Select a calendar:
Filter November Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for November
-
WATER: A PRECIOUS RESOURCE, TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Fri, Nov 02, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Tariq Hussain,Vice President,URS Corporation,Santa Ana, CA ABSTRACT:We human beings take water for granted and why shouldn't we? Look around you - three quarters of the globe consists of water, but how much of this precious resource is available for human consumption? Less than 1%. 3% if you count the water trapped in the snowpacks. The basic fact remains that water supply remains constant while the population is increasing at a brisk pace. Demand for fresh water supply is growing faster than the population growth. It is estimated that by 2015, at least 40% of the world's population will lack an adequate water supply. Ten years after that in 2025 almost 33% of the worlds population and its economy will be affected by shortage of water. This water shortage scenario affects us here in California also. Let us not forget that California's greatness is due, in part, to the vision of previous generations who built our statewide water system. But now that system cannot cope with the increasing demands of population growth, frequent droughts, and environmental concerns include global warming. If we are able to maintain a constant supply of fresh water to our population we must take steps immediately, starting with raising the level of concern in every single household.URS is actively engaged on a day-to-day basis in addressing these challenges on behalf of our public and private sector water, wastewater and water quality clients. Mr. Hussain has been involved in projects in related to reinforcing or renovating California's current and future water/wastewater facilities and developing a group to efficiently tackle these tasks.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Dr. Kensall Wise
Fri, Nov 02, 2007 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Kensall WiseUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor"Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS):
Coming Revolution in the Gathering of Information"Abstract
Wireless integrated microsystems promise to become pervasive during the coming decade in applications ranging from health care and environmental monitoring to homeland security. Merging low-power embedded computing, wireless interfaces, and wafer-level packaging with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), the resulting button-sized modules will serve as smart information-gathering nodes that will effectively wire the planet, extending communication
networks to a wide range of new information-gathering applications. These microsystems will be 1cc or less in size, dissipating less than 1mW and communicating over ranges from 1cm to 1km or more. They will be built on generic platforms that are digitally compensated and self-testing, customized by software and by front-end sensor
selection. This talk will highlight several emerging microsystems. A wristwatch-size environmental monitor is being developed to measure parameters such as pressure, temperature, humidity, and air quality. The microsystem includes an integrated gas chromatograph capable of analyzing complex gaseous mixtures with sensitivities in the parts-per-trillion range and response times of a few seconds. It offers exciting possibilities for enhancing homeland security and reducing global pollution. A chronically-implantable neural microsystem integrates high-density three-dimensional microelectrode arrays with embedded signal processing and wireless telemetry. Such neural interfaces are creating breakthroughs in neuroscience and offering new hope for the treatment of disorders such as deafness, blindness, paralysis, and Parkinson's disease.Bio
Kensall D. Wise received the BSEE degree with highest distinction from Purdue University in 1963 and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964 and 1969, respectively. From 1963 to 1965 and from 1972 to 1974, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where his work was concerned with the exploratory development of integrated electronics for use in telephone communications. From 1965 to 1972 he was a Research Assistant and then a Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford, working on the development of micromachined solid-state sensors. In 1974 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is now the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing Technology and Director of the Engineering
Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems. His present research focuses on the development of integrated microsystems for health care and environmental monitoring.
Dr. Wise organized and served as the first chairman of the Technical Subcommittee on Solid-State Sensors of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS). He was General Chairman of the 1984 IEEE Solid-State Sensor Conference,
served as IEEE-EDS National Lecturer (1986), and was Technical Program Chairman (1985) and General Chairman (1997) of the IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators. Dr. Wise received the Paul Rappaport Award from the EDS (1990), a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan (1995), the Columbus Prize from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation (1996), the SRC Aristotle Award (1997), and the 1999 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Field Award. In 2002 he was named the William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He currently holds the 2007 Henry Russel Lectureship at the University, is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ericka Lieberknecht
-
BME 533 Seminar Series: Michael Kahn, Ph.D. (guest speaker)
Mon, Nov 05, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Guest speaker: Michael Kahn, Ph.D., Provost Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Broad Institute for Integrative Biology and Stem Cell Research, USC: "Wnt Signaling; the Good the Bad and the Ugly"
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: students registered in BME 533
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
CS Colloquia: Engineering Self-Organizing Systems
Mon, Nov 05, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Engineering Self-Organizing SystemsSpeaker: Prof. Radhika Nagpal(Harvard)ABSTRACT:
Biological systems, from embryos to ant colonies, achieve tremendous
mileage by using vast numbers of cheap and unreliable components to
achieve complex goals reliably. We are rapidly building embedded systems
with similar characteristics, from self-assembling modular robots to vast
sensor networks. How do we engineer robust collective behavior?In this talk, I will describe two projects from my group where we have
used inspiration from nature, both cells and social insects, to design
decentralized algorithms for programmable self-assembly. In the first
project, we use insights from social insects to design algorithms for
collective construction by simple mobile robots. In the second project we
use insights from multicellular tissues to design a modular robot that can
form complex environmentally-adaptive shapes. In both cases we can achieve
global-to-local compilation: the agents rely on simple and local
interactions that provably self-organize a wide class of user-specified
global goals.BIO:
Radhika Nagpal is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvard
University since 2004. She received her PhD degree in Computer Science
from MIT, and spent a year as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School.
