EE Students Practical Guide Seminar Series - Thinking ‘Interdisciplinary

Seminar Leaders: Profs. Richard Leahy and Shrikanth (Shri) NarayananWebsite: http://ee.usc.edu/news/practical-guide/ * Pizza will be provided by the EE Department.*Abstract: The lines between traditional academic disciplines are
blurring as engineers, scientists and other researchers work together to
address major societal challenges and scientific questions. Research
teams at USC are involved in large scale projects addressing issues such
as climate change and energy, biomedical nanoscience and its
applications, computational and systems biology, and the use of
technology to enhance the education, health and well-being of children.
Electrical engineers have a major role to play in these and other
multidisciplinary projects. We will discuss our experience in
multidisciplinary research focusing on the challenges and rewards of
this mode of research, as well as practical questions such as training
for graduate students and postdocs, sources and mechanisms for funding,
and the impact of interdisciplinary studies on obtaining faculty
positions and tenure. This will be an informal meeting and we look
forward to a lively dialog with those attending.Biographical SketchesProf. Richard Leahy is a Professor of Electrical Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering and Radiology at the Uni¬versity of Southern California. He
was Director of the USC Signal and Image Processing Institute from 1997
- 2003. Dr. Leahy is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and was general chair of the 2004 IEEE
International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI). He has published
over 200 papers in the field of biomedical signal and image processing.
His research interests lie in the application of signal and image
processing theory to biomedical imaging problems. His research involves
the development of methods for anatomical and functional imaging with
applications in neuroimaging and molecular imaging using PET, MRI and
EEG/MEG.Prof. Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan is Andrew J. Viterbi Professor of
Engineering and holds appointments as Professor of Electrical
Engineering and jointly Professor in Computer Science, Linguistics and
Psychology at the University of Southern California (USC). Prior to USC
he was a researcher at AT&T Bell Labs and AT&T Research in New Jersey.
At USC, he is a member of the Signal and Image Processing Institute and
directs the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL). The
focus of his research group, which is interdisciplinary and includes
teams of both graduate and undergraduate students, is on human-centric
signals and systems modeling including applications in speech, audio,
video and biomedical domains. Examples of recent large projects
include building an automated speech translation system that will help
two people who do not share a language communicate, methods for
assessing literacy in young children, systems for modeling audio and
music, using novel imaging techniques to understand human speech
production, and contributions to the design of virtual humans for
simulation and training.Shri Narayanan is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and is
a recipient of several academic honors including a 2005 best paper
award from the IEEE Signal Processing society and a Mellon Award for
Excellence in Mentoring. Research papers co-authored with his students
have won several best student paper awards at major IEEE venues. He has
published over 250 papers and has fifteen granted/pending U.S. patents.

Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos