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Events for the 5th week of February
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CS Colloquium: Angela Zhou (USC / Marshall School of Business) - Robust Fitted-Q-Evaluation and Iteration under Sequentially Exogenous Unobserved Confounders
Mon, Feb 24, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Angela Zhou, USC / Marshall School of Business
Talk Title: Robust Fitted-Q-Evaluation and Iteration under Sequentially Exogenous Unobserved Confounders
Abstract: Offline causal decision making and reinforcement learning is important in domains such as medicine, economics, and e-commerce where online experimentation is costly, dangerous or unethical, and where the true model is unknown. However, most methods assume all covariates used in the behavior policy's action decisions are observed. Though this assumption, sequential ignorability/unconfoundedness, likely does not hold in observational data, most of the data that accounts for selection into treatment may be observed, motivating sensitivity analysis. We study robust policy evaluation and policy optimization in the presence of sequentially-exogenous unobserved confounders under a sensitivity model. We consider the single-timestep and the sequential setting. For the sequential setting, we propose and analyze orthogonalized robust fitted-Q-iteration that uses closed-form solutions of the robust Bellman operator to derive a loss minimization problem for the robust Q function, and adds a bias-correction to quantile estimation. Our algorithm enjoys the computational ease of fitted-Q-iteration and statistical improvements (reduced dependence on quantile estimation error) from orthogonalization. We provide sample complexity bounds, insights, and show effectiveness both in simulations and on real-world longitudinal healthcare data of treating sepsis. In particular, our model of sequential unobserved confounders yields an online Markov decision process, rather than partially observed Markov decision process: we illustrate how this can enable warm-starting optimistic reinforcement learning algorithms with valid robust bounds from observational data. This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Angela Zhou is an Assistant Professor in Data Sciences and Operations at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. She received her PhD from Cornell ORIE and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley / the Simons Institute. She works on data-driven decision making, including the interface of causal inference and machine learning, (offline) reinforcement learning, and equitable social prediction in consequential domains. She was a program co-chair for ACM EAAMO 2022 (a new conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms and Optimization). Her research interests are in statistical machine learning for data-driven sequential decision making under uncertainty, causal inference, and the interplay of statistics and optimization. Her work has received oral-equivalent or featured designations at machine learning venues (Neurips, TMLR) and has won the INFORMS Data Mining Best Student Paper award, while she has received various designations as a Rising Star in AI, Data Science, and AI Fairness.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone (USC) is invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. StudentsMon, Feb 24, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
"Keys to Life" series at USC ORSL
Mon, Feb 24, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University Calendar
"Keys to Life" with Prof. Weiss is a motivational discussion series designed to promote student success and well-being. This series is for students who want to develop their "keys" in a small group setting and a peaceful, reflective environment. Finding purpose is essential to living a meaningful life and key to personal fulfillment. This series will help students identify and articulate their purpose and provide group motivation to work towards it. A unique feature of the series will be its peripatetic "Purpose Walks" through campus.
More Information: Keys to Life with Prof. Weiss.jpg
Location: University Religious Center (URC) - courtyard
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Elisabeth Arnold Weiss
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Stitched Together: Mentorship February Social
Mon, Feb 24, 2025 @ 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Student Activity
For mentors and mentees to get together and bond/destress with embroidery kits and candy! All WIE is welcome to join us!
Location: Sign into EngageSC to View Location
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Thelma Federico Zaragoza
Event Link: https://engage.usc.edu/WIE/rsvp?id=403257
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
ECE Seminar: Novel Materials for Next-Generation Electronics: From Low-Power to Extreme Environment Computing
Tue, Feb 25, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Deep Jariwala, Peter & Susanne Armstrong Distinguished Scholar, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Novel Materials for Next-Generation Electronics: From Low-Power to Extreme Environment Computing
Abstract: Silicon has been the dominant material for electronic computing for decades and very likely will stay dominant for the foreseeable future. However, it is well-known that Moore’s law that propelled Silicon into this dominant position is long dead. Therefore, a fervent search for (i) new semiconductors that could directly replace silicon or (ii) new architectures with novel materials/devices added onto silicon or (iii) new physics/state-variables or a combination of above has been the subject of much of the electronic materials and devices research of the past 2 decades.