She is a recipient of the 2005 Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship award and
the 2007 NSF Career award. Her research interests are
biologically-inspired engineering principles for multi-agent systems and
modelling multicellular biology.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Colloquia
-
CS Colloquia: Expanders and Extractors from Parvaresh-Vardy Codes
Tue, Nov 06, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Expanders and Extractors from Parvaresh-Vardy CodesSpeaker: Prof. Chris Umans(CALTECH)ABSTRACT:
Expanders and extractors are fundamental combinatorial objects with
a wide variety of applications in theoretical computer science.In this work we give the best-to-date explicit construction of highly
unbalanced bipartite expander graphs with expansion arbitrarily
close to the degree. Our expanders have a short and self-contained
description and analysis, based on the ideas underlying the recent
list-decodable
error-correcting codes of Parvaresh and Vardy (FOCS `05).Our expanders can be interpreted as near-optimal ``randomness
condensers,'' that reduce the task of extracting randomness from
sources of arbitrary min-entropy rate to extracting randomness
from sources of min-entropy rate arbitrarily close to 1, which is
a much easier task. Using this connection, we obtain a new
construction of randomness extractors that is optimal up to
constant factors, while being much simpler than the previous
construction of Lu et al. (STOC `03) and improving upon it when
the error parameter is small.Joint work with Venkat Guruswami and Salil Vadhan.BIO:
Chris Umans received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Berkeley in 2000.
After spending two years as a postdoc in the Theory Group at Microsoft
Research, he joined the Computer Science faculty at Caltech in 2002. His
research interests are in theoretical computer science, especially complexity
theory. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, an Alfred P. Sloan
Research Fellowship, and two CCC Best Paper Awards.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Colloquia
-
Cooperative and Competitive Coalitions in Wireless Interference Channels
Wed, Nov 07, 2007 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKER: Dr. Lalitha Sankar, Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton UniversityABSTRACT: Cooperation in multi-terminal networks can be induced in many ways. In this talk we investigate the formation of cooperative coalitions among rational users (transmit-receive links) in a K-link interference channel (IC) using coalitional game theory. Modeling the rate achieved by a user as its utility, we show that the stable coalition structure, i.e., set of coalitions from which users have no incentives to defect, depends on the manner in which the rate gains are apportioned among the cooperating users. We study transmitter and receiver cooperation in an IC as two distinct cooperative models and in each case focus on the stability of the grand coalition (GC) of all users for both flexible (transferable) and fixed (non-transferable) apportioning schemes. We show that the GC is the stable sum-rate optimal coalition when only receivers cooperate by jointly decoding (transferable). However the stability of the GC depends on the detector when receivers cooperate using linear multiuser detectors (non-transferable). For transmitter cooperation it is assumed that all receivers cooperate perfectly and that users outside a coalition act as jammers. We present results on the stability of the GC for both the case of perfectly cooperating transmitters (transferrable) and under a partial decode-and-forward strategy (non-transferable). We show that the stability depends on the channel gains for the former and the transmitter jamming strengths for the latter.BIO: Lalitha Sankar received the B.Tech degree in Engineering Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1992, the MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 1994, and the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in June 2005. She is presently a Science and Technology postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. After her masters, Lalitha worked for a year at Polaroid Corporation's Engineering R&D, following which she was a Senior Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Shannon Labs until March 2002.Host: Prof. Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
-
Sonochemical Destruction of Persistent Organic Pollutants
Wed, Nov 07, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Chad Vecitis, Graduate Student, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CAAbstractPerfluorinated chemicals are recognized as widespread in the environment and are bio-accumulative, persistent, and recalcitrant towards conventional treatment technologies. Acoustic cavitation as driven by high-frequency ultrasound can be employed for the remediation of dilute, aqueous perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) solutions. Complete sonochemical conversion of PFOS and PFOA to their inorganic constituents; CO, CO2, SO42- and F-, occurs shortly after the initial pyrolytic reaction at the surface of cavitating bubbles. PFOS and PFOA concentration-dependent sonochemical degradation kinetics are correlated to their initial concentrations which determine relative partitioning to the bubble-water interface and are modeled well by saturation kinetics. Maximum degradation rates were obtained at an ultrasonic frequency of 350 kHz where the rate of degradation is observed to increase with increasing power density. Landfill leachate and groundwater matrices were determined to have negative effects on sonochemical PFOX destruction kinetics. The major chemical factors such as co-contaminants, NOM and bicarbonate as well as possible solutions were evaluated.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Distinguished Lecture Series: Information Theory of Wireless Networks: A Deterministic Approach
Wed, Nov 07, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKER: David Tse, University of California BerkeleyABSTRACT: Gaussian channels are commonly used models for multiuser wireless communication. Unfortunately, the capacity of multiuser Gaussian channels is unknown even for simple networks such as the single-relay channel and the two-user interference channel. To make further progress in understanding how to optimally communicate over these and more general networks, we propose a deterministic channel model which focuses on the interaction between the users rather than the noise in the system. We show: 1) the analytical simplicity of this model by computing the capacities of several interference and relay networks based on this deterministic model; 2) how the insights from the deterministic model can be translated into finding near-optimal strategies for the Gaussian counterpart.BIO: David Tse received the B.A.Sc. degree in systems design engineering from University of Waterloo, Canada in 1989, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1994 respectively. From 1994 to 1995, he was a postdoctoral member of technical staff at A.T. & T. Bell Laboratories. Since 1995, he has been at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in the University of California at Berkeley, where he is currently a Professor.
He received a 1967 NSERC 4-year graduate fellowship from the government of Canada in 1989, a NSF CAREER award in 1998, the Best Paper Awards at the Infocom 1998 and Infocom 2001 conferences, the Erlang Prize in 2000 from the INFORMS Applied Probability Society, the IEEE Communications and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award in 2001, and the Information Theory Society Paper Award in 2003. He was the Technical Program co-chair of the International Symposium on Information Theory in 2004, and was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2001 to 2003. He is a coauthor, with Pramod Viswanath, of the text "Fundamentals of Wireless Communication". His research interests are in information theory, wireless communications and networking.HOST: Prof. Caire GiuseppeAudiences: Graduate/Department /Faculty
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
Modeling Combustion with Detailed Chemistry
Wed, Nov 07, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Zhuyin Ren Ph.D.Cornell UniversitySibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace EngineeringAbstractCombustion modeling is now playing an important role in the design and optimization of
advanced combustion devices such as internal combustion engines and gas turbine
combustors. For high-fidelity combustion modeling, it is essential, though challenging, to
resolve the highly nonlinear turbulence-chemistry interaction and to predict the emissions
of pollutants such as NOx and particulates. This requires the accurate description of
turbulent mixing as well as the use of detailed chemistry.In this talk, recent progresses in PDF methods for turbulent reactive flows, particularly
the sensitivity analysis, will be described and demonstrated. Then the talk will focus on
presenting the ICE-PIC dimension-reduction method and the ISAT storage-retrieval
method for the efficient implementation of detailed chemistry in combustion modeling.
