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 2000). In addition, he presents industrial short courses on process control, automation benefits, and optimization. Dr. Marlin's research interests focus on improved performance of dynamic systems through real-time operations optimization and process control design.Email: marlint@mcmaster.caPersonal WEB: http://www.chemeng.mcmaster.ca/faculty/marlin/Consortium: http://www.macc.mcmaster.ca/
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 309
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Georgia Lum
Apr
16

CS Distinguished Lecture: Probabilistic Models for the Physical World
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 03:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Speaker: Prof. Daphne Koller (Stanford University)
Host: Prof. Fei ShaAbstract:
Over recent years, computer vision has made great strides towards annotating parts of an image with symbolic labels, such as object categories (things) or segment types (stuff). However, we are still far from the goal of providing a semantic description of an image, such as "a man, walking a dog on a sidewalk, carrying a backpack". In this talk, I will describe some projects we have done that attempt to use probabilistic models to move us closer towards the goal.The first part of the talk will present methods that use a more holistic scene analysis to improve our performance at core tasks such as object detection, segmentation, or 3D reconstruction. The second part of the talk will focus on finer-grained modeling of object shape, so as to allow us to annotate images with descriptive labels related to the object shape, pose, or activity (e.g., is a cheetah running or standing). These vision tasks rely on novel algorithms for core problems in machine learning and probabilistic models, such as efficient algorithms for probabilistic correspondence, transfer learning across related object classes for learning from sparse data, and more.Biography:
Daphne Koller is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. Her main research focus is in developing and using machine learning and probabilistic methods to model and analyze complex systems, and she is particularly interested in using these techniques to understand biological systems and the world around us. Professor Koller is the author of over 100 refereed publications, which have appeared in venues that include Science, Nature Genetics, and the Journal of Games and Economic Behavior. She is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and has received a number of awards, including the Sloan Foundation Faculty Fellowship in 1996, the ONR Young Investigator Award in 1998, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Clinton in 1999, the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award in 2001, the Cox Medal for excellence in fostering undergraduate research at Stanford in 2003, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004 and the first-ever ACM/Infosys award in 2008.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: CS Colloquia
Apr
16

Dancing with the Engineers
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 06:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity

VGSA proudly presents Dancing with the Engineers!This is a couple dancing event where several couples will compete for the top spot. This is your chance to dance your way into the hearts of the crowd. The event is based on Dancing with the Stars. This is one of USC's biggest events. It was a huge success last year and we expect it to be an even bigger success this time around. The rules are as follows:1. Each pair MUST include a current Graduate Engineering student.2. The Performance time will be limited to 5 Mins.3. Performances can be of any genre or style. There will be no preferred dance style for the judges.4. The event is open to all USC students both Graduates and Undergraduates.For registration, kindly visit : http://viterbistudents.usc.edu/vgsa/events/dancing-with-engineer-rsvp.htmFor more details or questions kindly contact: Rajat Shah (rajatsha AT usc.edu)
Location: Bovard Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: VGSA
Apr
16

PROGRAMMING SYNTHETIC BIO MOLECULAR SYSTEMS
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 11:00 PM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars

Elisa Franco
California Institute of Technology
Dept. of Controls & Dynamical SystemsABSTRACT: The functionalities of every living organism are wired in the biochemical interactions existing among proteins, nucleic acids and all the other molecules that constitute life's building blocks. Understanding how to embed any function in this "hardware of life" via "molecular programming" is an exciting and challenging task for modern bioengineers and synthetic biologists.
A simple in vitro tool kit to investigate molecular programmability can be built by using exclusively nucleic acids and a few protein species for transcription and degradation. Despite its simplicity, this setting allows us to achieve a high computational complexity, which is an attractive feature for the implementation of engineering design principles into synthetic biochemical networks.
In this talk, I will describe the design, modeling and experimental synthesis of molecular circuitry built using in vitro genetic circuits. In particular, I will focus on two alternative modules able to achieve transcription rate regulation, the first based on negative feedback (self-repression), the second based on positive feedback (cross-activation). BIO: Elisa Franco is currently a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, department of Control and Dynamical Systems. She got her Laurea degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Trieste, where she also earned a PhD in Automatic Control. Her current research interests are in the field of synthetic and systems biology.Host: Prof. Petros Ioannou ioannou@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Shane Goodoff