The above problem is further complicated by the changing paradigm of computing from arithmetic centric to data centric in the age of billions of internet-connected devices and artificial intelligence as well as the ubiquity of computing in ever more challenging environments. Therefore, there is a pressing need for complementing and supplementing Silicon to operate with greater efficiency, speed and handle greater amounts of data. This is further necessary since a completely novel and paradigm changing computing platform (e.g. all optical computing or quantum computing) remains out of reach for now. The above is however not possible without fundamental innovation in new electronic materials and devices. Therefore, in this talk, I will try to make the case of how novel layered two-dimensional (2D) chalcogenide materialsˆ1 and three-dimensional (3D) nitride materials might present interesting avenues to overcome some of the limitations being faced by Silicon hardware. I will start by presenting our ongoing and recent work on integration of 2D chalcogenide semiconductors with siliconˆ2 to realize low-power tunnelling field effect transistors. In particular I will focus on In-Se based 2D semiconductorsˆ2 for this application and extend discussion on them to phase-pure, epitaxial thin-film growth over wafer scales,ˆ3 at temperatures low-enough to be compatible with back end of line (BEOL) processing in Silicon fabs.
I will then switch gears to discuss memory devices from 2D materials when integrated with emerging wurtzite structure ferroelectric nitride materialsˆ4 namely aluminium scandium nitride (AlScN). First, I will present on Ferroelectric Field Effect Transistors (FE-FETs) made from 2D materials when integrated with AlScN and make the case for 2D semiconductors in this application.ˆ5-7 I will then switch resistive memory devices made from AlScN termed Ferrodiodes (FeDs)ˆ8 which show multi-bit operationˆ9 as well as compute in memory (CIM)ˆ10. Finally, I will make a case as to why AlScN FeDs are uniquely suited as a high temperature non-volatile memory demonstrating stable operation upto 600 Cˆ11 and how AlScN can be integrated onto SiCˆ12 for stable data retention in ferroelectric capacitors upto 800 C.ˆ13 I will end by providing a broad outlook on both AI computing hardware as well as high-temperature computing.ˆ14
References:
(1) Song, S.; Rahaman, M.; Jariwala, D. ACS Nano 2024, 18, 10955–10978.
(2) Miao, J.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nature Electronics 2022, 5 (11), 744-751.
(3) Song, S.; et al. Jariwala, D. Matter 2023, 6, 3483-3498.
(4) Kim, K.-H.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nature Nanotechnology 2023, 18 (5), 422-441.
(5) Liu, X.; et al. Jariwala, D.. Nano Letters 2021, 21 (9), 3753-3761.
(6) Kim, K.-H.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nature Nanotechnology 2023, 18, 1044–1050.
(7) Kim, K.-H.; et al. Jariwala, D. ACS Nano 2024, 18 (5), 4180-4188.
(8) Liu, X.; et al. Jariwala, D. Applied Physics Letters 2021, 118 (20), 202901.
(9) Kim, K.-H.; et al. Jariwala, D. ACS Nano 2024, 18 (24), 15925-15934.
(10) Liu, X.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nano Letters 2022, 22 (18), 7690–7698.
(11) Pradhan, D. K.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nature Electronics 2024, 7 (5), 348-355.
(12) He, Y.; et al. Jariwala, D. Applied Physics Letters 2023, 123 (12).
(13) He, Y.; et al. Jariwala, D. arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.16652 2024.
(14) Pradhan, D. K.; et al. Jariwala, D. Nature Reviews Materials 2024, 9 (11), 790-807.
Biography: Deep Jariwala is an Associate Professor and the Peter & Susanne Armstrong Distinguished Scholar in the Electrical and Systems Engineering as well as Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Deep completed his undergraduate degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Deep was a Resnick Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech before joining Penn to start his own research group. His research interests broadly lie at the intersection of new materials, surface science and solid-state devices for computing, opto-electronics and energy harvesting applications in addition to the development of correlated and functional imaging techniques. Deep’s research has been widely recognized with several awards from professional societies, funding bodies, industries as well as private foundations, the most notable ones being the Optica Adolph Lomb Medal, the Bell Labs Prize, the AVS Peter Mark Memorial Award, IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, IEEE Nanotechnology Council Young Investigator Award, IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize in Semiconductors, the SPIE Early career achievement award and the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. He has published over 150 journal papers with more than 22000 citations and holds several patents. He serves as the Associate Editor for ACS Nano Letters and has been appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council for 2025.