The theoretical basis, validation, and computational efficiency of these methods will be
described. This talk will also describe the x2f_mpi software for efficient chemistry
calculations in large-scale parallel simulations. It will conclude with a discussion on
applying the ICE-PIC, ISAT, x2f_mpi algorithms to incorporate detailed chemistry in
combustion simulations.Location: Stauffer Science Lecture Hall, Rm 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
-
Lyman Handy Colloquium Series
Thu, Nov 08, 2007 @ 12:45 PM - 01:50 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paul Cremer, Texas A&Mhttp://www.chem.tamu.edu/faculty/faculty_detail.php?ID=148Proteomics on a Supported Membrane ChipSupported phospholipid bilayers (SPBs) offer a promising environment to
mimic many properties of native cell membranes. As such, these systems hold great promise for creating highly selective biosensors as well as for the design of nanoscale architectures in which membrane proteins may be separated without denaturation. Two important hurdles exist, however, before these systems can be widely exploited in applications. First, SPBs are generally unstable upon exposure to air. Second, there is typically insufficient space between the lower leaflet of the supported bilayer and an underlying planar support to allow full mobility for membrane proteins. In this presentation I will describe recent advances in our laboratory for creating air stable SPBs as well as a novel "double cushion" platform that allows transmembrane proteins to retain lateral mobility.Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
-
EE Students Practical Guide Seminar Series - Elements of Successful Proposals
Fri, Nov 09, 2007 @ 11:30 AM - 01:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Seminar Speakers: Profs. Hossein Hashemi and P. Vijay Kumar.Organizer: Prof. Alan Willner* Pizza will be graciously provided by the EE Department.*Abstract: Odds are that regardless of where you choose to go after your studies at USC, you will at some point, be asked or required to write a proposal. In some professions, your livelihood may well be at stake. So what exactly is a proposal and what can you hope to gain from writing one? What goes into the making of a successful proposal? While we do not pretend to have all the answers, we will give you our take on this topic and hope at least to leave you better informed.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
The fuels market is currently in a dynamic state
Fri, Nov 09, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 AM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Richarhd Ellis, EcoEnergy Solutions, Inc., Reno, NVAbstract:
There is a movement through out the world to reduce emissions from fossil fuels and simultaneously there is movement to reduce carbon consumption by replacing petroleum fuels with natural products. The base transportation fuel in California is diesel. In the 1990's the California Air Resources Board (CARB) promulgated regulation to reduce NOx and particulate generated from the combustion from diesel fuel. The use of alternative diesel fuels, especially biodiesel, increases NOx emissions. The CARB staff is currently working on programs to quantify the impact on NOx emissions from biodiesel and find ways to mitigate these emissions. In response to the CARB regulations to reduce NOx in diesel fuels, a technology was developed that used a Water-in Diesel emulsion. This emulsion technology was successful and is currently used internationally.In this seminar, we will review the technology for making emulsions of water and diesel. We will review the proposed mechanisms that enable emulsions to reduce emission and extend these ideas to biodiesel fuels. Data will be presented to show the effect of water on the emissions of diesel/biodiesel blends. We will also discuss the combustion modeling of biodiesel fuels in an effort to understand the critical physical properties of biodiesel that affect combustion. In conclusion, we will discuss the research areas that can contribute most to developing systems and processes that reduce emission from combustion engines.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Controlling the Future Internet
Fri, Nov 09, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Abstract:
The current implementation of the Internet relies heavily on Internet Protocol (IP). IP is currently employed to provide inter-networking among heterogeneous access networks. Despite its success, today's Internet implementation has several limitations, some of which include the overloading of the IP address to simultaneously indicate network location and node identity, and the absence of a trustworthy environment for users to communicate. We propose an architecture that addresses this problem and abstracts the functions of the network from the physical network and relies on the use of persistent identifiers (PI) to communicate with every entity on the network.. This is accomplished using software agents that implement the different functions of the network (routing, DNS resolution, storage, etc.) and by viewing the hardware nodes as resource providers to be used by the agents for the completion of their tasks. The agents are then allowed to move autonomously among the nodes of the network in search of nodes that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their task completion. This then creates a distributed resource allocation problem that we formulate and solve in this talk using a hybrid systems framework and randomized algorithms. Speaker:
Chaouki T. Abdallah obtained his MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982, and 1988 respectively. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of New Mexico where he is currently professor, and chair. Professor Abdallah conducts research and teaches courses in the general area of systems theory with focus on control, communications, and computing systems. His research has been funded by national funding agencies (NSF, AFOSR, NRL), national laboratories (SNL, LANL), and by various companies (Boeing, HP). He has also been active in designing and implementing various international graduate programs with Latin American and European countries. He was a co-founder in 1990 of the ISTEC consortium, which currently includes more than 150 universities in the US, Spain, and Latin America. He has co-authored 4 books, and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. His IEEE professional service credits include being the program chair for IEEE Conference on Decision & Control, Hawaii, 2003, and the general chair for the IEEE Conference on Decision & Control, in 2008. Professor Abdallah is a senior member of IEEE and a recipient of the IEEE Millennium medal.Host: Petros Ioannou, ioannou@usc.edu, ext 04452Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shane Goodoff
-
BME 533 Seminar Series: Douglas McCreery, Ph.D. (guest speaker)
Mon, Nov 12, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Guest speaker: Douglas McCreery, Ph.D., Director, Neural Engineering Program, Huntington Memorial Research
Institute, Pasadena, CA:
"Neural stimulation and recording with chronically-implanted microelectrodes"
Location: Gwynn Wilson Student Union (STU) - dents registered in BME 533
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
Advanced Uses of Information Technology (IT) in Construction Management and Engineering: ...
Mon, Nov 12, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
A Multi Disciplinary Research AgendaSpeaker: Dr. Burcin Becerik, Project Manager, Camp Dresser & McKee; Faculty Southern California Institute of ArchitectureA Joint Seminar of Civil and Environmental Engineering and School of ArchitectureAbstract:The lecture focuses on past, present and future research topics including online collaboration, project management and building information management and the conflation of design, procurement, construction simulation and delivery through advance use of IT.
The global construction potential is estimated to be 4.5 trillion dollars and the opportunity for growth of the construction management and engineering profession -both nationally & globally- is vast. The demand is growing for more complex, faster pace and efficient construction projects. Nevertheless, our industry is highly fragmented and still wasteful. IT and quality processes can advance productivity gains, transfer of higher quality engineering & construction information, collaboration, and coordination of numerous parties. The presentation explores how design and construction information can be captured early in the process and be carried and used throughout from concept to implementation and facility management. The presentation brings the notion of *Project Lifecycle Management* and addresses how scheduling, estimating and environmental analysis tools can be linked to the building information models and how these models become single sources for construction documentation and management. Possibilities of construction simulation and planning, evaluation of design alternatives, construction documentation, monitoring, controlling and management of large-scale and complex construction projects are explained and illustrated from 2D to nD. The challenge is about achieving an integrated practice through improved information visualization and management from concept to implementation.
Potential research questions that the presentation addresses include: What are the implications of an IT concentration on construction management and highly specialized engineering and management services? How can knowledge be captured, shared and re-used in the construction industry and what are the benefits in terms of design, analysis, documentation, procurement, delivery and facility management efficiencies? How can we achieve one integrated information repository (decision dashboard) for control and management? Is there any need for re-engineering our construction processes to meet the changing construction environment, team structures, delivery methods and increased complexity? How can we create benchmarks and key performance indicators for performance measurement and evaluation? How should current standard agreements for engineering and construction services be modified to further define the role of IT in construction? What is the impact of advanced information technology and methodology on risk mitigation and management and what are the legal implications.
Finally, the presentation is a back drop for a discussion of the importance and immediate relevance of advanced uses of IT in engineering and construction and their applicability to the existing problems of supply chain inefficiencies and green construction practices and market demand for ever more productivity gains and project efficiencies.Location: May Ormerod Harris Hall, Quinn Wing & Fisher Gallery (HAR) - ris Hall 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Transport in Multiscale Systems: the Role of Heterogeneity
Wed, Nov 14, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Andrea Cortis, Geological Scientist, Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Berkeley, CAABSTRACT: Complex multiscale, heterogeneous structures, found ubiquitously in engineered and natural systems, are often the main cause behind our inability to make reliable predictions.
In this talk, we explore how the transport of mass, momentum, and energy is affected by multiple-scale heterogeneity. Moving from a critique of the assumptions underlying our current understanding of transport in terms of advection and dispersion, we arrive at the formulation of a coherent transport theory based on the Continuous Time Random Walk paradigm, which provides a flexible and effective framework for the treatment of transport in heterogeneous media. While this new transport theory is general and can be applied to virtually all transport phenomena, in this talk we will test its predictions against hydrogeological observations, both at laboratory and field scales.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Measuring unsteady efficiency and performance of biological and bio-inspired propulsors
Wed, Nov 14, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Prof. John O. DabiriGraduate Aeronautical Laboratories and BioengineeringCalifornia Institute of TechnologyAbstract:
This talk will describe the development of new experimental and analytical
tools to extract the governing mechanisms of animal swimming and flying
from empirical observations. The approach advocated presently avoids
direct use of the vorticity field in favor of a Lagrangian,
particle-tracking perspective. The benefits of this strategy are
demonstrated in laboratory studies of the bluegill sunfish and various
jellyfish species. These laboratory observations are complemented by
inexpensive computational models and a new in situ field apparatus, which
enables a SCUBA diver to make velocimetry measurements normally confined
to artificial laboratory environments. The principles derived from these
studies are applied to fluid dynamic problems as varied as autonomous
underwater vehicle design, cardiovascular flow diagnostics, and wind energy harvesting.Location: Stauffer Science Lecture Hall, Rm 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
-
Integrated Nanowire Electronics and Sensors on Flexible Plastic Substrates
Thu, Nov 15, 2007 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Graduate SeminarbyDr. Michael McAlpine
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
California Institute of TechnologyAbstractThe introduction of an ambient-temperature route for integrating high performance materials on
flexible plastic substrates could enable exciting avenues in fundamental research, and innovative
electronic and medical devices. However, the temperature constraints imposed by these substrates
restrict the use of high carrier mobility materials, such as polycrystalline silicon, generally limiting these devices to the modest computational capabilities of amorphous silicon and organic semiconductor thin film transistors. The development of new materials and novel materials processes for overcoming this restriction could impact a broad spectrum of applications.Semiconductor nanowires represent unique, high performance building blocks for electronic,
photonic, and sensing devices. In this talk, I will present my work demonstrating that single-crystal
nanowires can be hierarchically assembled onto flexible plastic substrates under ambient conditions to create multi-component, fully integrated devices, including field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, ring oscillators, and electronic noses. These devices all exhibit performance metrics which meet or exceed the state-of-the-art for flexible electronics.The key to our approach is the separation of the high-temperature synthesis of single-crystal
nanowires from room temperature assembly, thus enabling fabrication of high-performance devices on
virtually any substrate. Silicon nanowire field-effect transistors on plastic substrates display mobilities rivaling those of single-crystal silicon and exceeding those of amorphous silicon and organic transistors currently used for plastic electronics. Furthermore, we show that these systems can be integrated into ring oscillators on plastic which generate frequencies approaching the microwave, the highest observed frequencies for circuits based on nanoscale materials.Finally, we exploit SiO2 surface chemistries to construct a "nano-electronic nose" library,
which can distinguish acetone and hexane vapours via distributed responses. We also demonstrate that
amide coupling of theoretically tailored peptide sequences to the arrays allows for selective
discrimination of chemicals often found in the breath of sick patients. This excellent sensing
performance coupled with biocompatible plastic could open up far-reaching opportunities in mobile
computing, lightweight display, or even implantable monitoring applications.Thursday, November 15, 2007
12:45 p.m.