Website: jariwala.seas.upenn.eduEmail: dmj@seas.upenn.edu
Host: Host: Dr. Richard M. Leahy, leahy@usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91519073492?pwd=569WY2cozJtQ7ipwWpTExkG02fH5wq.1More Information: ECE-Seminar-Jariwala-022525.pdf
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/91519073492?pwd=569WY2cozJtQ7ipwWpTExkG02fH5wq.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Epstein Institute, ISE 651 Seminar Class
Tue, Feb 25, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Julia Yan, Assistant Professor of Operations and Logistics at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Talk Title: Pricing shared rides
Host: Dr. Qiang Huang
More Information: FLYER 651 Julia Yan 2.25.25.png
Location: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) - 206
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Casi Jones/ ISE
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. Students
Wed, Feb 26, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CS Colloquium: Paul Bogdan (USC / ECE) - Theoretical Foundations of NeuroAI: Challenges and A Gedanken Modeling Framework Motivated by Living Neuronal Networks Dynamics
Wed, Feb 26, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paul Bogdan, USC / ECE
Talk Title: Theoretical Foundations of NeuroAI: Challenges and A Gedanken Modeling Framework Motivated by Living Neuronal Networks Dynamics
Abstract: Brains build compact models or discover governing laws of the world from just a few assumptions or noisy and conflicting observations. Biological brains can also predict uncanny events via memory-based analogies even when resources are limited. The ability of biological intelligence to discover, generalize, hierarchically reason and plan, and complete a wide range of unknown heterogeneous tasks calls for a comprehensive understanding of how distributed networks of interactions among neurons, glia, and vascular systems enable animal and human cognition. Such an understanding can serve as a basis for advancing the design of artificial general intelligence (AGI). In this talk, we will discuss the challenges and potential solutions for inferring the theoretical foundations of biological intelligence and NeuroAI which can guide the design of future A(G)I, expanding the limit of human discovery. To infer network structures from very scarce and noisy data, we propose a new mathematical framework capable of learning the emerging causal fractal memory from biological neuronal spiking activity. This framework offers insight into the topological properties of the underlying neuronal networks and helps us predict animal behavior during cognitive tasks. We will also discuss an AI framework for mining the optical imaging of brain activity and reconstructing the weighted multifractal graph generators governing the neuronal networks from very scarce data. This network generator inference framework can reproduce a wide variety of network properties, differentiate varying structures in brain networks and chromosomal interactions, and detect topologically associating domain regions in conformation maps of the human genome. We will discuss how network science-based AI can discover the phase transitions in complex systems and help with designing protein–nanoparticle assemblies. To infer the objectives and rules by which distributed networks of neurons attain intelligent decisions, we discuss an AI framework (multiwavelet-based neural operator) capable of learning, solving, and forecasting sets of coupled governing laws. We thus learn the operator kernel of an unknown partial differential equation (PDE) from noisy scarce data. For time-varying PDEs, this model exhibits 2-10X higher accuracy than state-of-the-art machine learning tools. Inspired by the multifractal formalism for detecting phase transitions in biological neuronal networks, we explore the principles of self-organization in Large Language Models (LLMs). Through the lens of multifractal analysis, we reveal the intricate dynamics of neuron interactions, showing how self-organization facilitates the emergence of complex patterns and intelligence within LLMs.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Paul Bogdan is the Jack Munushian Early Career Chair associate professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. His work has been recognized with a number of honors and distinctions, including the 2021 DoD Trusted Artificial Intelligence (TAI) Challenge award, the USC Stevens Center 2021 Technology Advancement Award for the first AI framework for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine design, the 2019 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Director’s Fellowship award, the 2018 IEEE CEDA Ernest S. Kuh Early Career Award, the 2017 DARPA Young Faculty Award, the 2017 Okawa Foundation Award, the 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the 2012 A.G. Jordan Award from Carnegie Mellon University for an outstanding Ph.D. thesis and service, and several best paper awards. His research interests include cyber-physical systems, new computational cognitive neuroscience tools for deciphering biological intelligence, the quantification of the degree of trustworthiness and self-optimization of AI systems, new machine learning techniques for complex multi-modal data, the control of complex time-varying networks, the modeling and analysis of biological systems and swarms, new control techniques for dynamical systems exhibiting multi-fractal characteristics, performance analysis and design methodologies for heterogeneous manycore systems.