OHE 122Refreshments 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 Sapir
-
CS Colloquia: Robotic Planetary Science: the Mars Exploration Rovers and Beyond
Thu, Nov 15, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Robotic Planetary Science: the Mars Exploration Rovers and BeyondSpeaker: Dr. Ashley Stroupe(JPL)ABSTRACT:
This talk will present the present and future of robotic Mars exploration,
including the current Mars missions and system prototypes for future missions
to the Moon and Mars. The talk will begin with an overview of the the Mars
Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been exploring Mars for
nearly 4 years. We will focus on autonomous rover capabilities, highlights of
mission science discoveries, and lessons learned. Following, there will be a
brief discussion of the next Mars missions, Phoenix and Mars Science
Laboratory. We will conclude by looking at some prototypes for future
missions, including Lunar exploration (with Athlete) and difficult terrain
exploration (with TRESSA).BIO:
Ashley W. Stroupe is a staff engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. She works as a rover driver with the Mars
Exploration Rover Project, building sequences of commands to drive the rover
and deploy science instruments. Dr. Stroupe does research focusing on
multi-robot teams in complex environments and behavior-based control, with
applications to exploration and mapping, dynamic target observation, and
cooperative manipulation. She has published multiple conference papers, book
chapters, and journal articles in robotics and is an active participant in
multiple education and outreach programs. She received a B.S. in physics from
Harvey Mudd College in 1990, an M.S. in electrical engineering from George
Mason University in 1998, an M.S. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University
in 2001, and a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Colloquia
-
A Non-Linear Neural Classifier and its Applications in Testing Analog/RF Circuits
Fri, Nov 16, 2007 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Yiorgos MakrisAbstract: In this talk, I will be discussing a machine learning-based test paradigm for mixed-signal/RF circuits. I will first describe an ontogenic neural classifier that learns to separate the nominal from the faulty chip distributions in a low-dimensional space of inexpensive measurements. The key novelty of this classifier is that its topology is not fixed; rather, it adapts dynamically, in order to match the inherent complexity of the separation problem. Thus, it establishes separation hypersurfaces that reciprocate very well even in the presence of complex chip distributions. I will then discuss the construction of guard-bands, which provide a level-of-confidence indication and support a two-tier test method. In this method, the majority of chips are accurately classified through inexpensive measurements, while the small fraction of chips for which the decision of the classifier has a low level of confidence is re-tested through traditional specification testing. The ability of the proposed method to drastically reduce the cost of mixed-signal/RF testing without compromising its quality will be demonstrated using two example circuits, a switched-capacitor filter and a UHF receiver front-end. Additionally, its application in specification test compaction and its potential for developing a stand-alone analog/RF BIST method will be discussed. Bio: Yiorgos Makris received the Diploma of Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1995, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He then joined Yale University where he is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and leads the Testable and Reliable Architectures (TRELA) Laboratory. His research interests are in the areas of test and reliability of analog, digital, and asynchronous circuits and systems.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Annie Yu
-
Mechanism and Chemical Kinetics of H2S Formation from ...
Fri, Nov 16, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Thermochemical Sulfate Reduction (TSR)Speaker: Dr. Tongwei Zhang, Research Geochemistry, Power, Environmental and Energy Research Center, (PEER), Caltech, Covina, CAAbstract:H2S generation from Thermochemical Sulfate Reduction (TSR) is a complicated organic-inorganic interaction and greatly depends on formation water chemistry, oil types, temperature and pressure. Our theoretical evidence suggests that magnesium plays a significant role in controlling the rate of TSR in petroleum reservoirs. Ab initio quantum chemical calculations have been determined the activation energy for MgSO4 contact ion-pair (CIP) reduction by hydrocarbons is about 56 kcal/mol, which is almost equivalent to that for HSO4- reduction (about 55kcal/mol). The theoretical discovery provides a base of the extrapolation from the H2S generation kinetics of HSO4- ion reduction by hydrocarbons derived from laboratory’s conditions to the geological condition with MgSO4 CIP reaction scheme. Two-stage reaction pattern of H2S generation from sulfate reduction is experimentally observed. The first stage is the sulfate reduction by hydrocarbons without H2S catalyzed, and the reaction rate is slow and depends on the concentration of HSO4 ion or MgSO4 CIP. After accumulating a sufficient amount of hydrogen sulfide, H2S catalyzed sulfate reduction kicks off and the reaction rate is much faster than the initial H2S uncatalyzed reaction. Detailed experimental work confirms that the presence of H2S is capable of catalyzing sulfate reduction and significantly increases the rate of reaction, which may help to explain why previous estimates of TSR activation energies were so divergent.
Formation water chemistry, in particular the concentration of HSO4- or MgSO4 (aq) contact ion-pair is critical to control the TSR reaction rate. The activation energy for oils reacting with HSO4- or MgSO4 (aq) contact ion-pair is experimentally determined and is in the range of 55.3kcal/mol to 58.9kcal/mol, which is close to that of the theoretical calculated activation energy. Oil types can significantly affect the rate of TSR reaction, in particular the presence of labile sulfur species (thiols, sulfides) in oils. The presence of labile sulfur can reduce the activation energy of TSR. Experimental evidence suggests that H2S catalysis of TSR actually involves the formation of labile organic sulfur compounds. The presence of H2S can significantly lower the activation energy of TSR reaction.