Host: CS Department
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone (USC) is invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Computer Science General Faculty Meeting
Wed, Feb 26, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Receptions & Special Events
Bi-Weekly regular faculty meeting for invited full-time Computer Science faculty and staff only. Event details emailed directly to attendees.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 526
Audiences: Invited Faculty Only
Contact: Julia Mittenberg-Beirao
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
AME Seminar
Wed, Feb 26, 2025 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, USC School of Advanced Computing
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jessica Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Generative Manufacturing: AI + IGA, Digital Twins and Reduced Order Modeling for Applications in Additive Manufacturing
Abstract: Abstract: Generative manufacturing applies the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate and execute optimal solutions given customer-defined constraints and parameters, such as functional specifications, cost, and lead time, by exploring vast combinations of design and production alternatives based on material and process availability. In this talk, I will present our latest research on combining AI with isogeometric analysis (IGA) for applications in additive manufacturing (AM). It includes a machine learning (ML) framework for inverse design and manufacturing of self-assembling fiber-reinforced composites in 4D printing, IGA-based topology optimization for AM of heat exchangers, as well as data-driven residual deformation prediction to enhance metal component printability and lattice support structure design in the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM process. By speeding up geometry distortion predictions from several hours to mere seconds, our model can be deployed to prevent generation of infeasible designs. Our on-going efforts also include developing digital twins to enable rapid prediction of stress-induced build failures in LPBF manufacturing using dynamic neural surrogates, where reduced order modeling is a key technique to efficiently simulate underlying physics.
Biography: Bio: Jessica Zhang is the George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering. She earned her B.Eng. in Automotive Engineering and M.Eng. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University, and her M.Eng. in Aerospace Engineering and Ph.D. in Computational Engineering and Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include computational geometry, isogeometric analysis, the finite element method, data-driven simulations, and image processing, with a strong focus on their applications in computational biomedicine and engineering. Zhang has co-authored over 240 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and is the author of the book Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation from Scanned Images (CRC Press). Her work spans both theoretical development and practical applications, contributing significantly to advancements in both fields. She is a Fellow of prominent societies, including ASME, SIAM, IACM, USACM, IAMBE, AIMBE, SMA, IMR and ELATES at Drexel, highlighting her distinguished reputation in the field. Currently, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Engineering with Computers, further establishing her leadership in computational science and engineering research. Zhang has received numerous awards, including two recent major recognitions: 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal for her meritorious contributions to the field of bioengineering and 2025 AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Award for her achievements in applied and computational mathematics.