A new technique, PH2S prediction tool is now available that specifically assess H2S risk prediction and TSR effect to petroleum thermal stability and petroleum quality. By combining hydrocarbon types (mainly labile sulphur contents in oils), the formation water chemistry including Mg, Ca and SO4 concentration and reservoir thermal history with a PC-based model of hydrocarbon oxidation kinetics, we are able to predict: H2S risk degree, onset temperature of TSR, gas quality (e.g., sourness), and oil quality (organic sulphur incorporation).
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Renewable Energy and Water in the Developing World with a Focus on Southeast Asia and Latin America
Fri, Nov 16, 2007 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jason Selwitz, Service Learning Coordinator, Portland, OregonJason Selwitz works at Green Empowerment (GE), a Portland, Oregon-based organization that supports renewable energy, water delivery, and watershed restoration projects in Latin America and Southeast Asia. GE works with local, in-country, non-government organizations (NGO) to aid rural communities living outside the national electricity grid. Major projects have been undertaken in the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Peru.Jason is a graduate of Penn State and is currently a graduate student at Cal Poly Pomona in "Regenerative Studies," an area of research seeking to integrate healthy ecosystems with human settlement. Jason's work and research has also included novel wastewater treatment techniques, biodiesel processing, photovoltaics, and alternative building materials. His international work began with Peace Corps work in the Philippines.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
BME 533 Seminar Series: Stefan Bluml, PhD (guest speaker)
Mon, Nov 19, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
BME SeminarDate/time: Monday Nov.19, 2007 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Location: OHE-132
Speaker:Stefan Bluml, PhD, Director, New Imaging Technology
Laboratory, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, and Associate Professor
of Research Radiology, USC Keck School of MedicineTitle of Talk:
"Non-invasive MR Examination of the Newborn/Pediatric Brain"
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: all BME graduate students
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
Regenerating codes for Distributed Storage
Tue, Nov 20, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Seminar Speaker: Alex Dimakis, Wireless Foundations, EECS, UC Berkeley
11-12 pm November 20, 2007
Host: Bhaskar KrishnamachariRegenerating codes for Distributed StorageData centers and sensor networks require reliable information storage
over individually unreliable nodes. Storing a file using an erasure
code, in fragments spread across nodes, requires less redundancy than
simple replication for the same level of reliability. However, since
fragments must be periodically replaced as nodes fail, a key question
is how to generate a new encoded fragment in a distributed way while
transferring as little data as possible across the network.
We formulate code repair as an optimal flow problem on an infinite
graph and show how appropriate mixing of information (network coding)
can surprisingly reduce the repair bandwidth. We present both
information theoretic lower bounds and code constructions that achieve
optimal performance. Time permitting, some open problems related with
information storage in Data centers will be discussed.Bio: Alex Dimakis received the Diploma degree in Electrical and
Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens
in 2003 and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley
in 2005. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley.
His research interests include Communications, Signal processing, and
Networking with applications in distributed systems and sensor
networks. Mr. Dimakis has received two outstanding paper awards, the UC Berkeley
Departmental Fellowship in 2003, and the Microsoft Research Fellowship
in 2007.Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shane Goodoff
-
Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol EconomyTM
Wed, Nov 21, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
G. K. Surya Prakash,
Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1661, USA
gprakash@usc.eduMethanol is much preferable to hydrogen for energy storage and transportation. It is also an excellent fuel for heat engines and fuel cells and a convenient raw material for synthetic hydrocarbons and their varied products. Methanol, presently produced from fossil fuel based syn-gas, can also be made by direct oxidative conversion of natural gas or other methane sources. Even biomass can be converted to methanol through syn-gas. Chemical recycling of excess carbon dioxide formed from human activities, natural and industrial sources, or even from the air to methanol via capture followed by reductive conversion with hydrogen is possible. Any available energy source (preferably alternative and atomic energy) can provide the needed energy, primarily generating hydrogen. Direct electrochemical reduction of CO2 is also possible. Short Biographical Sketch:
Professor G. K. Surya Prakash, Ph.D., was born in 1953 in Bangalore, India. He earned a B.Sc (Hons) in chemistry from Bangalore University and an M.S. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Prakash came to US in 1974 and joined Professor George Olah's group at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio to pursue graduate work. He moved with Professor Olah to the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 to help establish the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and obtained his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at USC in 1978. He joined the faculty of USC in 1981 and he is currently a Professor and the holder of the George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry. He also serves as the Scientific Co-Director of the Institute. His primary research interests are in superacid, hydrocarbon, synthetic organic & organofluorine chemistry, with particular emphasis in the areas of energy and catalysis. He is a co-inventor of the proton exchange membrane based direct oxidation methanol fuel cell. Professor Prakash is a prolific author with more than 550 peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds 21 patents. He has also co-authored or edited 8 books. He has received many awards and accolades including two American Chemical Society National Awards: 2004 for his achievements in the area of fluorine chemistry and 2006 for his contributions to hydrocarbon chemistry. More recently, he has received the 2006 Richard C. Tolman Award from the Southern California section of the American Chemical Society for his scientific contributions to Southern California and the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He is a fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science and a Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities. He also sits on several Editorial Boards of Chemical Journals.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Title: Examination of the link between aerosol properties and cloud droplet activation efficiency
Wed, Nov 21, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Don CollinsAssociate ProfessorDept. of Atmospheric SciencesTexas A & M UniversityAbstract:Among the factors contributing to the overall uncertainty in the indirect effect of aerosols on climate is the still inadequately understood relationship between particle size, composition, and critical supersaturation. Applying the results of laboratory studies of the activation efficiency of relatively simplistic aerosols to predict CCN concentration for an ambient aerosol for which only an incomplete description of its size distribution and composition is available is undoubtedly challenging, as is reflected in the varied success of several recent CCN closure efforts. Whereas an understanding of the link between composition and critical supersaturation is ultimately needed, insight into the factors controlling activation can be gained through an improved understanding of the relationship between hygroscopic growth under subsaturated conditions and cloud droplet formation under supersaturated conditions.
I will describe both our recent efforts aimed at quantifying the link between critical supersaturation and hygroscopicity, and our recent development and use of an instrument that permits quantification of the link between critical supersaturation and composition.Location: Stauffer Science Lecture Hall, Rm 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
-
BME 533 Seminar Series: Kevin Burton, Ph.D. (guest speaker)
Mon, Nov 26, 2007 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Guest speaker: Kevin Burton, Ph.D., Director of Cardiovascular Research, Department of Surgery, Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center, Los Angeles.
"Studies of motile and contractile cells using optics and mechanics"
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: students registered in BME 533
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
-
Biophotonics: Lighting the way
Tue, Nov 27, 2007 @ 03:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Andrea ArmaniCalifornia Institute of TechnologyAbstractFor many biological and chemical experiments, a sensor must have high sensitivity, high specificity, and fast response time. There are many technologies which are able to achieve one or two of these three requirements, but many still face fundamental sensitivity or response limitations.Silica optical resonators are able to overcome these limitations because of the high quality factor (Q). In their application as a single molecule sensor, the sensitivity is derived from the long photon lifetime inside the microcavity, and the specificity is derived from functionalization of the silica surface. During the initial series of label-free detection experiments, pure Interleukin-2 (IL-2) solutions were injected into the volume surrounding the microtoroid. The microtoroid successfully detected step-like shifts in resonance wavelength from individual IL-2 molecules binding. Additional experiments have shown that even in the more complex environment of serum individual binding events of IL-2 are still resolved. Therefore, this single molecule sensor will enable research in new areas of biophysics and cell biology.
Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
-
Broadcasting without Knowing the Channel: Outage-Efficient Transmission
Tue, Nov 27, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
SPEAKER: Dr. Wenyi Zhang, Post-Doc, CSIABSTRACT: A prevailing assumption in multiuser information theory is that the transmitter(s) has perfect channel state information (CSI). However, transmit CSI may not be readily available under certain scenarios, for example, in fading channels, or in lack of an adequate feedback link. In this talk, we investigate a fading Gaussian broadcast channel (BC) without transmit CSI. Specifically, we consider a quasi-static scenario, to model delay-sensitive applications over slowly time-varying fading channels, and characterize system performance by outage achievable rate regions. For scalar-input channels, we propose two coding schemes: blind dirty paper coding (B-DPC), and statistical superposition coding (S-SC). Both schemes lead to the same outage achievable rate region, which always dominates that of time-sharing, irrespective of the particular fading distributions. We also show that the S-SC scheme can be extended to BCs with multiple transmit antennas. (Joint work with S. Kotagiri and J. N. Laneman)BIO: Wenyi Zhang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China in 1979. He received B.E. degree in Automation from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2001; and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Notre Dame, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. He is now affiliated with the Communication Sciences Institute (CSI), the University of Southern California (USC), as a postdoctoral research associate. He was awarded the Michael J. Birck Endowed Graduate Fellowship in 2002-2003, and the Center for Applied Mathematics (CAM) Fellowship of the University of Notre Dame in summer 2004 and 2005-2006. He received the Kaneb Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2005. He is a member of IEEE and Sigma Xi.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 539
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
-
A Partition of Unity Finite Element Method for Cohesive Zone Modeling of Fracture
Wed, Nov 28, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: James V. Cox,
Advanced Mechanics Development Department,
Sandia National Laboratories,
Albuquerque, New MexicoAbstract:Meaningful computational investigations of many solid mechanics problems require accurate characterization of material behavior through failure. A recent approach to fracture modeling has combined the partition of unity finite element method (PUFEM) with cohesive zone models. In the PUFEM, the displacement field is enriched to improve the local approximation. Previous studies have used simplified enrichment functions to represent the strong discontinuity but have lacked an analytical basis to represent the displacement gradients in the vicinity of the cohesive crack. In this study enrichment functions based upon two existing analytical investigations of the cohesive crack problem are proposed. These functions have the potential of representing displacement gradients in the vicinity of the cohesive crack with a relatively coarse mesh and allow the crack to incrementally advance across each element. An overview of the enrichment functions and key aspects of the numerical implementation are presented. Analysis results for simple model problems are presented to evaluate if quasi-static crack propagation can be accurately followed with the proposed formulation. A standard finite element solution with interface elements is used to provide the accurate reference solution, so the model problems are limited to a straight, mode I crack in plane stress. Except for the cohesive zone, the material model for the problems is homogenous, isotropic linear elasticity. Propagation of the cohesive zone tip and crack tip, time variation of the cohesive zone length, and crack profiles are examined to assess the potential of this PUFEM. The effects of mesh refinement and mesh orientation on the results are also considered. The analysis results indicate that the enrichment functions based upon the asymptotic solutions can accurately track the cohesive crack propagation independent of mesh orientation. Extension of the formulation to mixed mode cracking and applicability of the enrichment functions to problems with inelastic domains are the subjects of ongoing studies.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
-
Global Modes and Aerodynamic Sound Generation In Self-Excited Hot Jets
Wed, Nov 28, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lutz Lesshafft Postdoctoral Fellow University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA One of the most remarkable phenomena in the field of aerodynamic instability is the spontaneous bifurcation of a steady flow towards a selforganized state of intrinsic oscillations. Similar to the von Kármán vortex street in cylinder wakes, hot jets constitute another class of such globally unstable flows: whereas an isothermal jet behaves as an amplifier of external perturbations, sufficiently heated jets display intrinsic oscillations in the form of regularly spaced ring vortices. Comparison of direct numerical simulation results to theoretical predictions, derived from Ginzburg-Landau model equations, demonstrates that these self-sustained oscillations in subsonic hot jets are dominated by the dynamics of a nonlinear wave front, which separates an oscillating flow region from the upstream steady flow. The bifurcation towards a state of self-sustained synchronized oscillations ('nonlinear global mode') is due to the existence of an absolutely unstable region in the underlying base flow. A linear stability analysis allows us to predict the naturally selected frequency, as well as the critical temperature ratio for the onset of global instability. Both the near- and the far-field of the jet are resolved via DNS: the acoustic field generated by such a synchronized vortex street is found to be that of a compact dipole, with maximum acoustic intensity in the axial direction of the jet. A numerical analysis of the Lighthill equation reveals that this radiation pattern is due to strong entropy fluctuations within the jet.