Host: The School of Advanced Computing
More Info: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96060458816?pwd=8LmoG2q6vBCQubqqWpcizd2F1bxqsH.1Location: James H. Zumberge Hall Of Science (ZHS) - 252
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/96060458816?pwd=8LmoG2q6vBCQubqqWpcizd2F1bxqsH.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Tessa Yao
Event Link: https://ame.usc.edu/seminars/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
DEN@Viterbi - How To Apply - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session
Wed, Feb 26, 2025 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Join USC Viterbi School of Engineering for a virtual information session via WebEx, providing an introduction to DEN@Viterbi, our top-ranked online delivery system. Discover the 40+ graduate engineering and computer science programs available entirely online. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives during the session to discuss the admission process, program details, and the benefits of online delivery.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/refdcdc2f7dde9be7d6455c572f54a13a
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/refdcdc2f7dde9be7d6455c572f54a13a
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
PhD Dissertation Defense - Ulubilge Ulusoy
Thu, Feb 27, 2025 @ 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Astronautical Engineering
University Calendar
Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97059968749?pwd=TLYaexD3QdGGx1b67zdab6dvBarHGf.1
Meeting ID: 970 5996 8749
Passcode: 546601Location: VPD 106
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97059968749?pwd=TLYaexD3QdGGx1b67zdab6dvBarHGf.1
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Shanya Olivares
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
NL Seminar-Contextualization for Human-AI Interactions
Thu, Feb 27, 2025 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Justin Cho, USC/ISI, USC/ISI
Talk Title: Contextualization for Human-AI Interactions
Abstract: Meeting hosts only admit on-line guests that they know to the Zoom meeting. Hence, you’re highly encouraged to use your USC account to sign into Zoom. If you’re an outside visitor, please inform us at (nlg-seminar-host(at)isi.edu) to make us aware of your attendance so we can admit you. Specify if you will attend remotely or in person at least one business day prior to the event. Provide your: full name, job title and professional affiliation and arrive at least 10 minutes before the seminar begins. https://usc.zoom.us/j/94650895633?pwd=FiYw69aOiNZ9KkmIdO0JpaiG59QctB.1 Meeting ID: 946 5089 5633 Passcode: 282370 Recent developments in AI are nothing short of amazing, but goal posts move, and we quickly discover that AI remains insufficient for fulfilling many real world tasks. The shortcoming can be largely attributed to a lack of contextual understanding on the AI’s part. This is not surprising given that the dominant training and evaluation paradigm for AI models prioritizes scale and rapid progress. As a result, we’ve developed a bias for textual data, instruction data with transactional interactions, aggregated and simple preference data, and evaluation tasks that can be easily verified. In this talk, I present research that explores the opposite side of this bias for enabling more useful and contextualized human-AI interactions. Specifically, I introduce three research directions to demonstrate that utility is a function of context and that teaching an AI model to understand the specific context of its interaction with humans is crucial for successful outcomes. (1) How an interaction takes places: human-AI interactions will expand beyond communicating with a textual interface, such as speech. I present how we can adapt language models for speech-based interactions with literature-guided prompts and speech-based preference data. (2) Who the user is: every user is different and sparingly share their data. I demonstrate how we can align language models to individual users without any fine-tuning and using small amount of per-user data. (3) What is the goal: complex tasks require evaluations that take a more holistic approach that goes beyond the immediate model response. Through a case study of using language models as content moderators, I argue that evaluations for complex tasks need to account for each group of stakeholders as the perceived effectiveness of language models vary significantly among them.
Biography: Justin Cho is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California advised by Jonathan May. His research has centered around refining the context in which language models are involved in human-AI interactions, such as enhancing dialogue models with grounding techniques and understanding of the interaction modality, personalizing language model outputs, and applying them for social good. He has previously led USC’s team into the semifinals for the fourth Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge, co-organized the Conversational AI workshop at ICML 2024, and interned at Meta’s Conversational AI team, Amazon Alexa, and Amazon AGI. Subscribe here to learn more about upcoming seminars: https://www.isi.edu/events/ For more information on the NL Seminar series and upcoming talks, please visit: https://www.isi.edu/research-groups-nlg/nlg-seminars/
Host: Jonathan May and Katy Felkner
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5488/nl-seminar-contextualization-for-human-ai-interactions/
Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5CpzeC1nEMLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5CpzeC1nEM
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5488/nl-seminar-contextualization-for-human-ai-interactions/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Viterbi - Interview Success: Turning Interviews into Offers
Thu, Feb 27, 2025 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Please register through Handshake. This event is for Viterbi Engineering students only, non-Viterbi students will not be admitted.
Receiving an offer is exciting, but should you accept it right away? Learn an offer's ins and outs to ensure you get the best compensation package. Join Viterbi Career Connections for "Increase Your Salary: Evaluating & Negotiating Your Job Offer," an interactive workshop designed to help you evaluate and get the most out of your offer.
In this interactive session, you will:
Assess how well a job offer matches your expectations.
Understand the components of a job offer, including salary, benefits, bonuses, and more.
Discover how to assess the full value of a job offer, considering both financial and non-financial aspects.
Learn negotiation techniques to discuss better compensation and benefits.
Learn how to articulate your value and negotiate without compromising the job offer.
Participate in a role-playing exercise to practice your negotiation skills and receive feedback.