Location: Stauffer Science Lecture Hall, Rm 102
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
-
Some Physics, Materials Science and Chemistry of Single Molecules Sensing with Solid State Nanopores
Thu, Nov 29, 2007
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
EVENT CANCELLEDDistinguished Lecture SeriesProfessor Jene A. Golovchenko Department of Physics and School of Engineering and Applied ScienceHarvard University
Cambridge MAAbstractThis talk will cover recent developments and discoveries connected with the Solid State Nanopore Program at Harvard. It will address accomplishments and challenges related to nanopore fabrication, nanopore interaction with DNA molecules, DNA - carbon nanotube interactions, nanotubes in nanopores, and the most recent development, multiple interrogations of single molecules in solution with a solid state nanopore trap.Thursday, November 29, 2007Seminar - 12:45 p.m.OHE 122Refreshments served after the seminar in HED Lobby
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited.
Audiences: EVENT CANCELLED
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
-
CS Colloquia: Partitioned and Hybrid Methods for Visual Servo Control
Thu, Nov 29, 2007 @ 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Title: Partitioned and Hybrid Methods for Visual Servo ControlSpeaker: Prof. Seth Hutchinson(UIUC)ABSTRACT:
Visual servo control concerns the problem of controlling robots using
real-time computer vision feedback. While numerous approaches have
evolved, and many systems have been demonstrated in laboratories around
the world, most can be classified as either position-based or image-based,
depending on whether camera pose or image features are used in the control
law. Each approach has well-documented performance problems.In this talk, after a brief description of these methods and their
respective shortcomings, I will describe two approaches to overcoming
their performance problems. With the first approach, the control system
is partitioned along its spatial degrees of freedom. Rotation about and
translation along the optical axis are controlled by a specifically
designed controller, and the remaining degrees of freedom are controlled
with a traditional image-based method. With the second approach, a
hybrid, switched control system selects either an image-based or
position-based controller at each time instant, using a state-based
switching scheme. The performance of both of these approaches have been
verified by a variety of simulated and experimental results. If time
permits, I will also describe recent results applying a switched method to
the control of a unicycle robot with field-of-view constraints.BIO:
Seth Hutchinson received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1988. In
1990 he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in
Urbana-Champaign, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Coordinated Science Laboratory,
and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Dr.
Hutchinson serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the RAS Conference Editorial
Board, and on the editorial boards of the International Journal of
Robotics Research and the Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics. He
served as Associate and then Senior Editor for the IEEE Transactions on
Robotics and Automation, now the IEEE Transactions on Robotics, from
1997-2005. In 1996 he was a guest editor for a special section of the
Transactions devoted to the topic of visual servo control, and in 1994 he
was co-chair of an IEEE Workshop on Visual Servoing. In 1996 and 1998 he
co-authored papers that were finalists for the King-Sun Fu Memorial Best
Transactions Paper Award. He was co-chair of IEEE Robotics and Automation
Society Technical Committee on Computer and Robot Vision from 1992 to
1996, and has served on the program committees for more than fifty
conferences related to robotics and computer vision. He has published
more than 150 papers on the topics of robotics and computer vision, and is
coauthor of the books 'Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and
Implementations', published by MIT Press, and 'Robot Modeling and
Control', published by Wiley.Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Colloquia
-
EE Students Practical Guide Seminar Series - Mentoring
Fri, Nov 30, 2007 @ 11:30 AM - 01:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Seminar Speakers: Profs. P. Daniel Dapkus and Alexander Sawchuk.Organizer: Prof. Alan Willner* Pizza will be graciously provided by the EE Department.*Abstract: Ask almost any successful person, and you will find that a mentor played an important role in their career. We will discuss what mentoring is, why it is important, who needs mentoring, who should provide mentoring, how to find a mentor, and how to be a mentor.
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
SICK Homes and Building
Fri, Nov 30, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:
Sandra Thompson, Ph.D.
Attorney, Buchalter Nemer,
Irvine, CAAbstract:"Sick" homes and buildings are those spaces that contain sufficient levels of chemicals, allergens and other particles to make those who live or work in the space sick. Usually, sick buildings result from poor or inadequate ventilation, chemical contaminants from outdoor or indoor sources or biological contaminants. "Sick Building Syndrome" or SBS can cause ailments ranging from headaches, immune system issues, fatigue, dry or itchy skin, dizziness and nausea to name a few. Dr. Thompson will give a brief overview of SBS, along with discussing possible solutions to this increasing problem. One solution may be the use of corona discharges. Corona discharges can be easily tailored to accommodate and destroy complex mixtures of VOCs. The use of the corona discharge to control VOC concentration in ambient air can minimize operator maintenance, cost, and maximize efficiency, and therefore, is an attractive technology to implement for small industrial sources or from an outside air supply. The corona discharge can convert several types of VOCs ranging from toluene to CFCs and DMS into smaller, more manageable by-products. The versatility of the corona discharge, based on the production of a variety of reactive species, such as hydroxyl radical, ozone and excited oxygen atoms, and the ability of the plasma to encourage several different reactive mechanisms, is probably the most important conclusion that has come from this research. The goal of Dr. Thompson's research in this field was to investigate the properties of the corona discharge, to investigate the dominant reaction mechanisms at work in the plasma reactor, and to determine if the corona plasma could successfully convert contaminants that may be present in air to smaller, less toxic molecules. The conclusion that toluene, cyclohexane, CFCs and DMS can be converted to other products supports the hypothesis that there are several reaction mechanisms working within the reactor. The collection of reaction mechanisms and various reactive species within the plasma makes the pulsed corona discharge much more versatile and more applicable in handling several different types of contaminated air streams.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