Walk away with action items and resources, making you confident in your offer negotiation skills.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://usc.joinhandshake.com/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
EiS Communications Hub - Tutoring for Engineering Ph.D. Students
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
Viterbi Ph.D. students are invited to drop by the Hub for instruction on their writing and speaking tasks! All tutoring is one-on-one and conducted by Viterbi faculty.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 222A
Audiences: Viterbi Ph.D. Students
Contact: Helen Choi
Event Link: https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/eishub/home
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
AI Seminar-Can We Blame the Chatbot if it Goes Wrong?
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sun-Gyoo Kang, National Bank of Canada
Talk Title: Can We Blame the Chatbot if it Goes Wrong?
Abstract: Zoom Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93148797047?pwd=ebx0kDpoHqrXACc24lWM1Y8fZw89qO.1 Webinar ID: 931 4879 7047 Passcode: 621721 Reg Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CE_lGmAHQ7SVwxK9PBwJ0Q This presentation examines the complex issue of accountability for AI chatbots, particularly in light of recent tragic incidents where chatbots contributed to suicides. The presentation will be mainly on the Air Canada case, which established corporate responsibility for chatbot errors. It will then define key concepts like accountability, responsibility, and liability, and then explores the importance of transparency and explainability in achieving accountability and identifies various actors—developers, data providers, deployers, and even users—who might share responsibility. Finally, it will compare the EU's AI Act and Canada's AIDA, highlighting their shared responsibility models and the ongoing challenges of assigning liability in the rapidly evolving field of generative AI.
Biography: Sun Gyoo Kang is a lawyer and compliance officer in the financial industry, specializing in the banking sector. He is currently the Chief Compliance Advisor at National Bank of Canada. Sun Gyoo is also the founder of Law and Ethics in Tech, a private research lab focusing on AI and FinTech law and regulations, as well as ethical considerations surrounding these technologies. His research on AI ethics is demonstrated through publication such as the “Analysis of artificial intelligence and data act based on ethical frameworks" in the International Journal of Law, Ethics, and Technology. He often writes columns for the Montreal AI Ethics Institute talking about different ethical issues with artificial intelligence.
Host: Abel Salinas and Pete Zamar
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5349/ai-seminar-can-we-blame-the-chatbot-if-it-goes-wrong/
Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgrtHFbx23ELocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgrtHFbx23E
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5349/ai-seminar-can-we-blame-the-chatbot-if-it-goes-wrong/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CA DREAMS - Technical Seminar Series
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Fri, Feb 28, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Gabriel M. Rebeiz, Professor, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Silicon-Based Phased-Arrays for SATCOM and 5G/6G: Lessons Learned from a Life in Microwaves
Abstract: Affordable phased-arrays, built using low-cost silicon chips, have become an essential technology for high data-rate terrestrial (5G) systems to their high gain, electronically steerable patterns, narrow beamwidths, high tolerance to interference and adaptive nulling capabilities. These advances are reshaping our communication and sensor systems, as we work to change our world from the Marconi-Era driven by low-gain antenna systems to the Directive Communications era where every antenna, every beam, every sensor is electronically steered. This talk summarizes our work in this area and concludes with future 5G-Advanced and 6G systems with wideband frequency coverage and where every device will be connected at Gbps speeds. The talk will also present life-long lessons that Professor Rebeiz learned from his work in microwaves.
Biography: Professor Gabriel M. Rebeiz is Member of the National Academy (elected for his work on phased-arrays) and is a Distinguished Professor and the Wireless Communications Industry Endowed Chair at the University of California, San Diego. He is an IEEE Fellow and is the recipient of the IEEE MTT Microwave Prize (2000, 2014, 2020) all for phased-arrays. His 2x2 and 4x4 RF-beamforming architectures are now used by most companies developing communication and radar systems. All SATCOM affordable phased-arrays are based on his work. He has published 900 IEEE papers with an H-index of 102 and has graduated 124 PhD students including the former CEO of Qualcomm and several VPs in the communications and defense industry.
Host: Dr. Steve Crago
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5339/silicon-based-phased-arrays-for-satcom-and-5g-6g-lessons-learned-from-a-life-in-microwaves/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addonWebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addon
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amy Kasmir
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
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